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Laying on of hands, part 2

The concept of laying hands on someone has both a positive and a negative application. The positive side is about consecration; the negative side is about seizing someone with the intent to bring harm to them. An example of the negative use of the term is in Genesis 37:22, which speaks of Joseph’s brothers who wanted to kill him.

²² Reuben further said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hands, to restore him to his father.

Another example is found in the law. Exodus 22:8 says,

⁸ If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house shall appear before the judges, to determine whether he laid his hands on his neighbor's property.

When someone lays hands on another person, as it was done in the New Testament church, it confirms the Holy Spirit’s seizure of that person. In essence, when someone is consecrated to God, He lays claim to that person.

God’s Ownership

Technically, God owns all that He created—both heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1). Authority was granted to Adam (Genesis 1:26), and when he sinned, the law was activated to judge sin. Adam’s sin created a debt he could not pay, so his estate was sold to the devil. From then on, the history of the world is about how to redeem creation—all mankind and Adam’s estate as a whole.

Redemption includes reclaiming all mankind, but not all at the same time. Consecration by the laying on of hands is a way that God reclaims legally that which He owns technically. He who is consecrated is expected to recognize the sovereignty of God over himself and to submit to Him in all things. This, however, is not without its problems, because even consecrated people remain imperfect and fallible. Whenever they sin, whether in word or in deed or even in their thoughts and imaginations, they violate the terms of their consecration.

The Feast Days

This mixture of sin and righteousness, of course, was anticipated by God, and this is why He set up a three-step program revealed to us in the feast days: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Step one requires faith; step two requires obedience leading to agreement; step three brings us to the place of unity.

To put it in other terms, faith in the blood of the Passover Lamb imputes righteousness to us, where God calls what is not as though it were (Romans 4:17 KJV). We get a positional righteousness from the start, even though we still lack actual righteousness, so that we need not get bogged down with guilt and feel the need to be saved over and over again.

Faith is only the door that begins our wilderness journey, as demonstrated literally by the Israelites under Moses. The second step is to learn obedience through Pentecost. Whereas Passover faith is a momentary experience—the first step toward the Promised Land—Pentecost is the journey itself.

Consecration to God by the laying on of hands can be categorized under Pentecost—step two. It does not make anyone perfect, even with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but it motivates us to submit to God and His laws to the point of “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

The essence of such obedience is based on recognizing the sovereignty of God as opposed to the sovereignty of man. To be consecrated to God is to give up whatever authority he has which is not suborned to God’s sovereignty. Sin is not an option of “free will.” The problem of Pentecost is that no Spirit-filled believer is immediately without mixture, no matter how sincere he is. Hence, his consecration, valid as it may be, is not yet fully implemented. Pentecost is a transition from Passover faith to Tabernacles unity.

To experience (or “keep”) the feast of Tabernacles in a New Covenant manner is to leave one’s house that is made of wood and stone and to dwell in a spiritual “booth” made of goodly branches. In other words, we become clothed with immortality, symbolized in the Old Testament by living branches. Immortality means we have fully overcome the effects of Adam’s sin. Because death is the root cause of our corruption (physical and moral), overcoming death gives us both immortality and incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:53 KJV).

Whereas our Passover experience gave us imputed righteousness, the feast of Tabernacles gives us experiential righteousness. Pentecost, of course, is a progression between the two as we are led by the Spirit and, through experience, the Spirit writes His laws upon our hearts.