And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, If I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
Genesis 30:27.
- Collateral Cruises and Crises
Sometimes we are blessed for another’s sake, or cursed for another’s sake. Everyone carries a presence; a right or wrong presence, which often follows them to wherever they are allowed. The Presence that followed Jacob blessed his boss; the Presence that followed Abraham cursed the palace of the kings who forcefully took advantage of his weakness (Genesis 12:17; 20:1-3). Laban “learned by experience,” by observation, that while Jacob ‘tarried’ with him, he was collaterally benefitted by the Presence that followed that guest. His businesses attracted the blessed intervention of the Spirit Force that followed Jacob, just as it might have been disrupted if what followed that guest into his house had been a negative force. Once upon a time, there was Jonah in a good boat, and Achan in a winning team (Jonah 1:7; Joshua 7:26).
When Laban made his careful discovery, he quickly committed all that he had into Jacob’s hands, so that he could make the most of the benevolent Presence that followed that guest turned staff. Wise man. He had “learned by experience,” by practical means, that success was a factor not merely of personal hard work and ‘good business sense’ but also of psychic interventions attracted by oneself or one’s acquaintances and staff. Once upon a time, there was CEO Job and his episodes of collateral casualties (Job 1:11-19; 42:12).
Jacob had had a remarkable Spirit-encounter at a sacred location where that Ancestral Spirit had pledged a PERPETUAL PRESENCE from present time to indefinite future, saying, “I am with thee” now, “and will,” in the future, “keep thee.” Jacob was promised a Presence-without-borders, to follow him doggedly “in ALL PLACES whither thou goest” (Genesis 28:15). Mark “all places” – palaces or dungeons, local or foreign lands. Jacob was thus to become a contagious ‘carrier,’ not of a disease but of a presence; a benevolent Presence, which he spread wherever he went; a Presence whose effects people contracted through contact with him in the places where he tarried; a Presence beyond detection by natural scanners and radars. In other words, to let Jacob into a place was to also let in What followed him.
Jesus was later to re-echo the same carrier-principle when He said, “He that receiveth you receiveth me….” In other words, you carry Me wherever you go, and whoever lets you in, unconsciously also lets Me in; whoever grants you access grants access also to What follows you. I will be the unseen spirit-side of your felt physical presence anywhere you go, for “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:19-20; 10:40-41; John 13:20; Mark 9:37).
- A Generational Legacy-Presence
About thirty-five years later, whatever was following Jacob was also following Joseph his son in another foreign land. That Presence had become a generational legacy that would not be deterred by international boundaries. Accordingly, we read thus about Joseph in Egypt:
- And the LORD was WITH JOSEPH, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
- And HIS MASTER SAW that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.
- And it came to pass FROM THE TIME that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house FOR JOSEPH’S SAKE; and THE BLESSING OF THE LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field(Genesis 39:2,3,5).
According to verse 3 above, the young Joseph was already being called a man, “a prosperous man.” The Presence that followed him promoted him ahead of his years. He was yet a young servant, not a master; even then, he was so prospered that his master noticed it, and proceeded to commit everything he had into that servant’s hands, if only to attract the Presence that followed the servant. Another wise man.
What followed Joseph was a noticeable presence; a Presence that “his master saw”; a Presence that was potent not only ‘back home’ where his father was, but everywhere the seeds of that covenant family went. Maybe we would say that Joseph carried a holy micro-chip in himself; a Sprit-chip that often kept him in the radar of the gracious Monitoring Spirit.
Before Joseph, and before his father Jacob, the Spirit that followed him had said to Isaac his grandfather, “I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I AM WITH THEE, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant ABRAHAM’S SAKE” (Genesis 26:24). It could be told “by experience” across generations – consecutively from Abraham down to Joseph, that Something often followed this household; Something good and powerful that couldn’t be restricted by national or international borders; Something traceable from great-grandpa. In the New Testament also, Apostle Paul similarly noticed something in Timothy his protégé; something spanning three generations, that began from grandmother through mother to Timothy; a peculiar and profound mystic trans-generational quality of life called “unfeigned faith” (2 Timothy 1:5).
From The Preacher’s diary,
October 10, 2022.
