=Suggestions to the teacher.= Inasmuch as the moral of this story is dependent on an understanding of the motives on which the characters act, take particular pains to make your dramatic impersonation of the characters as realistic as possible and not to delay the movement of the plot by lengthy moralizing. This story, like the preceding one of the sale of the birthright, lends itself very well to dramatization by the class, and the success of the children in assuming the roles of the different characters will be an excellent test of your success in imparting the story.
Though one should avoid moralizing in such a way as would interrupt the thread of the narrative, the very complexity of the motives of the characters gives a good opportunity to ask such questions as would necessitate the exercise of moral judgment on the part of the class, as for instance: Was Jacob right in trying to get the blessing from his father by taking advantage of his blindness? Was Jacob punished for having deceived his father? How? etc. But though the teacher may raise these questions, they must not be left open questions. The Biblical moral must be kept clearly in mind and convincingly presented; otherwise such questions merely develop a casuistical attitude on the part of the class, which is morally bad.
=Interpretation.= The story of Jacob's dream, in order to be clearly understood, should be considered in connection with the rest of Jacob's life. His life may be divided into three periods. During the first period, spent in his father's home, he endeavors by his own efforts, partly through unscrupulous means, to secure the birthright and blessing, with the result that instead of having the preeminence over Esau he must flee before him, instead of inheriting the Promised Land he is an exile from it, and instead of becoming the father of a great people he becomes subject to the tribe which his grandfather Abraham had been commanded to leave.
The second period of Jacob's life embraces his abode in Aramea. During this period, his early ambitions become more and more remote and unreal. First love, then the raising of his family and hard labor in the service of Laban draw his mind from his earlier ambitions, and it is with reference to this period that we are told, "A wandering Aramean was my father". (Deuteronomy 26.5.) But just when it would seem that the hope with regard to his future, which he had tried at first in vain to realize and had then almost abandoned, was wholly lost, God intervenes to send him once more to his land.