The Gift of Faith and The Laying On of Hands

The Lord said to me,.."I will test my people with a plumbline. Amos 7:8 (TLB)

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The Gift of Faith and The Laying On of Hands

"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff." (Heb. 11: 20-21 )

THE PATRIARCHAL BLESSING We find one of the first instances in the Scriptures of the operation of the gift of faith, in the story of the Patriarchs. In their days, the patriarchal blessing was imparted from father to the son through a special dispensation of faith. In the case of Isaac's blessing his son Jacob, it is clearly evident that the gift of faith was independent of the gift of discernment. For while the blessing was supernaturally imparted, the nearly blind Isaac was unable to discern that it was not Esau who received the blessing, but rather Jacob, his younger brother!

This sacrament of patriarchal blessing, we find mentioned in a number of places in the Old Testament. Sometimes it was administered on the, death-bed as happened in the case of Jacob. The patriarch called his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh to him, and laying his hands upon them gave them his blessing. Guiding his hands wittingly, he placed his right hand upon the younger, and his left upon the elder. Joseph displeased, sought to reverse this, but Jacob replied, "I know it my son, I know it, he also shall become a people, and he also shall become great: But truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations." (Gen. 48: 19) Shortly after this, and just before he died, Jacob gave his special blessing to all of his sons.

There were several things which seem definitely involved in the giving of the patriarchal blessing:

1.    It was an act of special significance, usually performed through the laying on of hands.

2.    The patriarch, in giving the blessing, was so directed by the Spirit of God that his hands went to the right person, though he might even mistake the identity of the one whom he was blessing.

3.    The blessing was usually accompanied by a prophecy relating to events many generations in the future.

4.    The blessing was often given just before death, when the patriarch was about to depart this life.

5.    This patriarchal sacrament apparently foreshadowed special blessings that would be given the saints of God, through the laying on of hands in the New Testament dispensation. In the Old Testament, the blessing was by race, and by national election. In the present Church Age, it is "unto as many as the Lord thy God shall call." (Acts 2:39) ,

The laying on of hands in the Old Testament days, at times went further than ministering the tribal blessing. Moses laid hands on Joshua and he received "the spirit of wisdom." "And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses," (Deut. 34:9) .