Lesson 9 - Elementary

Memory Verse

"He will guide you into all truth"  (John 16:13).

Notes

Jacob Goes to a Far Country

Jacob had offended his brother, and his mother told him he had better go far away where he would be safe. She told him to go to the home of his uncle. Jacob started on the journey to his uncle's country.

One night when he was about sixty miles away from his home -– sixty miles was a great distance in that day -- he took stones and put them under his head for pillows. He fell asleep and had a wonderful dream. He saw a ladder from earth to Heaven. Angels were going up and down the ladder. It must have been a very beautiful ladder, for above the ladder he saw the Lord standing. The Lord God spoke to him. He said that He was the God of his father and grandfather, and would also be Jacob's God. He told him, too, that the land he was in would belong to him and his children. God said that He would go with Jacob on his journey and would bring him back again in safety.

A Holy Place

When Jacob awoke he marvelled at the beautiful dream he had had. He remembered that He had seen God in his dream and that God had spoken to him, and he said: "Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not” [GEN:28:16]). And "this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” [GEN:28:17]).

Then Jacob took the stone and set up a pillar and poured oil on top of it. That was to show that it was holy. He called the place Bethel -– the house of God.

He Makes a Promise to God

Jacob's heart was grateful to God for what God had shown him and had said to him. He said that if God would be with him and bring him back to his father's home again he would serve God, and he would give God the tenth of what he had. This experience made Jacob a better man than he had been before. God knew just what Jacob would do, and for that reason, no doubt, He gave Jacob this beautiful dream. God knows what we will do long before we ever do it. He knows who will be saved and who will not. He wants everyone to be saved, but not everyone wants to be saved. That is not God's fault; it is their own choice. God wants us to give Him our lives in gratitude for all that He has done for us, and then He blesses us still more.

Questions

1. What did Jacob say when he awoke? [GEN:28:16-17].

2. What did Jacob promise God in return for His blessings? [GEN:28:20-22].

3. Should we pay tithes today? [MAL:3:8-10]; [DEU:14:22].

4. How did God punish two people who held back part of the price? [ACT:5:1-10].

5. Does God excuse poor people from paying tithes? [LUK:21:1-4].