Use the story of Jacob’s ladder to teach kids that God always keeps His promises! This detailed lesson plan about God’s promise to Jacob makes teaching the Bible easy for you, but interesting, understandable, & memorable for kids—perfect for your Sunday School or family Bible time! Scroll down to read the lesson plan.

God is not a liar!

“God is not a man, that He should lie,

Nor a son of man, that He should repent.

Has He said, and will He not do?

Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

(Numbers 23:19 NKJV)

When God says He’ll do something, He sticks by it. And God demonstrated this faithfulness in the life of Jacob.

Jacob had tricked and lied to his brother and his father. As a result, his brother Esau angrily threatened to kill Jacob. And so Jacob had to flee from his family and his home.

It probably seemed to Jacob that God wasn’t doing anything for him. But God keeps His promises. And Jacob found that out when God met him in a strange dream about a ladder.

Use Jacob’s story to teach your kids the same truth that Jacob learned—God always keeps His promises!

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Expanded Bible Lesson Plan
for God’s Promise to Jacob {Jacob’s Ladder}

Introduction

• Using an Introduction Activity (something similar to this activity), remind kids of the crisis Jacob created with his father and brother. Introduce kids to how Esau reacted to Jacob’s deceit and trickery.
• How would you feel if someone tricked you, lied to you, and stole from you? (Allow the kids to answer—they should say things like “mad” or “upset.”)
• On a whiteboard, draw a large circle. Inside the circle draw eyes and a frowning mouth. Draw two slashes in a V shape over the eyes to make mad eyebrows.

Jacob’s Flight

• After Jacob tricked Esau and Isaac, and stole Esau’s birthright and blessing, Esau was extremely angry—so angry, in fact, that he started plotting to kill Jacob!
  • But Jacob and Esau’s mother found out about Esau’s threat. She called Jacob and warned him that Esau wanted to kill him. “Arise,” she said, “flee to my brother Laban” (Genesis 27:43)!
  • So Jacob ended up fleeing from his family and his home—and his brother Esau.
• Was God breaking His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
  • He’d promised Abraham that He would give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants. But now Jacob was fleeing for his life from that land—back to the land Abraham had come from.
  • He’d also promised that Jacob would become stronger than Esau, and that Esau would serve Jacob. But now Jacob was so afraid of what Esau might do to him that he was running away from Esau.
  • Even though God had made those promises, it didn’t seem like He was doing anything about them! He didn’t seem to be taking action to fulfill them. In fact, things were just getting worse and worse for Jacob.
  • Erase the mad face from the whiteboard. Draw a large question mark at the top of the whiteboard.

Jacob’s Night

• As Jacob traveled away from his home, toward his mother’s homeland, the sun set. So Jacob took a stone and laid it at his head, and got ready to spend the night.
  • After he fell asleep, Jacob started to dream! And he dreamed about something crazy—he dreamed about a ladder that reached all the way to heaven, and in his dream he saw angels going up and down on the ladder.
  • Under the question mark, draw a ladder. You can simply draw two parallel vertical lines with a few horizontal lines for rungs.
  • If you saw a ladder to heaven, what do you think would be at the top of that ladder? (Allow kids to answer.)
  • In Jacob’s dream, at the top of the ladder was God Himself!
  • God started talking to Jacob. In fact, God repeated all the promises He’d made to Abraham and to Isaac!
    • God promised Jacob that He would give him the land where he was sleeping.
    • God promised that He would give Jacob lots of descendants.
    • And God promised that He would be with Jacob, would take care of Jacob, and would bring Jacob back to the land again. He said, “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:15 NKJV).
    • Hold up a printout of the verse and say it out loud with the kids several times. You can use motions to help the kids remember and understand it.
  • When Jacob woke up, he was amazed by what he had dreamed. He realized that God had given him a personal encouragement.
  • Jacob had sinned, and now he was facing the consequences. But God still reassured Jacob that He would keep the promises He’d already made—and He even made new ones to Jacob!
  • Erase the question mark from the whiteboard. Draw a checkmark above the ladder on the whiteboard.

Conclusion & Review

• Even though it had seemed like God wasn’t doing anything to keep His promises, He actually still planned to keep His word.
• God never fails to keep His word, even when it seems like He isn’t taking action yet.
• Use Review Questions, a Group Discussion, and an Application Activity to help your kids think about how to personally apply the principles from this lesson. Depending on the size of your group, you can do these either as a whole group, or in small groups.

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Teach kids that God always intends to keep His promises.

It may have seemed to Jacob that God wasn’t keeping His promises. But just when Jacob was at a low point in his life—running for his life from his own brother—God affirmed His promises to Jacob personally.

God always keeps His promises.

And if your kids understand and believe that truth, it can make all the difference in their lives.

So teach your kids the story of Jacob’s ladder. Teach them the important truth that God always keeps His word.

And seize the chance to potentially make a huge difference in your kids’ lives!

Teach Jacob’s whole story.

If you teach only the story of Jacob’s dream, you’ll miss prime opportunities to emphasize the truth of God’s faithfulness! Throughout Jacob’s entire life, God shows over and over again how He always keeps His word.

So don’t stop with this lesson on Jacob’s ladder. Be sure to teach these stories too:

• Jacob’s mother – get a free printable lesson outline for the story of Isaac & Rebekah
• Jacob & Esau – check out the attention-grabbing Introduction Activity for this lesson

And happy teaching! 😀

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