Genesis: Jacob & His Family

Today's lesson is continuing with Jacob and his family. We will discuss his leaving Laban with Leah and Rachel and his children. He wrestles an angel and sees Esau again. We also touch on his twelve sons. We will finish Genesis in the next three weeks studying Joseph. 


Review: Abraham and Sarah had Isaac and God promised Abraham that he would have as many descendants as there were stars in the sky. So, through Abraham, his son Isaac married Rebekah and they had twins named Esau and Jacob. Jacob had 2 wives, but God allowed that back then so people could populate the earth. God didn’t like it, but He put up with it. The New Testament says to be faithful to one wife.

Today's lesson is found in Genesis 29-32. We are going to learn more about Jacob and his family. Jacob worked for their father, Laban for 20 years.  Jacob told Laban he wanted to leave and asked for wages for the time worked. Jacob said that the animals had done well under his care. They came to an agreement and Jacob picked the animals from Laban’s flock that he wanted.

Jacob told Leah and Rachel that God talked to him and told him to go back to his birthplace in Canaan.  In the morning, they prepared to leave. Jacob gathered up everything that was theirs, including all the animals that he had earned working for Laban. The whole family rode camels to travel back to Jacob’s home.

Laban didn't want Jacob to take his daughters and grandchildren away from him, so Jacob snuck away in the morning while Laban was out in the field sheering the sheep.

Laban caught up with Jacob and his family while they were traveling and, even though Laban wasn't happy that they were leaving, Laban and Jacob made an agreement not to argue about it.

It was an interesting trip! Jacob was told that his brother Esau was close by with a lot of people. That terrified Jacob because he was afraid that Esau still wanted to kill him because Jacob had tricked Esau.

That night, Jacob sent everyone, including his eleven sons, across the river ahead of him. That left Jacob alone.

During the night, Jacob wrestled with a Man! (Genesis 32:24) And in the morning, Jacob said, “It’s morning, let’s quit.” Jacob found out it was an angel he’d been wrestling with! The angel said that Jacob's name wouldn’t be Jacob anymore, it would be Israel now.

(Original text means angel, messenger from God. This is one of the scriptures that I use to teach the children that angels do not have wings. If the angel had wings, Jacob would have felt them and known who he was wrestling. Cherubim and Seraphim's being different from an angel. Since the word angel means messenger, and they did/do different jobs than being a messenger for God. And, BTW, all the angels in the Bible are men.)

When Jacob looked up, he saw Esau! But Esau told him not to worry; he had enough and didn’t want anything from Jacob. Everyone was brought before Esau, and he met Jacob’s family. They left in peace and stopped in Bethel, where Jacob had the dream on his way to visit Laban. Just after that, Rachel gave birth to Jacob's last son. She died but the baby lived, and Jacob named him Benjamin. Jacob traveled farther and pitched his tent. (chap. 35)

Click here to download the updated visuals.

Visuals include when Jacob leaves home and has his family in Genesis 28-30.

All are not shown.

Click here to download the pictures to color.
(These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)

Click here to download the updated visuals for Genesis 31-33.

Visuals include Jacob leaving Laban's with his family, meeting Esau again and his name change.

 Not all are shown.

Click here to download the pictures to color.

Click on the family chart to download.

Jacob had 12 sons and one daughter. Her name was Dinah. One of the sons was named Joseph. Moses finishes up the book of Genesis with the life of him. We will study Joseph the next couple of weeks.

There are choices for today's project. You can print the above file folder game. The choices for this are whether or not you want the sons numbered. The cards are the same for the FFG and the next project. What you print will depend on how you prefer to use the cards. You can print the FFG here: 

with #'s

w/o #'s

If you do not want a FFG, you can print this version. It has a box to store the cards in. There is also the labeled mats you see in the above left to place the correct cards on, They are in black font and I printed on colored paper. You can print them here:

with #'s  

W/O #'s

This is a worksheet for the kids to draw a line from the child to the correct mother. Click on chart to print.

Click here to print.

You can print all the Genesis worksheets here.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Used by permission.

Here is the cut & glue worksheet that can be used by itself, or with the lapbook printables.

Here are the lapbook printables:
lapbook #1
Lapbook #2
Lapbook #3

See all the Genesis cut and paste worksheets and lapbook printables here.

I have another post with ideas and printables for the 12 Sons/12 Tribes. You can find it here.