Discussion on Monday 3rd July led by John Carter at 6.30pm

Ya’acov and Adversary at River Jabbok

Unitarian & Free Christian Bible Discussion

3 July 2023

Text Genesis 32:22-32

22 In the course of the night, Jacob arose, took the entire caravan, and crossed the ford of the Yabbok River.*

23 After Jacob had crossed with all his possessions, he returned to the camp,

24 and he was completely alone. And there, someone† wrestled with Jacob until the first light of dawn.

25 Seeing that Jacob could not be overpowered, the other struck Jacob at the socket of the hip‡, and the hip was dislocated as they wrestled.

26 Then Jacob’s contender said, “Let me go, for day is breaking.” Jacob answered, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”

27 “What is your name?” the other asked. “Jacob,” he answered.

28 The other said, “Your name will no longer be called ‘Jacob,’ or ‘Heel-Grabber,’ but ‘Israel’—’Overcomer of God’ —because you have wrestled with both God and mortals, and you have prevailed.”

29 Then Jacob asked “Now tell me your name, I beg you.” The other said, “Why do you ask me my name?”—and blessed Jacob there.

30 Jacob named the place Peniel—“Face of God”—“because I have seen God face to face, yet my life was spared.”

31 At sunrise, Jacob left Peniel, limping along from the injured hip.

32 That is why, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the sciatic muscle that is on an animal’s hip socket, because Jacob’s hip socket was struck at the sciatic muscle.

Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Sheed & Ward. Kindle Edition.

***

Scholarly Quote:

Rabbinical Biblical Scholar Richard Elliott Friedman states of this text....

“There is little character development in Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, or Rebekah, all of whom remain basically constant figures through the stories about them. But Jacob changes, and the matter of deception is intimately related to that development. As Esau points out, Jacob’s very name connotes deception: to catch. And Jacob starts out as a manipulator. But Jacob is changed after his experiences in Mesopotamia. He has been the deceiver and the deceived. He has hurt and been hurt. He is now a husband and a father, a man who has struggled and prospered.

For the rest of the story he is no longer pictured as a man of action but, more often, as a relatively passive man, like his father Isaac, seeking to appease his brother, avoiding strife and risk. And precisely at the juncture that marks this change in Jacob’s character he has his encounter with God at Penuel.

Is this divine encounter the signpost of the change in Jacob’s character, or the cause? Either way, as his character changes, and he ceases to be the deceiver, just then he sheds the name Jacob (the one who catches) and becomes instead Israel (the one who struggles with God).”

Friedman, Richard Elliott. Commentary on the Torah. HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Group Conversation:

Our conversation, will in part carry on last weeks conversation on call and calling, and add the element of conversion into the mix.

questions going into the study,

1) is a Call individualistic or communal?

2) is a Call a once and forever event or an invitation to life set on fire?

3) what does the word conversion mean to you?

See you Monday

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82378042367...

Meeting ID: 823 7804 2367

Passcode: 460019