The Bible from A to Z

The Bible from A to Z

Daddy's Boys


Daddy's Boys

Genesis 24-38 - ESV - KJV - NIV
God's plan supercedes human logic and traditions.


Summary

Summary of the accounts included in the Set


The Facts

Set reference(s), important people, major events, key words/repeated phrases, names of God and Jewish feasts revealed or explained in the account


Key Verses

Key verses in the account and verses about the central message or truth of the account


Jesus & the Gospel

How this account foreshadows or points to the redeeming work of Jesus


Did You Know?

Interesting facts about the account


Discuss It

Discussion questions to facilitate and focus discussion


Teach It

Ideas to help you teach the account to others


Share It

Ideas to help you share what you learn


Celebrate It

Ideas to help you celebrate the Truth with others

Daddy's Boys

Genesis 24-38 - ESV - KJV - NIV
God's plan supercedes human logic and traditions.


Summary

Summary of the accounts included in the Set


The Facts

Set reference(s), important people, major events, key words/repeated phrases, names of God and Jewish feasts revealed or explained in the account


Key Verses

Key verses in the account and verses about the central message or truth of the account


Jesus & the Gospel

How this account foreshadows or points to the redeeming work of Jesus


Did You Know?

Interesting facts about the account


Discuss It

Discussion questions to facilitate and focus discussion


Teach It

Ideas to help you teach the account to others


Share It

Ideas to help you share what you learn


Celebrate It

Ideas to help you celebrate the Truth with others

Summary

After Sarah's death, Abraham sent his servant back to his homeland to find a bride for Issac so he would not marry a Canaanite woman. When the servant reached his destination, he sat down at the springs and asked God to let the young woman who offered to water his camels when he asked her for a drink of water to be the right one. Before he finished praying, Rebekah walked up and offered to water his camels after he asked her for a drink of water. She and her family agreed she should return with the servant and become Issac's wife.

Isaac and Rebekah had twins named Esau and Jacob. The boys were very different from the start and “jostled each other within her.” God told her, “two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” Esau, the oldest, was "Daddy's Boy" while Jacob, the youngest, was "Mama's Boy".

Esau, sold his birthright to his younger brother, and Jacob stole the blessing of the oldest son from Esau by tricking his father with his mother's help. When Esau threatened Jacob, Jacob fled. On the way, he had a dream where he saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder to and from heaven. God repeated the Covenant to him and said He would be with Jacob. Jacob agreed to serve God and give him a tenth of all God gave him “if” God would give him food and clothes and allow him to return to his father in peace one day.

When Jacob reached his mother's homeland, he lived with his uncle. He fell in love with his uncle's youngest daughter, Rachel, and agreed to work for his for seven years to be able to marry her. His uncle tricked him on his wedding night and gave him his oldest daughter, Leah, instead. Jacob agreed to work seven more years to be able to marry Rachel as well.

Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. Nevertheless, Leah gave him four sons while Rachel was still childless. Eventually, Jacob has 12 sons and a daughter with Leah, Rachel, and their two servants.

Jacob continued to work for his uncle and worked out a deal to start his own herds of sheep and goats. Eventually, his uncle's sons got jealous, and Jacob and his family headed back to the Promised Land. On the way, Jacob spent one night wrestling with God, and God blessed him the next morning. When Jacob finally met Esau, he had also become a wealth man with a big family and welcomed his brother home with a hug.

A couple of accounts about Jacob's family include: A man from Shechem defiled Jacob's daughter and then wanted to marry her. Simeon and Levi killed all the men in the city because of the way the man from there treated their sister. God affirmed the Covenant with Jacob at Bethel and changed his name to Israel. Rachel died during childbirth with another son names Benjamin.

The Bible includes what seems to be a random account in the life of Judah as well. Judah's oldest son had married a woman named Tamar, but he died before they had children. As the Bible commanded, Judah's next oldest son married Tamar. Their first child would be considered the child of the oldest brother to perpetuate his name. This son died as well before the two had children. Judah promised his youngest son to Tamar, but he secretly never planned to let them marry for fear he too would die. When Tamar figured out Judah would not let them marry, she dressed as a temple prostitute and waited for....Judah. Judah ended up getting her pregnant. When he found out she was pregnant, he called for her to be stoned as the law said. Tamar showed some personal belongings the man who got her pregnant had left with her when they were together. Judah recognized his belongings and called Tamar "more righteous" them himself because she was willing to fulfill the law to have children for her first husband.

Jacob has a "daddy's boy" just like his father. He loved Joseph - the eldest of his favorite wife, Rachel - more than any of his other sons, even to the points of giving him special gifts. His other brothers did not like him very much, and, when Joseph brought bad reports about his older brother to Jacob, it only made it worse. In addtion, Joseph had muliple dreams in which he dreamed his brother bowed down to him. Joseph even dreamed his parent bowed to him. No one guessed the truth foreshadowed by these dreams meant Joseph would one day save his family from starvation, so the brothers planned to kill Joseph. In stead, they ened up selling him to a caravan of traders headed to Egypt. As Joseph headed to slavery in Egypt, none of the brothers dreamed their descendants would end up Egyptian themselves.


Back to Top

The Facts


Genesis 24-38 - ESV - KJV - NIV

Important People

Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, Jacob, Jacob's uncle Laban, Jacob's wives - Leah & Rachel, Jacob's concubines - Bilhah & Zilpah and Jacob's children

The heads of the 12 Tribes of Israel
Reuben (1st), Simeon (2nd), Levi (3rd), Judah (4th), Issachar (9th), Zebulun (10th) (plus Dinah, a daughter) - (Leah's children)
Gad (7th), Asher (8th) - (Zilpah's, Leah's servant, sons)
Dan (5th), Naphtali (6th) - (Belhah's, Rachel's servant, sons)
Joseph (11th), and Benjamin (12th) - (Rachel's sons)


Major Events/Accounts

Abraham's servant brings Rebekah to the Promised Land to become Issac's wife, Issac & Rebekah have twins, Esau forsakes his birthright, Jacob steals the oldest son's blessing and runs away from fear of Esau, Jacob works for his uncle Laban, marries his two daughters and has 12 sons and a daughter, Jacob returns to the Promised Land and finds favor with Esau, Joseph dreams his brothers and parents bow down to him, Jospeh brother sell him into slavery


Key Words/Repeated Phrases

Blessings
Jacob's trickery


Back to Top

Hide the Word in Your Heart



Verses from the Account


Genesis 25:23

And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.


Genesis 28:20-22

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

* Notice, Jacob is trying to make a deal with God when he first passes through the place he named Bethel. When he returns to the Promise Land, he has a very different attitude and seeks God's blessings without any strings attached (Genesis 32).



Verses to Share the Truths Taught through the Account


1 John 4:21

And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.


Back to Top

Jesus in the Account


He is the One promised to Isaac (Genesis 21:12), Jacob (Numbers 24:17), and Judah (Gen 49:10).

God told Abraham, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."


The ladder represent Jesus in Jacob's dream in Genesis 28:10-22.

When Jesus called Nathanael to be one of His 12 disciple, He quoted Genesis 28:12 in John 1:51 when He said, “you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”


Jacob realized he is dependent upon the blessings of God.

Genesis 31:26: After the wrestling match on his return to the Promised Land, Jacob declares, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”


Back to Top

Did You Know?


Bethel is an important Old Testament city.

Bethel means "House of God".
Jerusalem is the only city mentioned more than Bethel in the Old Testament.
Bethel was one of the first places Abraham came and built an alter in the Promised Land (Genesis 12).
Jacob's dream occurred at Bethel (Genesis 28).
God changed Jacob's name to Israel at Bethel and established His Covenant with Jacob there (Genesis 35).
Bethel came out to fight the Israelites when they destroyed Ai (Joshua 8).
King Jeroboam of the Northern Kingdom put golden calves at Bethel and Dan so the people would not have to go to Jerusalem, in the Southern Kingdom, to worship and turn their hearts back to God (Genesis 12:25-33).
Several prophets spoke against Bethel because of their worship of other Gods.
The King of Assyria sent a priest back to Samaria (the Northern Kingdom) to teach the people Assyria resettled there after the takeover of Israel about about the "god of the land" because God had sent lions to attack the people living there. The priest lived in Bethel. (2 King 17:24-28)


Rebekah's blessing from her family just before she leaves with Abraham's servant is very similar to the blessing Abraham received from the angel after he sacrificed the ram Mount Moriah.

Abraham's blessing in Genesis 22:17-18: I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Rebekah's blessing in Genesis 24:60 just before she leaves with Abraham's servant: And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands; may your offspring possess the cities of their enemies.”


Esau is the father of the Edomites.

The Edomites would not let Israel pass through their land on the way from Egypt to the Promised Land.


King Herod, the one who tried to kill Jesus as a baby, was an Idumaean - the Greek word for the descendants of Esau.


Leah's attitude changes after the birth of her first three sons.

After the births of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, Leah thought Jacob would love her because she gave him a son. It was not until her fourth son Leah said, "This time I will praise the Lord" and named the boy Judah - the one through whom Jesus would come.


Back to Top

Discuss It


  1. What is the most interesting thing or something new you learned from reading and studying this account?
  2. Summarize the account and its message in your own words.
  3. What did you learn about God from reading and studying this account?
  4. How does this account point to God's plan to redeem this world through the sacrifice and obedience of Jesus?
  5. How can you apply the truth of what you learned from reading and studying this account in your own life?

Back to Top

Teach It


Coming in 2021!

Back to Top

Share It


Coming in 2021!

Back to Top

Celebrate It


Coming in 2021!

Back to Top