Let me apply the text a little: (1) where this title is first given to man, showing the postures he was in when it was first said to him: “Thy name shall be called Israel”; (2) the cause, or ground, of that expression, “An Israelite indeed”.
1. When Jacob received the name of Israel
he was wrestling with the angel, and so resolved a wrestler was he that he purposed, now he had begun, not to give up without a blessing. “I will not let thee go,” he said, “except thou bless me.” He had discouragements when he wrestled with him, to have left off before he obtained his desire; for the angel bade him leave off: “Let me go”, said he. He had wrestled all night and had not prevailed. And now that the day had broken upon him, his discouragement was consequently likely to be greater, because now the majesty and awe of him with whom he wrestled would be seen more obviously; but this did not discourage him. Besides, he lost the use of a limb as he wrestled with him; but all this would not put Israel off. Pray he did, and pray he would, and nothing would make him leave off prayer until he had obtained an answer; and therefore he was called Israel. “For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Gen 32:28-32).
A wrestling spirit of prayer is a demonstration of an Israel of God. This Jacob had; this he made use of, and by this he obtained the name of Israel. A wrestling spirit of prayer in straits, difficulties and distresses; a wrestling spirit of prayer when alone in private, in the night, when no eye sees but God’s; then to be at it, then to lay hold of God, then to wrestle, to hold fast, and not to give over until the blessing is obtained, is a sign of one that is an Israel of God.
2. “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” (Jn 1:47).
This was the testimony of the Lord Jesus concerning Nathanael. He was persuaded by Philip to come to Jesus; and as he was coming, Jesus said to the rest of the disciples about him: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile”. Then said Nathanael to Jesus: “Whence knowest Thou me?” Jesus answered and said unto him, “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee”.
Nathanael, as Jacob, was at prayer – at prayer alone under the fig tree – wrestling in prayer for what no man can certainly tell, but probably for the Messiah, or rather the revelation of Him. For the Jews who believed were convinced that the time of the promise had come, for all men were in expectation concerning John whether he might not be the Messiah. But Nathanael was under the fig tree alone with God, to enquire of Him, with great earnestness and sincerity. Otherwise the Lord Jesus would not thus have excused him of hypocrisy and justified his action as He did, concluding from what he did there that he was a true son of Jacob and ought, as he, to have his name changed from what his parents gave him to this given him by Christ: “an Israelite indeed”.
Therefore, from both these places, it is apparent that a wrestling spirit in private is one of the best signs that this or that man or woman is of Israel and consequently they are within the compass of the exhortation here: “Let Israel hope in the Lord”.
I say it is this wrestling spirit of prayer with God alone. As for public prayer (though I do not condemn it) it does not give ground to support this character, notwithstanding all the flourishes and excellences that may appear in it. I am not unconscious of what pride, what hypocrisy, what pretences, or what self-seeking of commendations and applause may be countenanced by those who pray in public, and how little thought or savour of God may be in all that is so said.
But clearly prayer in the closet, at night, or alone is of another stamp and is attended (at least I so judge) with that sense, those desires, that simplicity, and those strugglings wherewith prayer in public is not. No, I truly think that a man cannot addict himself to these most solemn retirements without some of Jacob’s and Nathanael’s sense and sincerity, wrestlings and restlessness for mercy. Wherefore, laying aside everything else, I shall abide by this: that the man who is as I have here described is not an Israelite of the flesh, nor one so only in his fancy or imagination, but one made so by God, one that is called a child of promise and one to whom this exhortation belongs: “Let Israel hope in the Lord”; that is, one of those that serve God by prayer day and night. These I say are Israel, the Israel of God. And let them hope in the Lord, from now, henceforth and for ever.
In prayer you go to a fountain that is never empty.
William Wilson
Accursed is all that learning which sets itself in opposition to the cross of Christ! Accursed is all that learning which disguises or is ashamed of the cross of Christ! Accursed is all that learning which fills the room that is due to the cross of Christ! And once more, accursed is all that learning which is not made subservient to the honour and glory of the cross of Christ!
John Witherspoon
1A final edited extract from Bunyan’s Israel’s Hope Encouraged, in which he expounds Psalm 130:7: “Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption”. In the previous extract, Bunyan explained that “Israel” here refers to the Israel of God, those who are “true servants of God by Christ”.