Written by: Ruth Mills - Church Army

Genesis 28 v 13-15
Then Jacob saw the LORD standing above the ladder, and he said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your grandfather, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are now sleeping. Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will spread west and east, north and south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Notes
What an amazing promise from God that Jacob and his descendants would be given land and that his descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth. It just blows your mind to think about how many people that would be! God made Jacob some wonderful promises too: “I will protect you everywhere you go ... I will not leave you”. These promises are not unlike the ones given to Jacob’s grandfather Abraham back in Genesis 22 v 17: “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. They will be as many as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore”. God was affirming that he was with Jacob just as he was with Abraham. 

However, Jacob had to establish his own personal relationship with God. It was not enough for him to accept the stories of what God had done and said to his grandfather; he had to take it and believe for himself.

Galatians 3 v 6-7 says: “Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that faith made him right with God. So you should know that the true children of Abraham are those who have faith.”

We are given the same promises from God, that he will be always with us. When times are hard it is a great comfort to know that God is with us even if we can’t see him, or even those times when we don’t feel he is near. He promises to be with us if we trust in him.

Do you have a personal relationship with God and embrace what God has given you? Or are you the sort of person that when you hear biblical stories you just take them as stories and nothing more?

Prayer
Dear Lord, help me to remember that you are the God of Abraham and Jacob, and to remember the promises that you made to them. Help me to remember that you will never leave me, even in the rough times, but you will always be near.
Amen

Genesis 28 v 16-19
Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, but I did not know it.” He was afraid and said, “This place frightens me! It is surely the house of God and the gate of heaven.”
Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone he had slept on and set it up on its end. Then he poured olive oil on the top of it. At first, the name of that city was Luz, but Jacob named it Bethel.

Notes
God was in the place where Jacob slept, yet he did not know it. He had come to a place and found a stone to use as a pillow and slept. As he slept he dreamt of angels and of God speaking to him. Not surprising then that he woke and was a little frightened by the experience. Wouldn’t you be scared at seeing God and his angels? Jacob was right to think that God was in that place.

Often in life we find it hard to see that God is there and that he is working in us. However, God promises to be with us always. We think he has left us but he hasn’t and it is only when we look back on our lives that we can see where God has had his hand and how he has been with us and working through us. 

It is like the footprints poem, where a man had a dream that he was walking along a beach with the Lord. In the sky were scenes from his life, and each scene had two sets of footprints in the sand: his and the Lord’s. When he looked back at the end he noticed that at the lowest and saddest times in life there was only one set of prints. When he challenged God about leaving him, the Lord replied, "My precious, precious child, I love you, and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

Prayer
Dear Father, help me to remember that you are always present with me in all that I do. Help me therefore to be honouring to you in what I say and do.
Amen

Genesis 28 v 20-22
Then Jacob made a promise. He said, “I want God to be with me and to protect me on this journey. I want him to give me food to eat and clothes to wear so I will be able to return in peace to my father’s house. If the LORD does these things, he will be my God. This stone which I have set up on its end will be the house of God. And I will give God one-tenth of all he gives me.”

Notes
What do we say when we talk to God? Do you, like me, often forget to thank him for what he’s done and doing for you, and just end up asking him for what you need?

Jacob here seemed to be giving God his little shopping list of what he wanted: God to be with him; protection; food; clothes; and peace in his father’s house when he returned. Only then would he let God be his God. However, the crucial part appears in the last line “I will give God one-tenth of all he gives me”. He actually seemed to be saying that because of God’s blessings he would follow God, and he even pledged to give stuff back to God.

There are various places in the Bible that talk about tithing: what we have and giving it back to God, not unlike Jacob here. If we follow God we are called to do likewise. In such a materialistic world that is not an easy thing to do and it certainly isn’t seen to be trendy.

Have you ever thought about how you spend your money and what you might want to give back to God? Consider what you have compared with those in war-torn countries and with those whose who do not have food. God has been very gracious to many of us so why not consider giving stuff back to him? There are various ways, from supporting Christian charities and missionaries (you may have some connected to your church) to giving up your own time to serve God.

Prayer
Dear Father, you have given me many good gifts. Please help me to consider carefully and prayerfully what I should do with the things that I have and how I can give them back to you.
Amen

Genesis 29 v 1-3
Then Jacob continued his journey and came to the land of the people of the East. He looked and saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying nearby, because they drank water from this well. A large stone covered the mouth of the well. When all the flocks gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place.

Notes 
Here we see a field of sheep ready, with more coming, so the shepherds could feed them once they rolled the stone from the well. It is a lot like us gathering round to listen to what God is saying to us, whether that is at church, a cell group, Christian Union or other Christian group. We often gather together to read the Bible and hear what God is saying - being fed by God through his words.

How often do we sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to what he has to say to us? It’s not always something we find easy to do. Outside pressures often push out our time with God. We find other things to do or other people ask us for things. How often do you actually read your Bible study notes, or how many times do you just put on them on one side and say, “I’ll do it tomorrow”?

What do you need to do to be able to spend more time with God? Do you need to allot a certain time each day when you will read the Bible and pray, or is it just that you need the courage to tell others that you can’t do what they are asking as God is more important? Why not talk to God about it today and create for yourself a pledge of what you intend to do?

Prayer
Dear Lord, thank you that you have given us the Bible so that we can learn more about you and what you have planned for us. May I have the wisdom to discern how I can listen to you more by spending more time with you.
Amen

Genesis 29 v 4-8
Jacob said to the shepherds there, “My brothers, where are you from?”
They answered, “We are from Haran.”
Then Jacob asked, “Do you know Laban, grandson of Nahor?”
They answered, “We know him.”
Then Jacob asked, “How is he?”
They answered, “He is well. Look, his daughter Rachel is coming now with his sheep.”
Jacob said, “But look, it is still the middle of the day. It is not time for the sheep to be gathered for the night, so give them water and let them go back into the pasture.”
But they said, “We cannot do that until all the flocks are gathered. Then we will roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep.”

Notes
In the time of Jacob water was a precious thing as it was in short supply. Therefore, all the shepherds would gather together all their sheep at the same time so that they could all drink together - a bit like a family gathering for a meal.

Today it is often hard to gather family or friends to eat together; it seems to happen less and less. However, it is often then when we do sit down and share together and catch up with what is happening in each other’s lives that we say, “Why don’t we do this more often?” Like a lot of things, it is something else that gets pushed out by our busy lives.

The Last Supper was one of the last times Jesus gathered together with all of his disciples for a meal as a whole group. When communion happens in church, we remember this special time that Jesus shared with his disciples. It is a time when the family of God unite together and have communion with him, remembering what Jesus did for us as well as communing as a family of God. 

Different traditions attach different levels of meaning and ceremony to communion but we are all celebrating the same thing. Jesus came to earth and died on a cross for our sins so that we might have eternal life. 

Often the family of God is divided because we do things differently. We fail to recognise that we are on the same side and all doing it for the same reason, just in a different way. We can gain a lot if we take time to experience and understand different ways of doing things and unite with our brothers and sisters in Christ, instead of falling out with them.

Prayer
Dear Father, thank you that we can come into your presence and gather with you and other Christians. I pray you will be ever close to those who, because of persecution, are not able to do this so freely.
Amen

Genesis 29 v 9-14
While Jacob was talking with the shepherds, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, because it was her job to care for the sheep. When Jacob saw Laban’s daughter Rachel and Laban’s sheep, he went to the well and rolled the stone from its mouth and watered Laban’s sheep. Now Laban was the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s mother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and cried. He told her that he was from her father’s family and that he was the son of Rebekah. So Rachel ran home and told her father.
When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him. Laban hugged him and kissed him and brought him to his house, where Jacob told Laban everything that had happened.
Then Laban said, “You are my own flesh and blood.”
Jacob stayed there a month.

Notes
Was this love at first sight? Jacob greeted Rachel (his cousin) with a kiss. OK, that’s fine. Probably just one of those family kissing in the air jobs. But he then cried. Was this a sign that he was already falling for her and that she was the girl for him?

Once Rachel realised that he was part of the family, she rushed home to tell her father. Jacob got a homecoming like that of a long lost son. Laban rushed out and greeted him with a hug and a kiss. This reminds me of the parable of “the lost son” which Jesus tells in the book of Luke, when the father’s son came home and he ran out and “hugged and kissed him” (Luke 15 v 20).

God is like that too. We often stray from the path we are on in life, and there are times when we are distanced from God, the church and fellow Christians. In Genesis 28 v 15 God promises to be with us. His love is constant, patient and welcoming. When we stray from our walk with God he is always there ready to welcome us back. He never forces us to walk with him, but he is waiting patiently for us to come to him.

Prayer
Dear Lord, thank you for always being there for me and welcoming me back when I have wandered away from you. Please give me the strength to stay with you and not be tempted to follow other paths.
Amen

Genesis 29 v 15-20
Then Laban said to Jacob, “You are my relative, but it is not right for you to work for me without pay. What would you like me to pay you?”
Now Laban had two daughters. The older was Leah, and the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was very beautiful. Jacob loved Rachel, so he said to Laban, “Let me marry your younger daughter Rachel. If you will, I will work seven years for you.”
Laban said, “It would be better for her to marry you than someone else, so stay here with me.” So Jacob worked for Laban seven years so he could marry Rachel. But they seemed like just a few days to him because he loved Rachel very much.

Notes
Have you ever been in love? When you are apart from your loved one the time really drags, but then when you are together the clock just seems to be running at double speed. 

Here Jacob was working for Laban and needed to be paid, as Laban didn’t want him to work for nothing. So he chose the one thing he wanted more than anything: Rachel. It was becoming obvious earlier in the story that he liked her, but this clinches it. And the seven years he pledged to work for Laban flew by because he loved her so much. 

However, in the time of Jacob the man would be expected to give a dowry to the father of the bride-to-be as compensation for him losing his daughter. Jacob did not have any material wealth to offer, so he offered to work for Laban for seven years as a substitute for a dowry.

Would you give up seven years of your life to work for someone so you could then marry their son or daughter? Not something you would think about lightly.

God asks us to give up our worldly life to live a Godly life for him. This is even more of a challenge than Jacob’s. It’s not just giving up a few years but a lifetime. How do you respond to that? Does it scare you or do you long to walk hand in hand with God?

Prayer
Thank you, Lord, that you promise to always be with me. Help me to walk with you each day and not feel scared or reluctant about what I might have to give up to stay walking with you.
Amen


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes