The Alpha of Spiritual Legacy

UV3174/10000 The Alpha of Spiritual Legacy
And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it.
Obadiah 1 v 18
Jacob is one of the first people in human history to encounter God and enter into a covenant relationship with the Father. The fire of faith lit up his life despite many adversities. It provided him a sense of direction, warmth of love and the light of truth to transform his formerly deceitful and covetous nature. He had a righteous seed or son in Joseph in whom the flame of faith was lit at an early age. Faith produced righteousness in Joseph. But Jacob’s twin brother Esau cared little for his relationship with the Father. He wanted only his earthly father’s inheritance, not the blessing of the Father in heaven. These models of the patriarchs influence our thinking and our priorities to this day. Esau left no trace of a spiritual legacy while Jacob and Joseph left a strong and lasting legacy of faith, paving the way of generations of people to emulate them.
Our connection with the Lord lights an inextinguishable fire in our hearts. We build our house to last on the foundations of faith unlike the house of Esau that is built with the equivalent of straw and hay that will burn easily. The house of Esau is a metaphor for those who live to satisfy their appetite for the things of this world and do not prioritise the relationship with the Lord over all other relationships, the kingdom of God over the kingdom of this world, the word of God over their the words of self and other people. The cornerstone of our house of faith is Jesus. He guides us where to draw the line. He shows us how to make the crooked straight. He makes us resilient and causes us to endure both famine and flood. Nothing good we do goes unnoticed, unrewarded in eternity.
Jacob’s spiritual successor was Joseph who experienced severe pitfalls in life but sustained his hope and faith in the fulfilment of his God-given dreams. His faith enabled him to suffer pain, anguish, imprisonment, betrayal. His character went through fire but came out clean and pure as refined gold from fire. He was now ready for high office, for responsibilities to save many including those of his own household. He experienced elevation, enlargement and enablement. He left a lasting spiritual legacy. So much so, he is one of the few in the Old Testament considered a “fore type” of Jesus. We too need to fan the flame of our faith like Jacob and Joseph to full and steer away from being impatient and emotion-driven like Esau. In order to feed the flame of faith, Joseph like Daniel starved or disciplined his flesh and mind and fed his spirit on the spoken word of God. The word is the manna that prepares man for holistic success and legacy, the seed that multiplies and produces fruit and crop, generation after generation.