Jacob's Children: 8 Asher

Let Him Dip His Foot In Oil

Deuteronomy 33:24b KJV

And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.
Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher.
[Genesis 30:12-13 NKJV]

Contented lambs with their mother, near Kilmartin, Argyll

"Happy is the man who makes The Lord his choice" is a line from a favourite song, and with the birth of young Asher, Leah expresses her happiness and follows the pattern of naming the child after her condition. It could be said that Leah and Rachel were hearing from God in their choice of names, but what we can be sure of is that God was in charge of this whole process.

The name Asher is usually considered to mean my happiness and blessed, but in fact it goes deeper than that, taking in the idea of making progress, going straight on and setting right. Following in a line that includes Dan, Naphtali and Gad, it becomes plain that in this quartet of brothers, the Lord is revealing His Holy Spirit as the next leap forward in His heavenly purpose. This is very much confirmed in this verse from Deuteronomy ...

And of Asher he said: “Asher is most blessed of sons; Let him be favoured by his brothers, And let him dip his foot in oil." [Deuteronomy 33:24 NKJV]

Let him dip his foot in oil speaks of an anointed walk; the feet representing how we live out our lives in Christ, and the oil representing the anointing oil, which we read of in John’s Gospel ...

Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. [John 12:3 NKJV]


Christ means the anointed one, and the understanding here is that we too need the blessing of an anointed walk through our embracing of the Holy Spirit alive in our hearts and minds.

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"Call Me Blessed" - The Blunkalls at Bethel Baptist Church Simcoe

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OSWALD CHAMBERS - RUN TODAY'S RACE
Saturday 16th May 2020
Christianity is not service for Jesus Christ, not winning souls;
it is nothing less than the life of Christ being manifested more and more in my mortal flesh.

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