Blessed are the Peacemakers

Our story:

We have been talking a lot about Israel's history…originally Israel was a person. God gave him the name Israel, which means, "He strives with God." But his birth name was Jacob, which means "grabber." Neither one sounds like the name of a peacemaker, does it?!

Jacob was actually one of twins. He was the younger of the two, & his older brother was named Esau. (choose smaller boy as Jacob, bigger boy as Esau) The two boys did not get along very well. One reason was that Jacob was always tricking Esau! (two boys sit with bowls of food. Jacob points, Esau looks, Jacob steals food.) Jacob made him so mad that Esau wanted to kill him! So he ran away to his ancestral country. (Jacob runs away) While he was away, Jacob got married. He wanted to marry Rachel (choose one girl), but because of custom, he ended up having to marry her older sister as well (choose older girl or woman). And then, they didn't have children as fast as they would have liked, so he ended up taking two concubines as well. (two more girls) Well, they needn't have worried! Jacob ended up with twelve sons! (distribute 11 dolls to each girl according to number; explain that Rachel only has one so far at this point in story)*

Jacob was a shepherd. He had a lot of sheep and goats (have kids help post pictures of flocks of sheep & goats on walls). (Ask all): So, do you suppose Jacob was pretty content? Actually, he missed his home and wanted to go back. But he was still kind of afraid of his older brother. So when he planned to go home, he sent a servant ahead to let his brother know he was coming. (choose boy to go tell Esau) Esau responds: Okay, if he is coming back, then my friends and I are going to meet him! (Esau chooses two more boys/men & all three take swords)(servant reports back)

Jacob is really afraid now! So he prays (kneels down, clasps hands) and God gives him an idea (gets up). First, he chooses some servants and puts them in charge of part of his flocks (one picture of sheep, one picture of goats, to each of two boys) Next, he says, if Esau is really determined to harm me, I hope he will harm me first and not my family. So he lines them all up for the trip: the concubines with their children first, then Leah with her children, and finally Rachel and her son. (line girls up accordingly) He puts himself in front of them. But he sends his servants on ahead to give the flocks to Esau as a present. (servants bring pictures to Esau) Esau is very impressed. Here this brother who used to always steal from him is now giving him presents! Wow, God must have really changed his heart. Maybe we can really be friends like brothers should be from now on! (Esau & men throw down their swords)

So when they meet, instead of attacking Jacob, Esau hugs Jacob. (they hug) After that they were not enemies any more.

 

*I didn't want to buy eleven dolls for this occasion. I have been saving paper towel rolls in case we need them for a craft in the future, so each "son" was a cardboard tube with a face attached. It worked fine, and was cheap!

 

We had a little extra fun with this story because we ended up choosing a Jacob who was genuinely afraid of the designated Esau. He played the "I'm nervous about what my brother might do to me" scenes VERY convincingly! Getting them to hug was impossible. Jacob blew Esau a kiss from a safe distance! Finally they were persuaded to shake hands.

 

For our game, we had the Jacob team and the Esau team racing to meet each other in the middle as they rolled velcro-hook balls along velcro-loop tracks. Turned out almost too easy, but everyone seemed to like it. Craft was doves of peace from a children's craft website.

 

It was NOT a super "peaceful" morning though. Many little glitches; the main one being that while Grandma Si was out of her chair, Si Wa Hon got hold of her reading glasses and broke them deliberately into pieces before we realized what he was doing. Grandma said that is the third pair he has broken already. He also has a thing about cutting buttons and collars off family members' clothing if he gets his hands on a pair of scissors. If you're reading this, please pray for God's mercy on this situation!!

 

In the meantime, a relatively new mom, Mrs. Sam, is asking some really good questions about what it means to live as a Christian. That's exciting. It's also another one of these frustrating situations where she works fulltime and then has the family to take care of when she's home. Not a lot of time to do personal work with her. Pray for her too! Thank you!