Write on the board:
What do you value?
Post this up:
“If I were to teach the principle of generosity in human relationships, how marvelous to share with people...scriptures pertaining to the relationship of Jacob and Esau.” - Elder Neal A. Maxwell.
OPENING DISCUSSION
Post this up:
“If I were to teach the principle of generosity in human relationships, how marvelous to share with people...scriptures pertaining to the relationship of Jacob and Esau.” - Elder Neal A. Maxwell.
OPENING DISCUSSION
Hand out Post-It Notes and have them write answers to what they value and post on the board.
Discuss this for awhile -- what do they value? Why do they value those things? Do they bring lasting value or temporary? Do they have to work for those things or do they come easy? Do they value more the things that take time or the things that come easily?
LESSON
Ideas to present this story:
Discuss this for awhile -- what do they value? Why do they value those things? Do they bring lasting value or temporary? Do they have to work for those things or do they come easy? Do they value more the things that take time or the things that come easily?
LESSON
Ideas to present this story:
1/Have all the scriptures printed out for the lesson, one per piece of paper.
Have an easy-to-understand summary of each scripture also one per piece of paper.
Have them match the scripture verse with the summary.
Do this as a class up on the board or on the floor.
2/Have them act it out.
Have an easy-to-understand summary of each scripture also one per piece of paper.
Have them match the scripture verse with the summary.
Do this as a class up on the board or on the floor.
2/Have them act it out.
3/Use puppets (Rebekah, Isaac, Jacob, Esau, even the goats?).
4/Here's my own summary based much on this site:
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2002/01/jacob-and-esau?lang=eng
All of you have siblings.
Have you ever competed for things with your siblings?
How does that sort of thing make you feel?
Siblings really commonly fight, and fight over stuff...right?
This story is about two brothers who are actually twins.
They competed for a lot of things: money, land, spiritual blessings, status in the family.
Even in the womb, they were already struggling.
Their mom Rebekah felt a great struggle in her body and went to enquire of the Lord (Genesis 25:22).
Heavenly Father answered saying “Two nations are in thy womb, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people and the elder shall serve the younger.” (25:23)
Do you know why birth order is important in Old Testament times?
Who here is the firstborn in their family?
If you were in OT times, you would have the right to inherit being the head of the family, priesthood authority, and a double portion of your parents’ estate.
This is all a big deal.
So these twins - Jacob and Esau.
Esau was the firstborn so he had the birthright.
Esau liked hunting and agriculture and focused more on the things of the world.
Jacob liked taking care of animals and was a “plain” man which meant he was whole, complete, perfect, simple, so he was choosing the right, we can assume from that.
Now their parents were kind of split...Isaac liked Esau more and Rebekah liked Jacob more.
Parents aren’t supposed to have favorites, right? But that’s how it was with them.
One day after hunting, Esau was really really hungry.
He asked Jacob if he could have some of his food -- “Feed me, I pray thee,” he asked in vs. 30.
Jacob agreed but for a price - he wanted Esau’s birthright.
Why would he ask this of him? Jacob knew that Esau didn’t care about it.
How did he know? He was going against the commandments, married a woman outside the covenant, etc.
So now fast forward to the time when Isaac was about to give the birthright blessing.
Isaac is 130 years old and his sons were at least 70.
Rebekah felt that Esau should not get the birthright blessing.
She knew that he wouldn’t respect it, honor it, and she remembered that Heavenly Father told her that the elder shall serve the younger.
She made a plan that Jacob would get the blessing.
Jacob wasn’t so sure about it - he probably didn’t want to deceive his dad or do anything wrong, right?
His mom said “Upon me by thy curse, my son, only obey my voice.”
He received the birthright blessing by pretending to be Esau - Isaac was blind at this point and Jacob dressed as Esau to throw off his father.
Was this rightfully his? Well, Esau had given it to him.
Did Isaac know what he was doing? No, but this was spoken of by Heavenly Father years before so it was supposed to happen this way.
How did Esau feel when he found out about the big blessing and that it went to Jacob?
He “lifted up his voice and wept” (27:38) which shows he didn’t plan to keep his promise earlier of giving it to Jacob.
Esau hated Jacob then and vowed to slay him!
Rebekah told Jacob to flee the area - she didn’t want her son killed!
She thought that over time perhaps Esau would stop being angry.
They also wanted Jacob to marry righteously.
So Jacob left and they were apart for about 20 years.
Do any of you know of family members that refuse to speak to one another?
20 years is a long time. It can be hard to be angry for that long but sometimes people are determined to be mad at one another.
How does this hurt eternal families? (give time for discussion)
So Jacob married and did well working as a laborer.
Esau’s family moved elsewhere.
Jacob was visited by an angel and told to return to his birthright land (31:11-13).
Jacob was a little worried about how Esau might react - you can understand why, right?
So he send greetings beforehand, friendly ones, to Esau.
How would this hopefully help Esau feel?
Well, the messengers returned with information that Esau was coming to meet him indeed, but with 400 armed men!
Jacob was confused - an angel had told him to return, but why return if it meant death?
So he prayed for protection.
Then he told his servants to divide over 550 of his animals into many groups and to present each group of animals as a separate gift to Esau - he hoped this would soften Esau’s heart.
They got closer and closer to each other, and Jacob and his family went out to meet him.
He bowed as he went, which showed respect.
Esau noticed all of this and ran to meet him (33:4).
Esau had forgiven Jacob and they were on good terms again.
So while this story is about how Esau didn’t value his birthright and lost it,
It’s also about families and forgiveness.
FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION
How are you feeling right now, after hearing this story, about your siblings?
I want you each to write down some feelings for exactly 2 minutes and list all the thoughts and feelings that come to your mind. (pass out paper/pens to them)
Maybe it’s a list of words.
Maybe it’s a description of how you want to act in your family.
Maybe it’s a situation that happened recently and you want to write down what you’d have done differently.
Or maybe you want to write down how you acted correctly and you’re happy about it.
(Let them share if they want, but they may want to keep their list private and that's okay, the act of them simply writing it out is a good exercise for them)
TEMPORARY VS ETERNAL DISCUSSION
(Use the list in the manual that starts with "Going to a movie on the Sabbath...")
This story is about families but it’s also about valuing the right things.
And not being blinded by what’s temporary vs what’s eternal.
So here’s a list and I want you to come up and one at a time mark off what’s eternal and what’s temporary.
(have the list from the manual but add more to it so it’s really long, and have markers or highlighters or crayons and one at a time they come up and mark in one color for temporary and one color for eternal...then discuss)
TEMPORARY VS ETERNAL ACTIVITY
Adapted from this:
http://www.ourfamilyforhisglory.com/2012/07/to-know-christ-philippians-family-time-8
(Hold up a thing of bubbles and a small soft ball.)
Which of these do you think represents eternal things? (ball)
And which one represents temporary happiness? (bubbles)
List off what some of those things might be: family prayer and activities, arguing with siblings, etc.
Have a small basket (perhaps a foldable one that you can easily transport to church) on a chair that you have labeled “eternity.”
Have two kids come up, one with the ball (eternal things) and one with a thing of bubbles (temporary things).
Tell them to get their thing to “eternity” and they’ll see that the bubbles go nowhere!
TESTIMONY AND TAKE HOME
What we have in our life, all the riches and the gold and jewels and status and money and property…
Nothing compares to that of having a family that is in harmony.
We can fight, we can bicker, we can get mad, but we should always forgive.
Even if it takes many years, this story of Jacob and Esau can give us hope for forgiveness and family harmony.
Take home ideas:
Bubbles with a note/scripture/etc.
Harmonicas and a note about family harmony
Small can of soup to hearken back to the stew/pottage that Esau wanted
Card to write to a family member that they need to be on better terms with
Something heart-related
Which of these do you think represents eternal things? (ball)
And which one represents temporary happiness? (bubbles)
List off what some of those things might be: family prayer and activities, arguing with siblings, etc.
Have a small basket (perhaps a foldable one that you can easily transport to church) on a chair that you have labeled “eternity.”
Have two kids come up, one with the ball (eternal things) and one with a thing of bubbles (temporary things).
Tell them to get their thing to “eternity” and they’ll see that the bubbles go nowhere!
TESTIMONY AND TAKE HOME
What we have in our life, all the riches and the gold and jewels and status and money and property…
Nothing compares to that of having a family that is in harmony.
We can fight, we can bicker, we can get mad, but we should always forgive.
Even if it takes many years, this story of Jacob and Esau can give us hope for forgiveness and family harmony.
Take home ideas:
Bubbles with a note/scripture/etc.
Harmonicas and a note about family harmony
Small can of soup to hearken back to the stew/pottage that Esau wanted
Card to write to a family member that they need to be on better terms with
Something heart-related
Get ahead of me again, darn it! :)
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