Inheriting Baggage

A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD. An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever: (Deuteronomy 23: 2, 3)

There are a few issues that raise the temperature of any environment than inheritance.

And there are even fewer issues that attract fiercer emotion than the same.

Yet today I want us to look at inheritance in a slightly different way by looking at the kind of baggage inheritance could bring.

A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. (Proverbs 13:22)

This verse does not say that the sinner does not leave any inheritance for his children though that is what it appears to mean at face value.

Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. (Proverbs 20:17)

It just means that the sinner’s inheritance will be defiled by his sin; meaning that it will not last as it is exposed to God’s judgment. It will in effect pass on the judgment to forebears.

That is the baggage I am talking about.

But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (Genesis 15:16)

Like everything in nature, wickedness grows, matures and reproduces. That is what this verse is saying.

This means that an heir inherits and multiplies, not just the wealth, but also the spirituality his ancestors lived by.

This means that if a parent had created wealth through deceit, deceit and its judgment become part of the heir’s inheritance.

If the parent had involved spiritual machinations in his acquisition of his wealth, his heirs will, in addition to inheriting wealth also inherit spiritual involvement and judgment.

And if a parent had gained his wealth through fraudulent and shortcut methods, his heirs will as part of taking the wealth also inherit that baggage.

And that because God is just.

You do not expect to make your wealth through selling drugs to make other parents’ children zombies and expect your legacy to come out right.

You do not expect to make your money by selling drugs meant for the poor and expect that wealth to enrich your posterity aright.

You do not prey on poor people’s girls, even messing their education to fulfil your sexual fantasies and expect your generations to swim in moral security.

Allow me to diverge with a history lesson.

There are families (clans) where I come from whose girls can never be first wives. You marry her as your first wife and you will die very quickly. (Could this have been the reason Judah was scared of giving Tamar to the only son that was left?). Interestingly, as always happens, their girls are usually very beautiful.

I sat an elder down and asked for the reason.

In the long past in that clan (when it was a family), a girl was in betrothed to an agemate.

As things were rolling at their own speed, an older and wealthier man came and talked to the father about marrying her. And that wealth was able to move that mountain so that the girl was ordered to marry the old man and leave the man she had been planning a future with the whole time.

It is said that this girl went to her new husband and committed suicide. That in effect left the curse on their girls to always be like her.

That is called the girl’s curse.

That father chose cows over honour. And they are reaping that, countless generations later.

Incidentally, and contrary to what most believe, a curse must not be spoken to take effect, just like a blessing.

Blessing a person walking in a curse is a futile exercise just as cursing a person walking in a blessing.

How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? (Numbers 23:8)

I have always argued that blessings and curses are not products of proclamations of authority figures since the authority figures can only tap into what has already been released.

A blessing and curse are in simple terms a harvest of actions we have sowed. They are the rewards of a production line composed of actions and the attitudes guiding them.

Lest you think I am diverging, and even if I am diverging, it is important for us to learn that our actions and words reach very far into our future, to the point of directly affecting our posterity.

Just as my children will inherit the property and investments I have made over the years, we must internalise the fact that they will also inherit the investments our words and actions have been making over those same years.

Just as some investments will appreciate over the years, so will my words and actions, long after I am gone.

However, it is not a simple linear equation when we look at the spirituality of some of those investments. And that because the spiritual has a grip on every facet of life. Though there are times that clapback is brutally frontal.

Reminds me of some incidents that repeat themselves once in a while.

A tycoon preys on university girls.

But being a honourable member of society, he does not visit the haunts others visit.

He hires a hotel room and scouts to get him the best catch that he will meet in his room and finish his business without wasting much time or getting noticed, insisting that he finds the girl completely naked to save on time.

This time he gets to his room and finds his own daughter naked in the room, the same daughter he had securely sent to university by ensuring that she lacked nothing.

One of those old men became insane.

He had thought that it is only the daughters of the poor who are involved in such business. Only to discover that rich kids also seek the thrill their rich parents pursue, and not for the money.

Or this married man who frequented brothels for a lunch time quickie only to find his wife on the other side of the same business one day.

But those are rare occurrences.

Just as a seed takes time to become food, the seeds our actions, words and attitudes plant also require time to get to fruition, many times meaning it is later generations that will reap the harvest.

Our thoughts, attitudes and actions over time become like an incubated egg, the produce another generation of the producers of the same things.

That is the essence of the iniquity of the Amorites.

Though people fight for the positive aspects of their inheritance, it is the hidden (spiritual) aspects that are more portent, especially since they have no documents, wills and trustees to administer them just as no courts or tribunals can interpret them.

However, they are surer than the ground you walk on.

We will therefore be wise if we interrogated our inheritance to understand the hidden bonuses running with it.

Some of that inheritance is traits.

Some of what we call tribal and racial traits and weaknesses are simply spiritual inheritance gone long enough.

An heir will inherit everything that defined the owner of his inheritance, not just the material aspects of the same.

It is important for us to realise that even as we poise ourselves for that inevitable possession of our inheritance.

As an example, a pastor inherits his father’s wealth, wealth that was created by the manufacture or sale of intoxicants.

Though the arrangement removes him from any involvement of the same, it would be foolhardy to assume that he can divorce himself from the judgment his inheritance had attracted through its acquisition. It would also be foolish to assume that his pastoring would shield his posterity from the same judgment.

No spiritual posturing can weaken spiritual inheritance.

In a later post we will look at how we can avoid getting trapped or out of such inheritance.