24 But G-d came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
25 And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. 26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? 27 Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre? 28 And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. 29 It is in my power to do you harm. But the G-d of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
36 Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban. Jacob said to Laban, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? 37 For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two. 38 These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 There I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. 42 If the G-d of my father, the G-d of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and irebuked you last night.”
Genesis 31:24-29, 36-42 ESV
The Fear of Isaac, spirit.
You will note I did not start the blessing after the usual manner by inviting you present. My agenda is to proffer something in the middle and assume I am already speaking to you. As per my usual assumption, you have the free will to join me or no, from afar or from anear (giggle).
I bless you with that permanent liberty to do what you will as you will, spirit.
Now, as I have said before, the Fear of Isaac.
Spirit, I speculate He was was called this because Isaac dealt with the L-rd from the position of the fear of the L-rd in contrast to the Canaanites who did not walk in the fear of the L-rd or their gods. Something about Isaac in his relationship with the King presented differently and felt differently from the interactions between the inhabitants of the land on one hand, and Laban on the other hand. As Abraham relayed to Abimelech earlier, “surely there is no fear of G-d in this place”.
And Isaac, who had grown to walk in the Fear of the L-rd, considering certain events in his life, you know, with the knife and the altar, though still joyful, assuredly knew something more about the ways of G-d that marked him for the rest of his life.
Spirit, I want to bless you accordingly.
For, having known the rescue of the King in many different ways, spirit, you are able to communicate that sequence of the sobriety and the rescue of the Fear of Isaac (The Fear of Laughter or The Fear of The Laughing One).
So, I bless you, spirit, to know and to be known in accordance with that aspect of Isaac. Fear is not “I am afraid”. Fear really is “I take an active interest in knowing what the desires of the L-rd are and in doing those”. Fear of the L-rd honors the desires of the L-rd as consequential. You have known the reality of the Fear of the L-rd, and you are capable of communicating that reality. Now, I bless you with deeper revelation of that Fear as framed by filtering that fear through laughter.
I think of Psalm 2 where the L-rd responds to the meeting of the G8 or the G12 or the G-whatever-irrelevant-number-it-is saying He is irrelevant with a great laugh, followed by derision, followed by His handing the Son a lead pipe so He could take them out back and give them a shellacking.
Spirit, the correction of the mentally and spiritually dull enemies of the L-rd that is paired with laughter is precisely what is in view in the account of Laban and Jacob. G-d was intentional that this relationship, which had a chronic emotionally abusive component to it be broken and done away with. A wall between Jacob and Laban needed to be erected and not crossed every again.
And so, in Gilead they met and erected a placed called Mizpah, and there in the spirit, a boundary marker was erected.
Some people need to be cut off so we can receive from the Balm of Gilead.
I bless you to have the boundaries that stick with those people that are chronic abusers.
I bless the righteous alienation to clothe relationships that need to go and that are toxic.
I bless the King to show you which relationships just simply are not good for you, and I bless you to know which relationships are good.
I bless you to know the difference between seasonal and permanent friendships.
I bless the protection that is part of your life to increase so the enemies of the King do not take advantage of you.
I bless you to know the King’s voice in this dynamic, and I bless you to speak up so that the soul can hear what you are saying. I bless that discomfort that should be present when a bad-for-you connection comes up.
I bless you to not depart from season to season empty-handed. I bless you to accrue the right friendships with the right people who walk in the Fear of the L-rd, look for His counsel, and esteem that counsel.
I bless you to reconcile with the King and to see the Fear of Isaac as a tool that was made to help you in certain nettlesome situations.
I bless the King to give you the plumbline you were made to have so that you can see which friendships
I bless you with that revelation of the Fear of Isaac, and I bless you to reconcile with the Fear of Isaac, in the name of Yeshua.
Amen