Journey - Jacob
AGE: Secondary |
THEME: Journey - Jacob |
SUGGESTED APPROACH: |
| For a more dramatic presentation, this material could be reordered. If there are good actors among the students, they could start by a brief role play of family disagreement ending with one boy leaving the house in a fury. You could then make the link to the universal and ageless problems of family jealousies and disagreements, illustrated by Jacob, and how they send us on unexpected journeys through life. |
DEVELOPMENT: |
| Jacob is one of the key personalities in the Old Testament. His story takes up half the book of Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament. He was the son of Isaac and Rebekah; the younger twin brother of Esau; husband of Leah and Rachel and father of the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel. One of his sons was Joseph, of Technicolor Dreamcoat fame. So it was quite a family. Jacob's life was far from straightforward. To begin with, there was his name - it comes from the Hebrew word for 'heel' or 'he cheats, supplants'. Not very auspicious you might say. He didn't get on well with his twin brother either, because he was his mother's favourite while his father favoured Esau. This was further complicated by the fact of birthright, the special privileges belonging to the eldest male child. It could make quite a difference - for example if there were two sons in a family the inheritance was divided into three and the elder son got two thirds. Considering Esau was Jacob's twin brother, this must have been quite hard to swallow. Then there was the question of the very special, unchangeable blessing that the father gave the eldest son. One way and another it just didn't seem fair. Eventually the resentment came to a head and Jacob, with the help of his mother, tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing instead of Esau. You can guess what happened when they were found out. Jacob fled from the fury and ran away from home. Just about all of us can recognize Jacob's situation. Bad mistakes are made, people important to us get furious and upset. There are times when the best way out seems to be to run away. Sometimes we're gone for an hour or two - or a day - before returning home. Some people leave and their life falls apart. They're on the streets, exploited, ill, friendless... It wasn't how they planned it at all. Jacob was at risk when he left home. But shortly after setting out he had a different experience. He learnt something that was to be important to him for the rest of his life. [Read Genesis 28:10-22]. This vision had a great effect on Jacob - even if he hadn't been what you might call angelic himself. It wasn't easy, he'd had a great mental struggle and he made plenty of mistakes in the years that followed, but it was worth it. He recognized his own responsibilities to God and somehow that was all part of recognizing that God was interested in him and cared for him. It was all part of his journey towards being his true self. |
READING: |
| Genesis 28:10-22 |
REFLECTION: |
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[Play music quietly in the background] Invite people to think about their reaction when they make mistakes: Do they blame someone else? Do they deny their responsibility? In some ways this is 'running away'. Whose opinions do they value? How does the opinion of that person help shape them for good? We pray for those who have lost a sense of meaning in their lives... For those who have no sense of value... For people who have no home... And for all those who care and work for the loveless and the lost as they journey through life. |
MUSIC: |
| Some gentle music to be played quietly during the reflection - e.g. a slow version of the spiritual 'We are climbing Jacob's Ladder'. |