“Listen to me, Jacob,
    Israel, whom I have called:
I am he;
    I am the first and I am the last.

Again we hear the call to ”Listen”. But did they? Will we?

As we have seen, there was a perpetual tug-of-war going on in the nation with, ”Jacob” regularly winning out over ”Israel”, if I may put it that way. (We ourselves know something of this battle. It is internal, and is a relentless fight between the old nature and the Holy Spirit).

The key to becoming what God wants us to be is in Him: it is in our relationship with Him, in knowing Him. The second half of verse 12 takes us pack to the Lord’s revelation of Himself to Moses (Ex.3:14), but also points us forward to Jesus (Rev.22:13). He is eternal and self-sufficient, and we find our sufficiency in Him.

It is only in God and because of Him that we can grow spiritually: become less ”Jacob” and more ”Israel”, we might say. The God who calls is also the One who equips for the fulfilling of His purposes

PRAYER: Lord God, help me to look to you and not to my own resources. May my mind and heart be more and more filled with You. Please be more real to me than anyone or anything. Dominate my whole life, and guide the entire course of my earthly journey.