Jacob's Ladder Sunday School Lesson for Kids

This free Jacob's Ladder Sunday school lesson teaches kids that God is with them everywhere and keeps His promises. Far from home, Jacob slept with stones for his pillows and dreamed of a ladder that reached to heaven. The LORD said, "I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest" (Genesis 28:15), and Jacob woke saying, "Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not" (28:16). It comes in four age levels, each a separate printable teacher lesson, plus one take-home sheet for families. Everything is in the order you teach it.

Choose your age level

• Preschool (ages 3–5), 20–30 minutes, 2 pages: a pillow-or-rock game and a pretend night, a short story with hand motions and repeat-after-me lines, three simple questions, a shortened memory verse ("I am with thee") with a motion, and a drawing activity.
• Kindergarten to 2nd grade, 45 minutes, 3 pages: the Rock or Pillow? game, the story in simple words, five recall questions with answers, the Ladder Verse memory game on a masking-tape ladder, and a God Is With Me There game.
• 3rd to 5th grade, 45–60 minutes, 3 pages: an Up and Down true-or-false review of Jacob's family, kids look up verses in their own Bibles during a fuller story (why Jacob left home, the ladder, God's four promises, "How dreadful is this place!", the pillar, Jacob's vow), five thinking questions and three recall questions, and a Bible look-up race.
• Preteens (ages 11–12), 45–60 minutes, 3 pages: students read Genesis 28:10–22 out loud themselves, then talk about God's grace to a deceiver on the run, Jacob's "If God will be with me," and Jesus' words in John 1:51. Six discussion questions, a journal page, and two memory verses (Genesis 28:15 and Psalm 139:7).

Lesson at a glance

• Bible passage: Genesis 28:10–22
• Main point: God is with me everywhere I go, and He keeps His promises.
• Memory verse: Genesis 28:15 (KJV), with Psalm 139:7 added for preteens
• Ages: preschool to preteen, in four versions

Lesson outline (the same in every version)

1. Opening game: a short game about sleeping on a stone, going up and down, or feeling alone.
2. Bible story: Jacob leaves Beer-sheba for Haran (Genesis 28:10), stones for his pillows (28:11), the ladder that reached to heaven with the angels of God "ascending and descending on it" (28:12), God's promise "I am with thee" (28:15), "Surely the LORD is in this place" (28:16), the pillar and the oil (28:18), and Bethel (28:19). Every fact has its verse reference so you can check it.
3. Questions to ask: with answers, at the right level for each age.
4. Memory verse: a game or motion to help kids learn Genesis 28:15.
5. What this means for us: God is with you everywhere, God's grace to Jacob, the gospel (Acts 2:38), and a challenge for the week.
6. Activity: the word search, crossword, maze, worksheet, the Jacob's Ladder craft, a God-is-with-me-there game, a Bible look-up race or a journal page, depending on the age.
7. Prayer.

Tips for teaching Jacob's Ladder

• Read Genesis 28:15 straight from your Bible. It is the heart of the story: "I am with thee... I will not leave thee."
• Jacob had just tricked his father, and God still came to him with a promise. Kids who have done wrong need to hear that God's grace reaches them too.
• The Bible says only that "the angels of God" went up and down the ladder and that "the LORD stood above it." The lessons keep to those words.
• Short on time? Do the story, three questions and the memory verse. That is a solid 25-minute lesson.