Israel, "one that has power with God."

For a full overview of the end times go here.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/250499355034709/permalink/639599526124688/

This is just a little snippet.   "Of course the history of the concept of Jacob's trouble begins with the crisis that Jacob faced upon his learning of the approach of Esau with four hundred armed men. This is the crisis of ultimate weakness that prepared Jacob for his desperate wrestling with the angel of the Lord's presence at the ford of Jabbok.

For Jacob, this was the ultimate, divinely appointed crisis that brought about the new priestly brokenness that would now distinguish the true "Israel" (one that has 'power with God') to be a priestly blessing to all peoples (Zech 8:23). This is very instructive in understanding such passages as Deut 32:36 with Dn 12:7 (the shattering of Israel's carnal 'power'). It is a key to the purpose of Jacob's trouble, and, of course, it is also a pattern for the individual and the true body (Acts 14:22; 2Cor 1:19; Phil 3:3). But the concept of an ultimate weakness and destitution through great tribulation in preparation for a final transforming event of saving revelation goes all the way back to Moses (see Deut 4:30).

Moses knew that although Israel would soon enter the land, the larger part of the nation lacked the kind of heart that could keep and possess the land in any enduring way (see Deut 29:4). Therefore, knowing the everlasting covenant promised to the Fathers, Moses looked ahead to a time of great tribulation that would have its outcome in a national circumcision of the heart, i.e., national regeneration (compare Deut 4:30 with 30:1-6). This anticipates what the prophets would later see as an apocalyptic 'day of the Lord'. (Note that Deut 4:30 anticipates Jer 30:7)."

Even that little bit is a lot to grasp, but let me summarize what the Lord was showing me this morning.  Jacob's new name Israel, has been used to point out what a "heroic" effort and struggle he was making in wrestling with the angel, but that is a humanistic perspective.  The God perspective is that Jacob obtained "power with God" and therefore became Israel at a time of utter helpless desperation.  A  man clinging to a piece of wood to stay afloat in the ocean and not drown, is doing so because he has come to the end of himself, he cannot swim, he cannot stay afloat without the wood.  His clinging is coming from a place of ultimate weakness and desperation so the strength with God that Jacob is displaying is weakness and utter helplessness when viewed from God's perspective.  And guess what ...that is where He is taking the true body of believers, and only from that place can we be a blessing to the world that will be going through an unequaled time of tribulation.