Becoming Israel

Your story did not begin on your birthday. It began with a promise made to a man named Abraham, and it runs straight through a grasping, restless, deeply human man named Jacob.

Jacob was not a hero. He was a schemer who took his brother's birthright and deceived his father for the blessing. He ran for his life, slept on a stone, and saw a ladder reaching into heaven. He spent twenty hard years being refined in a foreign land. Then one night by the river Jabbok, he wrestled with God and would not let go until he was blessed. He walked away limping, with a new name. Israel.

God does not only call the righteous. He calls the real. And through grace and perseverance, He makes them into Israel.

Becoming Israel follows that journey and then follows his family through history: twelve sons and twelve tribes, the split between Judah and Joseph, the two sisters of Ezekiel, the scattering of the northern tribes into the nations, and the hidden identity of Ephraim. It traces how Messiah came for the covenant, how the gospel carried the promise west, and how the two sticks, the two olive trees, and the one new man point to a family God is gathering back together.

Each of the twenty-five chapters closes with a short devotional of Scripture, reflection, prayer, and a personal challenge, making the book ideal for young readers, families, and small groups. A closing section walks through the Ten Words, the covenant terms God wrote with His own finger.

This book is for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider in their own church and sensed there was more to the story. Maybe you are one of the scattered sheep the Shepherd is calling home.

You don't have to be a perfect Jacob. You only have to be a Jacob who won't let go.