OWR
2026-08-30 Sunday First

  • During the Genesis 32 story of Jacob and Esau meeting after being separated for years, the writer interjects a story of Jacob wrestling with God. The scriptures aren't just recorded to tell an interesting story to us, so what are we to learn from this text about wrestling?

    Genesis 32:22–32 ESV
    22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.
    Who Jumped Jacob at the Jabbok?
    Attacked by “a man”
    called elohim
    Who is this god-man?

    Options

    Targums
    Michael for Jacob not tithing
    Sariel, chief of the angels who sing God’s praise in the morning - no reason given
    Maybe they didn’t like the idea of God not prevailing against Jacob
    Others
    Hostile river demon
    Celestial protector of Edom
    Jacob’s inner struggle
    Maybe it is God?
    We see the angel of the Lord often
    So what’s the point?
    Jacob had been wrestling with God’s direction his whole life - trying to do things his way
    Jacob has been getting his way, but only because God let him
    Jacob was prevailing, and then the man cripples him with a touch
    But Jacob is stubborn and still won’t let go
    He does eventually realize just who he was wrestling with - verse 30
    God is telling Jacob to stop struggling against him so much and making Jacob understand that he’s only gotten this far by God’s will, not his own

    Is Jesus’s first miracle of turning water into wine connected to the Lord’s Supper? What are the deeper ramification of the miracle?

    John 2:1–11 ESV
    1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
    Jesus is invited to a wedding. These were huge deals.
    They would last a full week
    It was a giant feast
    Community event - distant friends were invited and to refuse was an insult
    To run out of wine is hugely embarrassing. One Jewish writing says that to pressure your friend into coming to your wedding and not feeding them was like theft.
    John 2:6 ESV
    6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
    The Old Testament required that a person be clean, quite literally, to live in the community of God’s people and to be near God in his temple. Things like blood, touching dead bodies, eating certain animals, or having mold in your house would make a person unclean for a period of time where they had to remain outside the community.
    In the days of Jesus there was a very strong desire to remain clean, and so there were large containers of water to wash the uncleanness away and leave the person purified.
    So the jars themselves are a sort of symbol. Through the cleansing that they provide you could hang out with God.

    Wine

    But Jesus doesn’t leave water in them. He turns them into wine - which is also a symbol. One for the new age to come. In general, it is a sign of the time when God would reverse the exile, be present with his people, and bring in an era of unprecedented prosperity - full of food and wine!
    For example, in the book of Joel, God is punishing his people for sin by sending locusts to eat everything:
    Joel 1:4 ESV
    4 What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.
    So all the food is eaten up by bugs, and then they can’t grow anymore because God also strikes the fields:
    Joel 1:16–17 ESV
    16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17 The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up.
    But God promises his people that if they would have a true and heart-felt repentance, not just a show of being sorry but actually feeling it, then he would turn back to them and restore everything that’s been lost and be with his people in a much closer and intimate way via the Holy Spirit:
    Joel 2:28–29 ESV
    28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
    The Spirit of God is all about life:
    It creates life
    It sustains life
    It transforms lives
    It fills life up!
    Joel 3:18 ESV
    18 “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.
    In the days of Jesus people were looking for hope. They were looking for the sign that God heard their prayers, that he was going to help them, that he hadn’t abandoned them. And then Jesus shows up with the wine!
    The old way of dwelling with God by purifying yourself with water is done. Jesus will cleanse you with the Holy Spirit - transforming your life into something so much more than what it was before.
    When Mary says “They have no wine” she meant the wedding party, but she could have just as easily been speaking about any one of us.
    As we noticed in Joel, one of the signs of God’s absence was the lack of wine and abundance in general. Take away your relationship with God, and both life and land suffer as a result. But Jesus brings the abundance to our lives.

    Does it connect to the Lord’s supper?

    I think it does in a general sense.
    Wine was a symbol of how great life would be under the new covenant
    We remember the new covenant through the wine every Sunday

    All gospel accounts record the cleansing of the temple but John 2 is at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry and the others are at the end. Is this correct chronologically and what is the significance?

    Matthew, Mark, and Luke all place the temple cleansing to just before Jesus is arrested - it was one of the primary factors that lead to his arrest and crucifixion. Some have proposed that Jesus cleared out the temple twice, once at the beginning and again at the end of his ministry. But Matthew, Mark, and Luke have no mention of a different cleansing early in the his ministry, and John has no indication of a second one later on. Each gospel only writes of one temple action.
    What I’ll suggest is that John isn’t interested in a chronological retelling of Jesus’ life. All of the gospel writers shuffle the events of Jesus’ life around in order to draw out differing or nuanced meanings to the event.
    Jesus is so passionate about the sanctity of the temple that his disciples remember an Old Testament passage:
    John 2:17 ESV
    17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
    It’s from Psalm 69:9
    Psalm 69:9 ESV
    9 For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
    If they remembered that passage right there and then, they were likely only seeing a superficial connection: “Hey! Jesus is really passionate just like this old song talks about!”
    But they remember even more later on.
    Jesus said “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
    John 2:21–22 ESV
    21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
    Jesus is consumed by his zeal for the temple, meaning that he has an overwhelming surge of emotions about this, but he’s also consumed in the sense that this zeal will literally consume his life.
    Jesus isn’t talking about rebuilding the temple brick by brick in three days - something that’s taken 46 years up to that point - but his own body. Tear that apart and Jesus will raise from the grave in three days.
    This is the kind of life Jesus gives. A life so full to the brim that even when someone kills you, you get back up.

    Connect to the wine

    I think that’s why John brings this event to the beginning rather than the end.
    The first sign tells us of the abundant life Jesus is offering
    Then he tells us how it’s offered - through Jesus’ death
    If we want the life that Jesus offers, we have to let our zeal for God consume us.
    That doesn’t mean we need to be at an emotional 10 at all times, shouting at people on street corners or breaking down in tears every time we see a cross.
    It means we have to turn everything over to Jesus and put ourselves to death - just as Jesus offered himself on the cross and was raised by God.
    John 12:25 ESV
    25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

    Conclusion

    Jesus is inviting you to hand over your life, let it be consumed, so that he can give you so much more. Life could be everything God intended it to be for you.

      • Genesis 32:22–32LELXX

      • John 2:1–11LELXX

      • John 2:6LELXX

      • Joel 1:4LELXX

      • Joel 1:16–17LELXX

      • Joel 2:28–29LELXX

      • Joel 3:18LELXX

      • John 2:17LELXX

      • Psalm 69:9LELXX

      • John 2:21–22LELXX

      • John 12:25LELXX

      • Matthew 6:1–4ESV

      • Matthew 6:5–8ESV

      • Matthew 6:16–18ESV

      • Matthew 6:7–8ESV

      • 1 Kings 18:26–29ESV

      • Psalm 115:6ESV

      • Matthew 6:9–10ESV

      • Ezekiel 36:22ESV

      • Ezekiel 39:27–29ESV

      • Matthew 6:11ESV

      • Luke 11:3ESV

      • Matthew 6:12ESV

      • Matthew 6:14–15ESV

      • Matthew 5:7ESV

      • Matthew 6:13ESV

      • Exodus 17:7ESV

      • Matthew 6:16–18ESV

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