Evangel
High School Class

Series: Biblical Lives to Live By
Genesis-II Samuel

  • Noah
  • Abraham & Sarah
  • Rebekah
  • Jacob
  • Joseph
  • Moses
  • Joshua
  • Deborah & Jael
  • Gideon
  • Samson
  • Hannah
  • Samuel
  • Naomi & Ruth
  • David

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    Series written and published to the Web by Dale Sullivan     		Jacob
     This lesson is based on the following passages: (If you are online, you can look them up at Bible Gateway.)

    Genesis 27:41-43, Genesis 28:10-22, Genesis 29:13-30, Genesis 31:1-18, Genesis 32 & 33, Genesis 34:1-35:3

    Discuss the follwoing questions:

    1. Many of these passages show Jacob fleeing from something. What is he fleeing from in each of these passages?
    2. What was Jacob afraid of in each of these instances?
    3. Do you think Jacob was responsible for creating the conditions that made him fearful? Explain why or why not.
    4. Three of these passages show Jacob having an encounter with God, but two of them are especially interesting (chapter 28:10ff and 32:22ff). What is different about these two encounters? What significance is there in the first one being a dream about ascending to heaven and the second one being a wrestling match with God?
    5. Bethel is an important place in the story of Jacob. Find two references to it (chapter 28 and chapter 35). What makes it an important place for Jacob?
    Life Summary: Jacob
    		Jacob's life seems to be one predominated by his having to flee from one circumstance after another. After he stole Esau's birth right, Esau was son angry with him that he planned to kill him, and so his mother, Rebekah, sent Jacob away to her brother, Laban, in a foriegn country.

    After living with Laban for several years and marrying two of his daughters, Leah and Rachel, Jacob began to be rich because he figured out a way to make his sheep and goats produce more and stronger offspring than the livestock of his uncle Laban. The Bible tells us that Jacob became rich as Laban became increasingly poor. And then, one day, without telling Laban his plans, Jacob packs up all his belongings, his wives, his children, his servants, his livestock, and takes off, fleeing from Laban. After a couple days, when Laban found out that Jacob had fled, Laban pursued him. He was upset because so much of his wealth left with Jacob, but also because Rachel had stolen an idol and taken it with her. When Laban caught up with Jacob, he accused him of stealing, and Jacob, not knowing that Rachel had stolen the idol, denied it. When Laban was unable to find the idol, he and Jacob made a peace agreement, and Jacob traveled on with his belongings, returning to the land where he grew up.

    However, coming back to the land, he knew he would have to face Esau, his brother who had threatened to kill him. He feared Esau greatly, but God had healed Esau's anger, and when Jacob and Esau met, they were no longer enemies.

    One more time, though, we find Jacob and his clan moving on--this time because his daughter Dinah had been talked into having sex with a gentile man in the area, and two of her brothers then took revenge on the village, killing everyone in it. Once again, we see that Jacob or members of his family had fouled their own nest, and they had to move on.

    Despite all these instances in which Jacob seemed to get into trouble with the people around him, God had promised that it was throuh him that the promise to Abraham would be fulfilled. So God was faithful. Three times we read about God's encounters with Jacob: when he fled from Esau; when he was about ready to meet Esau on his return; and right after the incident in which two of his sons had killed everyone in the village after Dinah's seduction.

    The first was a vision in which Jacob saw a ladder reaching up to heaven; the second was a wrestling match with God that ended when God touhed Jacob's thigh and made it wither; the third was a directive to return to Bethel. All of these instances were times when God broke into Jacob's life and tried to teach him something.

    Just what he was teaching him is not certain, but perhaps He was teaching him that you can reach out to God any time because there is always a ladder to heaven with you in prayer. Maybe He was teaching him that relying on your own schemes and strength is not a good idea because God wants us to be weak in our own eyes (like having a withered thigh) so that we trust in His strength. And maybe He was saying that it is never too late to turn back to God and come to the place of His appointment. Perhaps we all have our Bethels that we need to return to so that we can seek God fully.