* LESSON
* HANDOUT #1
* HANDOUT #2
Bible Memory Verse:
“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go…” Genesis 28:15
Abraham was the father (first person) of the Jewish nation. He had the son God had promised him when he was 100 years old. This son, Isaac, had two sons, Jacob and Esau.
Abraham’s servant had found a wife for Isaac. Her name was Rebekah. When she was pregnant, expecting twins, the Lord told her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two people from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” Genesis 25:23
When the twins were born, Esau came out first and Jacob came out grasping his heal.
The boys grew up and Esau became a skillful hunter, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
God loves everyone the same and He is not pleased when a parent loves one of their children more than the other. A parent may not treat his children exactly the same, but he should love them both the same and do what is best for each child. Loving one child more than the other caused many problems in the family of Isaac, Rebekah, Esau and Jacob.
Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, very hungry. He said to Jacob, “Quick! Let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!”
Jacob replied, “First, sell me your birthright.” Birthright is special favor or rights given a person because he is the oldest son.
Esau said, “Look, I am about to die. What good is a birthright to me?”
But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him selling him his birthright.
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.
When Isaac was so old that he could no longer see, he called for Esau, the older son and said, “My son.”
“Here I am.”
Isaac said, “I am an old man and don’t know the day of my death. Now then–get your weapons–your quiver and bow–and go out to the wild country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.” Blessing was a prayer asking God’s favor and giving success or happiness.
Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son, Esau. When Esau left for the open country, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father Isaac say to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ Now my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you: Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so that I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.”
Jacob said to Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I’m a man with smooth skin. What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.”
His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.”
So he went and got them and brought them to his mother and she prepared some food just the way his father liked it.
Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau, her older son, and put them on her younger son, Jacob. She also covered his hands and the smooth parts of his neck with the goatskin. Then she gave Jacob the food and bread she had made.
He went to his father and said, “My father.”
“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”
Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing.”
Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
“The Lord your God gave me success,” he replied.
Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you my son so I can know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
Jacob went close to his father, Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. Are you really my son Esau?”
“I am,” he replied.
Then he said, “Bring me some of your game to eat so that I may give you my blessing.”
After Isaac had eaten the food Jacob brought him, he said to him, “Come here my son and kiss me.”
So Jacob went to him and kissed him.
When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “”Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of heaven’s dew and of earth’s richness–an abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”
After Isaac had finished and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. He too prepared some food and brought it to his father. Then he said, “My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”
His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”
“I am your son,” he answered. “Your firstborn, Esau.”
Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him–and indeed he will be blessed!”
When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me–me too, my father!”
Isaac said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”
Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? (Jacob means “he grasps the heal” or “he deceives”) He deceived me two times: He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing!" Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”
Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”
Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.
Isaac answered him, “Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.”
Esau planned to kill Jacob when their father died because of the blessing Jacob had stolen. He said, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother, Jacob.”
When Rebekah was told what Esau had said, she sent for her younger son, Jacob. “Your brother Esau is consoling himself with the thought of killing you. Now, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran. Stay with him for awhile until your brother’s fury subsides (until your brother isn’t angry). I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?” (If Esau killed Jacob he would become a target for blood revenge from one of their relatives)
Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women (Esau had married two Hittite women). If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life won’t be worth living.”
So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethel. Take a wife for yourself there…May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing of Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham.”
Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way to Paddan Aram. When he reached a certain place, he stopped because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord and He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth…All people on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and pour oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel.
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ”If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God. This stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me, I will give you a tenth.” Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of Paddan Aram.
QUESTIONS:
1. What was the name of Jacob’s father?
2. What was the name of Jacob’s mother?
3. What was the name of Jacob’s brother?
4. Why was Esau supposed to get the birthright and the blessing?
5. How did Jacob get Esau’s birthright?
6. How did Jacob get Esau’s blessing?
7. What two reasons caused Jacob to go to Paddan Aram? Who was he running away from? What did he want to get in Paddan Aram?
8. What dream did Jacob have?
JACOB–Part 1
Bible Memory Verse:
“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go…” Genesis 28:15
Words to choose from: GOD, KILL, TRICKED, STEW, FIRSTBORN, LADDER, HUNT, JACOB, TWO, WIFE
1. Esau liked to __ __ __ __ wild game.
2. Rebekah’s favorite son was __ __ __ __ __.
3. Esau would rather have __ __ __ __ than his birthright showing he did not think his birthright that God had given him was important.
4. Esau was supposed to get the blessing because he was the __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ son.
5. Jacob __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Isaac into giving him Esau’s blessing.
6. Esau’s blessing meant that he was to get __ __ __ times as much as Jacob.
7. Jacob ran away from his home because Esau planned to __ __ __ __ him.
8. Another reason Jacob left his home was because he wanted to find a __ __ __ __.
9. Jacob had a dream about a __ __ __ __ __ __ with angels going up and down.
10. Jacob knew that __ __ __ was with him.
JACOB—Part 1
Bible Memory Verse:
“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go…” Genesis 28:15
CROSSWORD PUZZLE:
Across
1. What kind of food did Esau trade for his birthright?
2. What was the name of Jacob and Esau’s grandfather—the father of the Jewish nation?
Down
What was the name of Jacob and Esau’s father?
1.
__
1. __ __ __ __
__
2. __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__
QUESTIONS:
1. Why was Esau supposed to have the birthright and the blessing?
2. How did Jacob get Esau’s birthright?
a. Offering to exchange it for food
b. Stealing it
c. Pretending it was his
3. Esau thought _ _ _ _ was more important than his birthright..
4. What did Rebekah tell Jacob to do in order to get Esau’s blessing?
a. Ask Isaac for it
b. Pretend to be Esau
c. Make some food that was good to eat
5. What two reasons did Jacob have for going to Paddam Aram? (choose two)
a. To find a wife
b. To find a better place to live
c. To find a job
d. To escape from his brother Esau
e. For a vacation