Jr. Tree 
of Life
03/21/2021
Heroes of the Bible – Jacob the Trickster – Jacob goes home
Lesson 5 – Part 12
Eternity Past, Age of Gentiles, Age of Israel, Hypostatic Union, Church Age, Tribulation, Millennium, Eternal future
Before you begin this Bible study, If you have never believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior, John 3:16 tells us: “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.’ Simply have faith that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and you will have eternal life and be saved. If you have believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior; then 1 John 1:9 tells us; “If you confess your sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Simply privately tell God the Father your sins to be filled with God the Holy Spirit and He will teach you Bible truth. (Rebound)
Promise Memory Verse
“Do not fear, for I am with you;” Isaiah 41:10a.
Our verse above lets us know that we don’t need to be afraid because God is with us. He will never leave our sides. He is (omnipresent.)
All of you have an old sin natures living inside of your bodies and it’s invisible. You can’t see it even if your doctor takes an ex-ray. How does this old sin nature get your attention?
Does it bark like a dog or growl like a mean brown bear? Will it send you a text or an email? No, it doesn’t work that way; it constantly tempts you to do, say and think bad things called sins. It’s your choice to say yes or no to it.
In our Bible story last week, we saw that both of Jacob’s wives Leah and
Rachael said yes to their old sin natures. Leah was jealous of her sister Rachael because Jacob loved Rachael and not her. Rachael was jealous of Leah because Leah had kids and she didn’t have any.
Jealousy means that you want what other’s have. It’s a thinking sin.
After seven years, Rachael finally had a baby boy named Joseph. Jacob wanted to go home to Canaan after he was born; but there was one problem.
Jacob needed money so he could take care of his family which now included 11 sons, 1 daughter and 4 wives. He made another deal with his uncle Laban and they agreed that Jacob would get all of the specked and spotted goats and sheep and also any black sheep as payment for his hard work.
This seemed like a great deal to uncle Laban because there weren’t that many sheep or goats with those kinds of colorings. Jacob worked for his uncle for 6 more years and became very rich.
One day Jacob had a dream, and the angel of the Lord told Jacob that it was now time to go home. The key was, Jacob said “yes” to God and gathered his family and flocks and headed home after being away 20 years.
When he started getting closer to home, he began to say yes to his old sin nature and was afraid that his older brother Esau would try to kill him because he had stolen Esau’s blessing from him. He prayed that God would rescue him.
Fear and Worry are thinking sins
Soon, Jacob heard that Esau was on his way to meet him with 400 soldiers. Jacob continued on saying yes to his old sin nature and totally freaked out. Instead of trusting God; he was really worried that Esau would not forgive him for stealing his blessing, and would kill him.
Jacob decided to divide up his family into 4 groups, so that if Esau attacked one group, the other group could escape. Next, Jacob decided to give a large gift to Esau hoping that when he saw it he would forgive him for stealing his blessing from him.
Jacob gathered up five hundred and fifty, sheep, goats, camels, cows, bulls and donkeys to give to Esau. Today they would be worth around 650,000.00 dollars.
That night, God the Son, who is Jesus, (called the angel of the Lord) started wrestling with Jacob until the sun was coming up. Jacob tried his best to win, but Jesus injured Jacob’s hip so that he would limp the rest of his life. This would remind Jacob that he would always need God’s help. God then changed Jacob’s name to Israel which means prince of God.
After that his brother, Esau ran up to him and hugged and kissed him. Both of them had tears in their eyes. Esau forgave Jacob and God kept all of His promises to Jacob.
God wants you to learn something from this story. Even though Jacob was a liar, cheater, stole from and tricked others, God didn’t give up on him and He kept all of His promises to Him.
He will do the same for you!