Rotation.org Writing Team

JACOB AND ESAU

COOKING WORKSHOP

PART ONE

PASSAGES

Story

Genesis 25:19-34
Genesis 27:1-35
Genesis 27:41-43

Key/Memory verse:

Genesis 28:16

PURPOSE

Objectives for Cooking Workshop

Explore why Esau traded his birthright for a bowl of lentil potage.
Consider how Jacob (and Rebekah) deceived Isaac into giving Jacob Esau’s blessing

PREPARATION

Materials List

2 cups lentils
4 cups chicken bouillon
2 cups chopped onions
4 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt
Pita bread
Equipment for chopping onions: use glass jars that have a chopping blade attached to the lid (safe for even young children to use and they love to chop!)
Measuring cup and spoons
Casserole dish
Pan
Wooden bowls
Wooden spoon

Advance Preparation Requirements

This workshop assumes that the teacher will prepare the stew before class (3 hours soaking and 2 hours cooking time) and the class will “assemble” the ingredients for the next class. Then the teacher will cook those ingredients for next week.

Alternative to advance cooking

Purchase lentil soup.

Use the "cooking" time to set the table. Use wooden bowls and only 1 wooden spoon for serving. Remember that the ancients (and many in the Middle East today) use pieces of bread as utensils.

Recipe

Soak lentils in bouillon for 3 hours at room temperature. In large pot, bring them to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 1 hour. In the meantime, sauté the onions in 1 tablespoon of oil until clear. Add additional oil and salt. Place all in a casserole and bake covered at 325o for 1 hour. Refrigerate and reheat for class.

PRESENTATION

Open - Introduction

Discuss your favorite foods. Discuss times when you were really hungry. Have you ever been so hungry you would give up something very valuable for some food.

Food was even more important in ancient times because they had to do everything themselves: grow vegetables, hunt meat, bake bread, and so forth -- EVERY DAY. There weren’t any restaurants or fast food places where they could stop for a quick drive through. They had to make everything they ate and there were no refrigerators to store any leftovers.

Read, tell or re-tell with help from your students the Bible story. Discuss the differences between Jacob and Esau: Jacob enjoyed working at home with his mother; Esau was a hunter and out in the fields all day.

Heat up the potage (lentil stew). Imagine how hungry Esau was and how good the stew smelled to him. Keep waiting for your taste.

Prepare the potage for the next class. Measure and soak the lentils (keep them in a covered jar or casserole). Chop the onions. (An older class could also sauté the onions.)

Finally serve the heated potage by dipping pieces of pita bread into the stew. Remember that our Biblical friends had very few utensils and usually used their bread as a combined spoon and fork!

While you’re enjoying your stew, talk about how Jacob tricked Isaac into giving him the blessing. Then what happened? It didn’t turn out to be such a blessing after all because Esau was so angry that Jacob had to leave home for years and years in order to escape for Esau’s murderous anger. These two brothers have a lot to learn about how God expects families to treat each other.

Clean up and participate in your closing ritual. Pray especially for families who struggle to care for each other.

SOURCES

Smith, Jeff. The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast, Past, Present and Future; Recipes and Stories That Explain How the Ancient Table May be Celebrated in Our Time and How Food Functions as Theological Talk in the Bible. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1995.

A fascinating quote from Rev. Smith, aka “The Frug”

“Starvation and hunger were daily problems of nomadic life on the desert; and it was quite a regular event. Surely hunger can symbolize both the physical and spiritual lack of food. The confession of hunger is probably our first theological lesson, a lesson learned when we were very young. To know hunger is to know that we are in a precarious position, and that we are totally dependent on someone or something apart from ourselves on every level of our lives.” p. 16

CONTRIBUTOR: Anne Camp

Jacob and Esau
Cooking Workshop - Part Two

PASSAGES

Story

Genesis 32:6-12; 22-32 Jacob gets ready to meet Esau
Genesis 33:1-12 Jacob meets Esau

Key/Memory verse:

Genesis 28:16

PURPOSE

See Bible Background.

Objectives for Rotation

See Bible Background.

Objectives for Cooking Workshop

To examine the hurts that both Jacob and Esau experienced; to appreciate fully the alienation.
To celebrate the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau by making Honey Cake.

PREPARATION

Materials List

3 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. instant coffee
1/2 c. boiling water
1 c. honey
1/4 c. vegetable oil
grated peel of one orange
4 large eggs
1 c. sugar
1 c. chopped walnuts (be alert to nut allergies; these can be omitted)
measuring cups and spoons
2 large bowls
13x9x2 pan
waxed paper

Advance Preparation Requirements

Honey Cake must bake for 50 minutes so you will need to have prepared one in advance and use the cake your class assembles for the next week’s class to eat. (Bake the cake the class assembles after class and save it for the following week.)

Alternatives to baked dessert: honey with yogurt, honey with pita bread, dates or figs with honey, yogurt with jam

PRESENTATION

Open - Introduction

Discuss your family celebrations and the ways that food plays an important part in them. What do you do for birthdays? Thanksgiving? Christmas or Christmas Eve? New Year’s Day? Do you have any special food traditions in your family?

I have a vivid personal memory of a time when I was to be punished for some misdeed on Christmas Day. My mother volunteered to punish me and took me to my room. We talked about whatever I had done, but instead of punishing me, she forgave me so that we could all enjoy Christmas dinner together. I don’t remember my sin, but I remember my forgiveness completely. Share personal accounts of forgiveness among family members. Discuss how hurt feelings and anger can make eating together unhappy.

Dig - Main Content

Read, tell or re-tell with help from your students the Bible story. Discuss the different ways Jacob and Esau had caused each other pain. Imagine how they have been feeling about each other over the many years that they have been separated.

Dessert was not common in Biblical times because they did not have processed sugar. They used honey and fruits as their sweeteners.

In the 23rd Psalm David tells us that God “prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.” Jeff Smith (the Frugal Gourmet himself) notes, “You could not eat with your enemies, and there was certainly no way that you were going to put out a table for them. But the Lord, that’s different. The Lord prepares a banquet table that heals the rifts between enemies.” (p. 21)

Reflect – Closure

Clean up and participate in your closing ritual. Pray especially for families who struggle to care for each other.

SOURCES

The following book is a gem and invaluable to anyone who is interested in Biblical cooking:

The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast, Past, Present and Future; Recipes and Stories That Explain How the Ancient Table May be Celebrated in Our Time and How Food Functions as Theological Talk in the Bible by Jeff Smith, William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York: 1995.

CONTRIBUTOR: Anne Camp