Jacob and Esau Genesis 25:19-34; 27:1-42 December 4, 2011 ON OUR PLATE TODAY The children will learn: The account of Jacob receiving Esau s birthright. That Esau made a bad bargain by selling his birthright. That we make bad bargains with our birthright when we turn away from God. SNACK Put some stew in a crockpot and have it nice and warm when the kids enter the room. The smell from the warm stew should fill the room and cause them to ask questions. What s that smell? Something smells good. That smell makes me hungry. Is that for us? Do we get some? When you smell stew cooking, you might be hungry, but the smell seems to make you even hungrier! Tell about a time when you walked into a room when food was cooking, and all of a sudden you were hungry. Today we re going to look at a story in the Bible where a pot of stew and its wonderful smell got somebody in trouble. crockpot stew 4 ounce cups spoons ladle Give the kids a little cup of the stew. Talk about how it satisfied their hunger pang. ACTIVITY All the kids will find a partner for this activity just grab someone quickly! Now, go around to each pair and ask which person is older. Give the older child 2 stickers and give the young child 1 sticker. (You can also use small trinkets or individually wrapped candies. Whatever you use, the older child needs to get twice as much as the younger one.) stickers Why would I give one of you twice as much as the other? No reason, except that one of you is older. In Bible times, when a father died, the older son received a lot more of what belonged to the father than the other sons. In fact, most of the time, it was at least twice as much as the others. Just for being Copyright 2010 KidzMatter Ministries Inc. born first! All Rights Reserved. 1 www.kidzmatter.com
How did it feel to be the youngest in your pair? How did it feel to be the oldest? BIBLE ACCOUNT Tell the Bible story using the PowerPoint family scrapbook. I have a photo album I d like to share today from one of the families we can read about in the Bible in the book of Genesis. PowerPoint of family scrapbook Our story begins with Isaac and Rebekah receiving some wonderful news (show ultrasound pic). Rebekah was pregnant and was not only going to have one baby (show baby pic), she was going to have twins (show baby twins pic). When she delivered the babies, one was red and hairy. They named him Esau. When the second boy came out, he was grasping the heel of his brother. They named him Jacob. As Esau grew older, he became a skilled hunter (show bow and arrow pic). As Jacob grew older, he proved himself to be great with herding animals and taking care of things at camp. He made some wonderful campfire meals (show campfire pic). One day Esau had been out hunting all day and was so hungry (show hungry pic). He soon found his brother and asked him to share the soup that he d been making. Jacob had an idea (show thinking pic) and told Esau that he d be happy to give him some soup if he d only give him his birthright. Now, the birthright was an important document in Bible times that the father reserved for the oldest son upon the father s death. It was really, really special and entitled the oldest son to receive the largest share of what the father owned when he died. Esau was so hungry that he agreed. He swore to Jacob that he would do it. Jacob took Esau a bowl of soup and he ate (show bowl of stew pic). Esau was angry with himself and knew that he d made a mistake. (show old rabbi pic) As Isaac got older, he knew it was time to give Esau his birthright. He called Esau in and told him to go hunt and prepare a meal for him so that he could make the birthright official and Esau could receive it. Rebekah was listening at the tent s opening. She hurried to tell Jacob to go and gather his finest goat (show goat pic) and bring it to her that she might prepare a fine meal for Isaac so they could trick him. Jacob was her favorite son, so she wanted him to have the birthright. Isaac s eyesight was failing him in his old age; in fact, he was pretty much blind. Jacob put Esau s clothes on and disguised himself (show disguised pic) as Esau by putting some extra goat hair on his body, because Esau was a very hairy man. Jacob entered his father s tent with a tray full of his father s favorite foods. Isaac wanted to be sure that he was eating with Esau and asked the disguised Jacob to come close so that he could touch him. He was hairy, so Isaac thought it was Esau. He then tried one more time and asked Esau to come forward and give him a kiss. He recognized the smell of Esau s clothing and thought for sure that it was Esau. Once he was convinced, Isaac gave Jacob the blessing and birthright that he intended to give to Esau (show document). The real Esau returned from a long day of hunting and prepared a meal (show meal pic) to take to his father. He entered the tent and greeted his father. When Isaac realized what had just happened, he explained to Esau that he d just given his blessing to Isaac without realizing it. Esau was tremendously angry with his brother (show angry man pic) and the Bible says that Esau held a grudge against Jacob for many years to come. 2 www.kidzmatter.com
GAME Beforehand, at the far end of the room put up a tent or make something to represent a tent out of bed sheets. Divide the kids into teams and give each team a can of soup. One player from each team will play in each round. At the signal, each player will get down on hands and knees and use their head to roll their can of soup to the other end of the room. The first player in each round to get their soup inside the tent to father Isaac wins the round and answers the next question (below). tent cans of soup What were the names of the twins in this story? (Jacob and Esau) Which twin was older? Jacob or Esau? (Esau) Which one was born hairy and red? (Esau) What did Jacob do for work? (took care of the herds sheep and goats) What was Esau good at? (hunter) What was Jacob and Esau s mom s name? (Rebekah) What was Jacob and Esau s dad s name? (Isaac) Why did Esau give his birthright to Jacob? (He was hungry.) What did Esau exchange his birthright for? (a bowl of soup) What did Isaac tell Esau that he wanted to give to him? (his blessing) What did Isaac tell Esau to do so that he could prepare to give him his blessing? (go hunt and prepare a meal) Who overheard this discussion between Isaac and Esau? (Rebekah) What did Rebekah tell Jacob to do to win the blessing? (bring her his finest goat so she could prepare a meal and trick Isaac) What did Jacob put on so that he could trick his father? (animal hair and Esau s clothes) What happened when Esau entered the tent and discovered that Jacob had gotten Isaac s blessing? (He became angry.) ACTIVITY VIDEO Download the YouTube video clip from Toy Story 2 called Al Steals Woody. youtube.com/watch?v=nkzvn3fnhaq&nr=1 YouTube video download Watch the video clip. Wanting what someone else has can be good and it can be bad. Al wanted something that didn t belong to him. This scene is really interesting to me, because in one way Al is like Jacob and in another way Al is like Esau. Ummmm. Let s think about this. Let s start with Jacob. How was Al like Jacob? Al took something that didn t belong to him and Jacob took the inheritance, which didn t belong to him. There s another way they are alike. Al played a trick on Mother so he could take Woody without her knowing it. Jacob played a trick on his father so he could take Esau s inheritance without his father realizing it. Now for Esau. How was Al like Esau? This one might be a little more difficult for you. Al wasn t real excited about anything he saw at the yard sale until he spotted the Woody figure. Then, all of a sudden, he HAD to have Woody. It didn t cross his mind to look in a toy store for him. No, he wanted it NOW and he was going to do anything he had to in order to take Woody home with him. Now, what about Esau? Was Esau like that at all? Esau saw the soup and he wanted it NOW. He didn t think about finding other food. That s what he smelled at that moment and he had to have it! 3 www.kidzmatter.com
We get in trouble when... We take something that isn t ours. We trick someone in order to get what we want. We can only think about the present, the right NOW, and don t think about the consequences for later. MESSAGE (show slide #1) What s a BLESSING? In the story today, Esau was supposed to get the main blessing from his father, since he was the oldest heir. A blessing was when one person (the father) declared or wished for God to be especially good to someone (usually his oldest son). Once a blessing was given, even by mistake, it couldn t be taken back. PowerPoint slides The blessing and the inheritance were different for the oldest son. The blessing was bigger and more important. And, the inheritance for the oldest son was usually twice as much as any of the other sons got. (show slide #2) What s an HEIR? Both Esau and Jacob were heirs, which meant that what belonged to their father Isaac would be theirs. BUT, Esau was the main heir, in that he was supposed to get twice as much since he was the oldest. The main heir also was in charge of all the other brothers and sisters and was the spiritual head of the entire family. The Bible talks about us being heirs, but it doesn t mean getting our father s house and car and money. It means we are heirs to our Heavenly Father. Once we recognize our disobedience against God, admit our sins, and ask God to forgive us, and claim Jesus as our Savior, then we are heirs in a completely different kind of family. God s home is our home heaven. 1 Corinthians 3:22-23 says, Everything belongs to you, because you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. So, back to our question what s an heir? YOU are an heir if you trust in Jesus and live to obey God! How cool is that! God wants to pass on ALL His goodness and love to you His heir. (show slide #3) Bad move! Esau made a BAD MOVE. He made a bad bargain and gave away his inheritance as the oldest son. When we go on sinning disobeying God it s like we re throwing away our inheritance. By the way we live, we re telling God that it s not that big of a deal. Why would we do that? (show slide #4) Living in the Right Now Esau was living in the Right Now. All he could think about was his growling stomach and that he was really, really hungry. The smell of the stew was driving him crazy. Because he was so into what he wanted right at that moment, he didn t think about what he was trading and how he was going to regret it later. Have you ever thought, I don t care if I get in trouble, this is too much fun? Or, you eat some peanut butter cause you absolutely love it, but you know that you re allergic. It tastes good at the moment, but later on you may land in the hospital because of your body s reaction. When someone steals something, it s because they want it right now. They don t think about what s going to happen when they get caught. When you go along with friends and do something you know you shouldn t, at the moment it feels good to be accepted by your friends. But, what about later? When you do things that are disobeying God, you re giving away your inheritance. You re telling God that what He wants to give you isn t that important to you. When God sent Jesus to die for our sins, He did something that should be very valuable to us. 4 www.kidzmatter.com
(show slide #5) Hold on! The Bible tells us in Romans 8:16-17 that we are joint-heirs with Christ. We call God our Heavenly Father, just like Jesus did. And, if we are God s children, then we are His heirs. You and I can honor, treasure, and respect that we are heirs by the way we live, by the choices we make, and by giving God full control of our lives. Name some ways you can honor God as His heir through the way you live. Name some choices you should make as an heir to God. What can you do so that God stays in control of your life? OBJECT LESSON You ll need to bring in something that has been passed down to you and that you treasure. Talk about how you take care of it, where you keep it, and why it s special to you. Then, tell possibilities of how you could mistreat it. By doing those things, it would show that you really didn t care about what you had been given. personal heirloom In Bible times, the father gave his oldest son his wealth and his blessing. The blessing was a way of saying that he wanted God s best for that son. He wanted not only physical wealth for his son, but also wanted spiritual wealth for him. Esau didn t value his father s inheritance or his blessing. God offers us the most remarkable inheritance possible. It doesn t get any bigger or better than this! We have a choice of how we treat the heirloom the inheritance He passes on to us. We can value and honor God by obeying Him. Or, we can think it s not that big a deal and live for the moment, disobeying God whenever we feel like it. What are you going to choose? How are you going to treat the inheritance God has for you? SCIENCE EXPERIMENT Beforehand, fill an aquarium about two-thirds. The aquarium works best, because you can see through it. But, if you don t have an aquarium, use a large tub, and the kids will have to stand around it. Let s say this can of Coke is a person who made poor decisions. The consequences of poor decisions can happen immediately or can take days, months, or even years to happen. This person doesn t feel like it s important to obey God. Let s see what happens when we put the can of Coke in the aquarium. Place the can in the aquarium, making sure that water bubbles underneath the can are released. The can will sink. When we don t value being an heir to God, we make plenty of poor decisions. That can cause trouble for us down the road or cause us to have to deal with more difficult situations. can of Diet Coke can of regular Coke aquarium or large tub water Let s say the can of Diet Coke is a person who makes good decisions, a person who values being an heir to God, and a person who wants to honor God by obeying Him and giving Him control. That way of thinking makes it easier to make good decisions. Let s see what happens when we put this can of Diet Coke in the aquarium. Place the can in the aquarium, making sure that the water bubbles underneath the can are released. The can will float. I guess you could say that obeying God as His heir will keep you afloat! ACTIVITY The children will draw a picture of themselves on the half-sheet of paper. Encourage them to make the picture large so that it almost fills the sheet. rolls of clear tape half-sheets of paper There are things that we do that show we don t really value that we re heirs with Christ. By the things we do and say, and by the things that we don t do and say, we make it clear that being a child of God is not really that important markers to us. Name one thing that you could do or say that would make someone think that being God s child is not important to you. When you take a suggestion, lead all the kids in ripping a piece off of their self picture. Take another suggestion and rip another piece off. Do this about 10 times. 5 www.kidzmatter.com
God made us to follow Him and to be part of His family. When we disobey the One who made us, then we re not the person God made us to be. What a mess we have here! When we don t value being God s heir, our lives become a mess! On the other hand, someone tell me how we can honor God as His heir. With this suggestion, ask the kids to tape 2 pieces back together. Continue taking suggestions that honor God and taping another piece on with each suggestion. Now look at your picture. It s together the way it should be. When we honor and value that we re an heir with Jesus, then we can become what God intended us to be. PRAYER Give each child a lined index card and a pencil. They will write their name vertically down the left-hand side of the card, putting one letter on a line. (They can leave an empty line between each letter if their name is short.) For each letter of their name, kids will think of an area of their lives that God needs to have control over an area that they need to make good decisions about now, because it will affect their future. (Example: TAMMY, T-time, A-attitude, M-mind, M-manners, Y-yelling) lined index cards pencils Then, instruct the kids to get in small groups of about five kids and pray for the areas on their cards. Encourage each child to pray out loud, asking God to be in control of the areas represented by the letters in their name. BLESSING ACTIVITY Instead of blessing the children today as they leave, they will be writing a blessing for a family member or friend. Give each child a pencil and a piece of note paper (or a folded blank card). Instruct them to start by writing, May God bless you and then they will complete the thought. note paper pencils Encourage them to present their blessing card to the person some time this week, and maybe even read the card to the person before handing it to them. EXTRA ACTIVITIES SCRIPTURE MEMORIZATION Hebrews 4:13 (GNT) There is nothing that can be hid from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before his eyes. And it is to him that we must all give an account of ourselves. In our story today, Jacob and Esau had a strange position when they were born. Esau was born first, but Jacob was grabbing onto Esau s heel when he was born. The kids will use this heel-grabbing position to help them as they practice the scripture they are memorizing. Choose partners. One person will walk around the room while their partner crawls (or bends over) behind them, grabbing onto the walking partner s heel. As they move around the room, the person grabbing will say the verse. Then, switch and let the other person practice saying the verse while grabbing a heel. For a challenge, the leader will walk around the room. See how many kids can form a chain behind the leader by holding onto the person s heel in front of them in the chain. Everyone grabbing a heel has to say the verse! 6 www.kidzmatter.com
MUSIC We have provided you with two songs by Yancy, a wonderful contemporary Christian artist who writes songs that kids relate to. The two songs for this quarter are: Ask Me I Know and I Will Worship You. If you d like more of Yancy s music, please go to www.yancynotnancy.com. music DVD downloads 7 www.kidzmatter.com