This lesson is compatible with the "Jacob" Flash-A-Cards from Abeka Books.
Scripture References: Genesis 28: 10-22
“I’ve been walking for 3 days now. All alone. This bag is getting heavy, and my feet are getting tired. Wait! What was that?!” Jacob paused when he heard a noise nearby, just as he had done almost every time, he heard something for three days now. He looked over his shoulder, holding his breath. He was just positive that this brother was going to rush out from behind some bushes to kill him. He was tired of always having to look behind him. He kept seeing the face of his parents as he was sent away. Tears were streaming down both of their faces. He had cried, too. All of his life was spent at home with his family. Now he was all alone, and far from them all. He didn’t know if he would like his uncle or his family, or if they would like him. It was such a long trip to make…over 500 miles ON FOOT! If they told him he couldn’t stay, then what? Where would he go? Who would he marry? He couldn’t marry anyone in Canaan, where he was leaving.
It was getting dark by now, and he needed to find a good place to lie down for the night. He found a place that looked good enough and found a rock to lay his head on. [Visual 2.2] He sure missed his comfortable tent, and bed with soft furs and pillows. I imagine he sighed as he lay there, wishing he hadn’t made such a mess of things. He was probably wondering if he could even talk to God or make sacrifices anymore. In those days, the people of Canaan believed that when you left your home, your god stayed there. You were on your own! Your god wouldn’t hear you or help you. I think I would never want to leave home if that were true! I think Jacob must have been wondering if God had stayed behind with his family, and now he was even MORE alone.
He drifted off to sleep with heavy thoughts on his mind, and I imagine a sad heart.
Jacob began to dream. He saw a strange sight. It was a staircase that reached all the way to the heaven! [Visual 2.3] There were angels going up the steps, and angels going down the steps. Above all of those steps stood God! God began to speak to Jacob. “I am the God of Abraham, your grandfather, and the God of Isaac, your father. I will give to you and your descendants the land where you are lying right now. Your family will be like the dust of the earth in number, too many to count. In you, and your family will all the families of the earth be blessed.” God was giving the same promise to Jacob that He gave to Abraham and then Isaac! But God did not stop there. He said “I am with you and will go with you wherever you go. I will keep you safe and bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I said I would do.”
Wow! God was promising to go with Jacob wherever he went! God does not stay in one home, unable to be with anyone else. God can be anywhere and everywhere all at once! That’s who God is. Now, Jacob didn’t have to worry. He could talk to God, and God would hear him! Even better, God would be WITH him!
Jacob woke up and said “Wow! Surely God is here in this place…and I never even knew it!” Then, Jacob began to feel afraid. Even though God loves us, we are so sinful that we feel afraid of how GREAT God is. We deserve hell, and even worse than hell! God is perfect and can’t stand sin. The Bible says, “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.” Psalm 89:7.
We should have a respect, and a fear of God because of his greatness, holiness, perfectness, awesomeness, and so many other things.
It also says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” It’s a good thing to have respect for God, and a fear of Him.
But God, being so far above us, also made a way for us to have a relationship with Him! He sent Jesus to pay for our sins. If we put our faith in Jesus, God will accept us because of Jesus. He will hear us when we pray. He will be with us always!
Jacob feared God that day and said “How awesome is this place. It is the house of God!” Jacob realized that God didn’t just live in his father’s house. God wasn’t stuck back there. So, Jacob took the stone he had been using as a pillow and decided to make a remembrance with it. He set the stone up, probably on a taller stone nearby [Visual 2.4], then he got some oil from his food bag and poured the oil on the stone. A custom of the Jews later in history was when you poured out a liquid over something like Jacob was doing, you were showing that you were pouring your life out to God, for Him to use as He will.
Jacob then renamed the place Bethel, or “House of God”.
He decided to make his own promise to God that morning. “Since God will be with me, and keep me safe, and give me bread and clothing, and bring me back to this land and my father’s house, then He will be my God. This stone is a remembrance and is called Bethel. I will give a tenth of everything God gives me back to you, God.”
That morning, Jacob decided God wasn’t just the God of his father and grandfather. He put his trust in God and believed the promise God made to bless the whole world with the savior someday. Jacob had grown up hearing about God. He probably tried his best to please the God of his father. But hearing about God wasn’t enough. Trying to please God is never enough. We CAN’T please God because we all sin. But Jesus pleased God. He lived life without sinning once, so he could take all of our sins on himself when he died on the cross.
The only way to please God is to put our faith in Jesus. Jacob pleased God that day by putting his faith in Jesus.
Have you put your faith in Jesus? It’s not enough that your parents did. It’s not enough to try to be good. But Jesus is enough. Put your trust in Him today.
Let’s pray and thank God that Jesus died for our sins and rose again. Let’s thank Him that he showed Jacob that God can go anywhere and be with us always. Let’s ask God to help us have a correct fear of Him.