Genesis 24–33: Lesson 31

Genesis 28

Covenants with the Lord

After his life was threatened by his brother Esau, Jacob was directed by his parents to travel to his mother’s homeland to find a wife. While journeying, he had a vision that led him to enter into the Abrahamic covenant with God. This lesson can help students feel an increased desire to make covenants with God in the temple.

Student preparation: Consider inviting students to review the promises of the Abrahamic covenant (Abraham 2:8–11). Students could be encouraged to try and explain to a member of their family about the Abrahamic covenant and why it is important to them.

Possible Learning Activities

Why covenants?

You could begin class by displaying a picture of a temple and singing the Primary song “I Love to See the Temple” (Children’s Songbook, 95).

Then display the following prompt. Invite students to select the statement that is most true of them. Alternatively, you could share only the first part of the prompt, and students could finish the statement in a sentence or two that accurately reflects their feelings and thoughts.

When I think about going to the temple in the future to make covenants with God, I:

• Don’t know what to think. I don’t think about it very much.

• Get excited. I really look forward to that day.

• Am a little nervous. I don’t know what to expect.

• Don’t see much of a point to it.

Give students time to write their responses. Invite them to seek inspiration from the Holy Ghost during the lesson. The Holy Ghost can help them appreciate the importance of making covenants with God.

Jacob’s dream

Invite students to write the following incomplete truth in their study journals. You could also write it on the board and add to it throughout the lesson.

In this lesson, you will study about Jacob in Genesis 28. In Genesis 28:3–4, 12–20, God established a covenant with Jacob, which Jacob accepted. From this account, we can learn important lessons about the value of making covenants with God. As you study this lesson, look for ways to complete this truth: As we make and keep covenants with God, He will …

Ask students to share what they remember about the covenant the Lord made with Abraham. For specific details on this covenant, see Lesson 23: “Genesis 12, 17.” After students share, summarize the following paragraph in your own words.

Although Jacob was Abraham’s grandson, he may have felt like the blessings of Abraham’s covenant were out of reach for him. Jacob had not yet married in the covenant. Also, conflict over the birthright and blessing had led Esau to want to take Jacob’s life (Genesis 27:41). To protect Jacob and ensure he had the opportunity to marry in the covenant, Jacob’s parents instructed him to leave home and journey several hundred miles to his mother’s homeland (see Genesis 27:42–46; 28:1–2). This journey would take Jacob far away from Canaan, the land the birthright promised him.

Read Genesis 28:10–15, looking for what Jacob experienced one night during his journey.

Consider inviting students to draw a picture of what Jacob saw in his dream. Students could share their drawings with a partner and explain what stood out to them from the verses.

You might then display the following image as one depiction of the vision.

• What promises from the Abrahamic covenant did the Lord offer Jacob in these verses?

• What additional promises did the Lord give Jacob in verse 15?

  You could invite students to add these additional promises to their truth. You might list possible responses on the board. Responses might include be with us, protect and care for us, not leave us.

• Why do you think these promises might have been particularly meaningful to Jacob at this time?

To help students better understand these promises, invite them to complete the following activity in pairs or small groups. You might want to encourage students to look for additional scriptures or statements that confirm these promises.

Study the following scriptures and statement, looking for how they deepen your understanding of the promises the Lord made to Jacob.

John 14:18

Acts 17:27 (note the Joseph Smith Translation)

Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said:

As you walk the covenant path, from baptism to the temple and throughout life, I promise you power to go against the natural worldly flow—power to learn, power to repent and be sanctified, and power to find hope, comfort, and even joy as you face life’s challenges. I promise you and your family protection against the influence of the adversary, especially when you make the temple a major focus in your life. (“Accessing God’s Power through Covenants,” Liahona, May 2023, 37)

It might be helpful for students to understand that making covenants does not spare us from challenges in life. However, Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught that these covenants do provide “our greatest hope for avoiding avoidable misery on the one hand and successfully dealing with the unavoidable woes of life on the other” (“Why the Covenant Path,” Liahona, May 2021, 117).

• Which of these promises are most meaningful to you?

Jacob’s feelings about his experience

It might be helpful to display the following passage and questions. Invite students to read and discuss in pairs or small groups. (Consider sharing with students that the words “afraid” and “dreadful” show that Jacob was in awe. “Dreadful” is better translated as “awe-inspiring.”)

Read Genesis 28:16–21, looking for Jacob’s reaction to his experience.

• What feelings about the Lord do you see Jacob expressing?

• How might these feelings motivate him to make a covenant with the Lord?

  After students have had time to discuss, you could invite a few to share with the class what they learned.

  Providing opportunities for students to share with each other what they are learning can increase their confidence in participating in gospel conversations. For additional training on how to encourage students to share with others, see “Encourage learners to share the truths they are learning” in Teacher Development Skills. (Teaching in the Savior’s Way [2022], 35)

• What words or phrases from verses 16–21 could relate to modern-day temples?

Students might point out words or phrases like “surely the Lord is in this place” (verse 16); “the house of God” and “the gate of heaven” (verse 17); “Beth-el” (verse 19), which means “house of God” (see footnote 19a); and “vowed a vow” (verse 20). You might want to invite students to mark these phrases in their scriptures.

Students could add to their drawings of the vision by writing “house of God,” “gate of heaven,” or “temple” somewhere near the bottom of the ladder.

Making covenants with the Lord

Invite students to do the following activity in their study journals. It might be helpful to tell students that they will reflect on these responses in a future lesson. Students will use what they write here to complete an assessment activity in Lesson 37: “Assess Your Learning 2.”

To prepare students to write their responses, you might want to share the following paragraph in your own words.

As Jacob left his parents’ home and set out on his own, he made covenants with God. God promised to be with, care for, and protect Jacob. In a few short years, you will face many choices about what to do next in your life. Among these decisions will be the opportunity to make covenants with God in the temple. Think about this time in your future as you respond to the following questions in your study journal:

• What promised blessings have you experienced from striving to keep your covenants with God or by serving in the temple?

• What situations might you face in the future where you would benefit from the care and protection God promises to people who make covenants with Him?

Consider sharing your testimony of how you have experienced the promises associated with making and keeping covenants with the Lord.

Additional Resources

What could the ladder that Jacob saw represent?

President Marion G. Romney explained:

The covenants [Jacob] made with the Lord there were the rungs on the ladder that he himself would have to climb in order to obtain the promised blessings—blessings that would entitle him to enter heaven and associate with the Lord. (“Temples—the Gates to Heaven,” Ensign, Mar 1971, 16)

What are additional blessings for making and keeping covenants?

President Russell M. Nelson shared:

Those who keep their covenants with God will become a strain of sin-resistant souls! Those who keep their covenants will have the strength to resist the constant influence of the world. …

Making a covenant with God changes our relationship with Him forever. It blesses us with an extra measure of love and mercy. It affects who we are and how God will help us become what we can become. (“The Everlasting Covenant,” Liahona, Oct. 2022, 8, 10)

Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

By making and keeping temple covenants, we learn more about the Lord’s purposes and receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost. We receive direction for our lives. We mature in our discipleship so that we do not remain perpetual, unknowing children. Rather, we live with an eternal perspective and are more motivated to serve God and others. We receive increased capacity to fulfill our purposes in mortality. We are protected from evil, and we gain greater power to resist temptation and to repent when we stumble. When we falter, the memory of our covenants with God helps us return to the path. By connecting to God’s power, we [are] able to go against the flow of the world, throughout our lives and into the eternities. Ultimately, our destinies are changed because the covenant path leads to exaltation and eternal life. (“Accessing God’s Power through Covenants,” Liahona, May 2023, 36)

Why do covenants matter?

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles stated:

Some might say, “I can make good choices with or without baptism; I don’t need covenants to be an honorable and successful person.” Indeed, there are many who, while not on the covenant path themselves, act in a way that mirrors the choices and contributions of those who are on the path. You might say they reap the blessings of walking a “covenant-consistent” path. What, then, is the difference of the covenant path?

Actually, the difference is uniquely and eternally significant. It includes the nature of our obedience, the character of God’s commitment to us, the divine help we receive, the blessings tied to gathering as a covenant people, and most importantly, our eternal inheritance. (“Why the Covenant Path,” Liahona, May 2021, 117)

Supplemental Learning Activities

Alternative beginning

You could begin class by drawing two people on the board. You might give them names. Under one person, write, “Feels strongly about the value of their covenants with God.” Under the second person, write, “Feels that covenants don’t really matter.”

• Why do you think each person might feel the way they do about covenants?

• How might their feelings about covenants impact their immediate and their eternal future?

“Nearer, My God, to Thee”

The hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” (Hymns, no. 100) is based on the events in Genesis 28. Consider singing this hymn at the start of class or at another time in class. Students might also benefit from looking over the lyrics of the hymn and relating them to Jacob’s experience. You might invite students to follow along with the words as they listen to the following rendition of the song.

The connection between ordinances and covenants

Your students might benefit from understanding the connection between ordinances and covenants. Consider choosing an ordinance, discussing the physical actions it involves, and identifying the accompanying covenants. For example, in the ordinance of baptism by immersion, a person promises to lay down their sinful self through repentance and come forth as a covenant disciple of Jesus Christ. You could then read and discuss the following.

President Russell M. Nelson taught Church leaders about the purpose of ordinances:

[God] has and always will direct how ordinances are to be performed so that we can understand and internalize our covenants with Him. (leadership session of 189th Semiannual General Conference, Oct. 2, 2019)

• How can ordinances help us understand and internalize our covenants?

The importance of covenants

If your students could benefit from further discussion about the importance of covenants with God, consider sharing the statement from Elder D. Todd Christofferson in Additional Resources.

You could then divide students into groups of five. The complete version of Elder Christofferson’s talk contains five sections. You could give a copy of each section to group members so that each person has a different section of the talk. You might trim longer sections. Invite students to study their assigned section and to prepare to share with their group what they learned about the importance of covenants.

Alternatively, you could divide the entire class into five groups, and you could assign each group a different section of the talk.

You can find Elder Christofferson’s talk here.