Isaac married a woman named Rebecca.

She had twins named Jacob and

Esau. When she was pregnant with them God told her that the younger would
be greater than the older. That is exactly what happened!
(Genesis 25:19-34, 27:1-33:20)

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.
Genesis 28:15
 Can you go
somewhere
where God is not
with you?

Draw a line between the things that are the same.

 Lesson 10
Jacob and Esau

Bible text: Genesis 25:19-34, 27:1-33:20

Memory verse: Genesis 28:15
Purpose: Students will tell the story of Esau and Jacob
Big ideas to discover:
 God is present everywhere. So there is no place you can go where God is not.
 God keeps his promises.
 I will not be afraid. Where ever I go, God is with me.

GETTING READY

Before all else, take time to pray for your students. Ask that God will work in their lives and
in their families.

Next you will need to spend some time getting ready for this lesson. First you will need to
study the passage so that you can share it with the students.
 Read passage
 Re-read the passage. Divide the passage into sections. Give a title to each section.
 Study each section. Identify the important ideas. Be able to answer these questions:
- What happens?
- What do you learn about God?
- What do you learn about people?
- What do you learn about obeying God’s truth?
- What will you do to obey God’s truth?

Next, consider how to creatively tell the story with your group.

Please note! Plan suitable activities for your group of children. The following activities can
be adapted depending on the group’s size, age, ability, the amount of time available, etc. You
may find it helpful to use the downloadable Lesson Planning Guide.
 Worship and Prayer Time  Snack
 Bible Lesson  Games
 Coloring Activities  Review Questions
 Memory verse  Projects, etc.

BIBLE LESSON

Worship and Prayer

 Have children share what they are thankful for. (Praise)
 Have children share any needs they know of. (Prayer)

Review

 Review the main points from the last lesson. Use the coloring pages from last week and
any teaching materials that you used. Encourage students to tell as much as they can about
the story. In retelling the story reinforce the idea: God keeps his promises.
 Review last week’s memory verse.
 Ask students how they did on their action points from the last lesson.
 Ask to whom they told the story.

The Key Idea: God keeps his promises. (Repeat this often)

The Story
Tell the story by sections. Consider using drawings and/or objects to dramatize the story.
Consider having children act out the sections. Help the children discover the big ideas.
Questions are provided to help the students to discover the important ideas.

Teaching Tip: Draw pictures of Jacob, Rebekah, Esau, Jacob, Leah, Rachel and Laban. Refer
to the pictures when you talk about each character.

Questions
Genesis 25:19-26 The birth of Esau and Jacob
 Who is Isaac’s wife?
 What is the problem here (Rebekah is barren)
 What does Jacob do? (He prays).
 What does God tell her? V. 23
 Point out how God keeps his promises. (Abraham was to have many descendants. Here
Jacob had no children. God had to work.)
 What are the names of the two boys?
 How old was Isaac when he Married Rebekah? When his sons were born? (40/60 – 20 year
wait)

Genesis 25:27-34 Esau and Jacob grow up

 What is Esau like?
 Who loves Esau?
 What is Jacob like?
 Who loves Jacob?
 What does Esau pay for a bowl of stew? (His birthright)

Genesis 27:1-36 Jacob is blessed by Isaac

 What happens?

Genesis 27:41-46 Esau plans to kill Jacob

 What happens?
 What is Rachel’s solution?

Genesis 28:1-5 Jacob is sent to find a wife

 What happens?

Genesis 28:10-17 Jacob has a dream

 What promises does God give to Jacob? 28:13-15
 See the memory verse section. You may wish to do the memory verse at this point.
Genesis 29-33 The rest of the story:
There is a lot of material here and you probably will not have time to cover it all in detail.
Say: Jacob arrived at his uncle Laban’s house. There he fell in love with Rachel. He asked to
marry her. Laban agreed, if he would work for him seven years. Jacob agreed. When the
wedding day came, Laban tricked Jacob and had him marry Rachel’s older sister, Leah. Jacob
also married Rachel. Jacob’s family grew: he had 11 sons and a daughter. He also obtained
many flocks of animals. After 20 years, Jacob decided to go home. But he knew he would
need to face his brother Esau, who wanted to kill him. Esau came out to greet Jacob with 400
men (33:1) Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed (32:6). Jacob sent gifts ahead to his brother
Esau. Esau forgave Jacob. Jacob returned home safely (33:18) There he built an altar and
called it “A Mighty God is the God of Israel” (33:20). There he worshiped God because God
kept his promise to him.
 Did God keep his promises to Jacob?
 What did Jacob discover about God?
 God keeps his promises.

Teaching Tip: You might want to draw a picture of Jacob, with Rachel and Leah, their two
maids, his 12 children (11 sons and a daughter) and all of his flocks. This shows how God
prospered Jacob in the 20 years. He left with a staff in his hand and returned with all this.

Conclusions:
What are some important things we discovered about God?
 God is present everywhere. So there is no place you can go where God is not.
 God keeps his promises.
What are some important things we discovered about obeying God?
 We should trust God to keep his promises.
 I should not be afraid because there is no where I can go where God cannot take care of
me.
 We should worship God .

ACTIVITIES

Coloring Activities
 Color Esau and Jacob
 Draw a line between the things that are the same.

Snack: Bread and red lentil stew

Introductions: Draw pictures of Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, Jacob, Rachel, Leah, and Laban. Have
children take a picture and tell what they know about each person.

Who am I? Briefly describe a character in this story. Have the children guess who you are
taking about. For example: “I like to hunt” (Esau). “I have a younger sister who is very
beautiful” (Leah). “I like to cook” (Jacob).

Memory Verse: 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.
Genesis 28:15

 Read the verse out loud.

 Explain the verse using questions:
- What does God promise Jacob?
- Does God keep his promise? God keeps his promises.
- Can you go somewhere where God is not with you? (from worksheet)
- Point out the application: “I will not be afraid. Where ever I go, God is with me.”
 Help the children to memorize the verse. (You may want to shorten the verse to suit the
abilities of the children)

REVIEW QUESTIONS

 What happens in this story?

 Who is Isaac’s wife? Who are their sons?
 What did God tell Rebekah about the two boys?
 How did Jacob get Esau’s birthright and blessing?
 Why did Jacob leave home?
 What promises did God give to Jacob?
 How did Jacob get his wives, children and flocks?
 Can you go somewhere where God is not with you? (from worksheet)
 What do you learn about God? People?
 What questions do you have about this story?
 What encourages you about this story?
 What will you do to obey God’s Word?
 Who will you tell about what you have learned?

CONCLUSION
Isaac married a woman named Rebekah. She had twins named Jacob and Esau. When she was
pregnant with them God told her that the younger would be greater than the older. God gave
Jacob a promise: “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.”
(Genesis 28:15). That is exactly what happened! We see that God kept his promise. Jacob
returned home 20 years later. God greatly blessed Jacob.
 What will you do this week? (I will not be afraid. Where ever I go, God is with me.)
 Who will you tell this story to this week?
 Announcements

EVALUATION

After the lesson, take time to evaluate how things went.

 Keep: What worked well?
 Improve: How could you improve what you are doing?
 Start: What new things could you do to be more effective?
 Stop: What problems arose that you were not ready for? How will you address those in the
future?
Take time to thank God for what he is doing in the lives of the students and their families.