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                Life of Jacob E-Mail Bible Study
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           Week 2 - MEETING - Genesis 27:41 - 28:22

Jacob flees his brother, encounters God in a dream, hears God's
blessing, and makes a commitment to serve God.

MONDAY
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LEVEL 1: OBSERVATION QUESTIONS. WHAT DOES THE TEXT SAY?
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1.1  What is Rebekah's role in getting Jacob out of town?

1.2  What more do we learn in this passage about Esau's character
and values?

TUESDAY
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LEVEL 2: INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS. WHAT DOES THE TEXT MEAN?
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2.1  What is the significance of Jacob receiving the blessing of
Genesis 28:3-4?  How does it compare to the blessing of 27:27-29?
To the blessing of 26:2-5 and 17:4-8?  What elements do they have
in common?

2.2  What elements do the blessings in 28:13-15 have in common
with others. Which elements are new?

WEDNESDAY
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2.3  Why do you think it was important that Jacob not marry a
Canaanite woman? Important to Rebekah? Important to God? (Hint:
see Exodus 34:16; but also Genesis 31:19.)

2.4  What did "Jacob's Ladder" signify to Jacob? (see vss. 12, 17)
What does Bethel mean? (See footnotes in your Bible.)  What does
it take to make a place a Beth-el these days?

COMMENT: Some think that a better translation of vss. 11 and 18 is
that the stone was "at his head" rather than "under his head" like
a pillow, though we can't be sure.

2.5  What is the significance of this stone in Jacob's act of
worship?  (See also vss. 18, 22; 31:13, 45, 51; 35:14; Exodus
24:4; Joshua 24:26-27.)

THURSDAY
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2.6  What is the significance of anointing the stone with oil?
(See Leviticus 8:10). What similarity does this anointing of the
stone have with anointing priests, kings, and The King? (Hint:
look up in a dictionary the derivation of the words "Christ" and
"Messiah".)

2.7  What is the significance of Jacob promising to God a tithe?
(See 1 Samuel 8:7ff, 15.) To whom did Abraham tithe? Why? (Genesis
14:18-20)

2.8  EXTRA CREDIT ONLY: To whom did the Israelites tithe? (Numbers
18:24-29)  What did this tithe have to do with kingship?

2.9  Argue either for or against this proposition: "Jacob had a
conversion experience at Bethel." If you agree, how important to
Jacob's conversion was the pledge to tithe?

2.10  EXTRA CREDIT ONLY: What specific parts of "the blessing of
Abraham" belong to Christians today? (See Luke 3:8-9; Galatians
3:6-14, 26-29.)

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LEVEL 3: APPLICATION QUESTIONS. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME?
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FRIDAY
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3.1  Have you ever just happened to be in a "certain place" (vs.
11) in which you found unexpectedly that God was there and you
didn't know it? Please tell us about it.

3.2  Of course, we are not under the Old Testament law today
(Romans 7:4; Galatians 3:23-25), but many Christians give a
"tithe" or more to the Lord. What relationship does tithing have
to YOUR conversion? To YOUR discipleship? To YOUR submission to
the Kingdom of God?

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Copyright 1997-98, Ralph F. Wilson, all rights reserved. Joyful
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