Multi-Generational Wealth Strategy

Jacob’s Success Ladder

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

In prior articles we discovered the great wealth that Abraham accumulated from God’s blessings over his life, and the transition of that wealth to his son Isaac, where it seemed to have been properly managed and expanded.

Now we will look at the 3rd generation, Esau and primarily Jacob.

Family Wealth Is 90 Percent Gone By Third Generation | Newsmax.com

Statistics show that 65 percent of family wealthy is lost by the second generation and 90 percent gone by the third generation.

“Psychologists specializing in ‘sudden wealth syndrome’ acknowledge that heirs, like lottery winners, tend to blow their windfall,”

Family business founders… often fail to instill values of hard work and thrift in their children and often leave flawed estate plans that fail to define who will inherit and control the family’s wealth.

Will Abraham’s family fall into our modern statistics, or will they perpetuate God’s wealth principles?

A Legacy of Vision

Esau and Jacob are the continuation of God’s promise to Abraham in that God said many nations would come from Abraham (Genesis 25:19–26).

• Genesis 25:28 Now Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

It seems like Isaac disregarded God’s will, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication that Rebekah mentioned to Isaac what the Lord told her about the older son serving the younger son.

• Genesis 25:29 When Jacob had cooked a stew one day, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted; 30 and Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a mouthful of that red stuff there, for I am exhausted.” Therefore he was called Edom by name. 31 But Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” 32 Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?” 33 And Jacob said, “First swear to me”; so he swore an oath to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and got up and went on his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

Jacob was most likely very willing to pay a high price for the birthright as the oldest son (larger inheritance), but Esau allowed his temporary circumstance (hunger) to influence his judgement, therefore accepting a meager price for his immediate gratification.

This is a great example of how “price” is determined within markets. If I want something more than what I have, I am willing to trade what I have for what I want. Visa Versa for the person who has what I want. In mutually beneficial exchange both parties benefit in the trade more than if they don’t trade at all. Now there is something to say about taking advantage of others in a desperate situation. Jacob’s actions are not excusable.

However, Esau may fit rather nicely into our modern statistics as one who disregards his family’s wealth and squanders it. Jacob on the other hand, seemed to view the inheritance as a real blessing to steward properly.

Regardless, through Jacob’s deception of his brother and his father, he was forced to flee from his home to save his life. Actions have consequences, good and/or bad.

While Jacob was alone in the wilderness, God spoke to him:

• Genesis 28:10 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he happened upon a particular place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and made it a support for his head, and lay down in that place. 12 And he had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 Then behold, the Lord was standing above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants. 14 Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

God had promised to Rebekah that Jacob would continue God’s blessing to Abraham, now God is confirming that promise directly with Jacob.

The Takeaways so far from this account of Jacob’s history is how important communication is in ANY legacy plan. There must be clear and regular communication between the involved family members. More importantly though, God’s communications must be heard and obeyed. It did not matter what Isaac desired for his sons, nor for Jacob to scheme in acquiring the birthright; God’s plan always prevails regardless of human actions.

A Legacy of Craftsmanship

He arrived at the home of his mother’s family where he began to help run his uncle’s estate.

• Genesis 29:15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in figure and appearance. 18 Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” 19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him like only a few days because of his love for her.

Apparently, Jacob did not have any of his inheritance with him when he fled, otherwise he could have started his own operation and provided gifts to Laban for Rachel’s hand in marriage immediately. He had nothing except his personal abilities, and he spent time proving his abilities prior to being offered a wage by Laban. Jacob paid his dues before becoming profitable. An individual’s time and talents (labor) are the goods and services (wealth) that he has available to trade with, for something that he deems greater in value than his labor. This is why most of us go to work every day. If our goal is to acquire money, then we must value money more than our time and talents. Regardless what we decide to trade our labor for (money, experience, education, relationships, etc.), wages are the mutually agreed upon price of our labor.

• Genesis 30:27 But Laban said to him, “If it pleases you at all, stay with me; I have determined by divination that the Lord has blessed me on your account.” 28 He continued, “Name me your wages, and I will give them.” 29 But Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased to a multitude, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?”

This account of Jacob’s history is a great example of the point I made in one of my prior articles, ‘How Does God Blesses People (Financially)?’. I point out that though God can bless people supernaturally or through other people, He more often blesses the outcome of people’s actions. God promised to bless Jacob; Jacob acted in obedience to God; God fulfilled His promise through Jacob’s actions. Furthermore, the surrounding people (Laban and his family) are blessed by God as well, through Jacob. Laban had no choice but to acknowledge the source (God) of his new wealth through the hands of Jacob.

Laban, knowing Jacob’s desire to leave, decided to renegotiate with Jacob so that he might stay to increase Laban’s wealth further. Jacob wanted to develop a flock of sheep of his own to care for his own growing family, which Laban agreed to the new arrangement. Jacob would take all the striped, speckled, and spotted sheep, leaving the solid colored sheep for Laban.

• Genesis 30:37 Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white that was in the rods. 38 He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the drinking troughs, that is, in the watering channels where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink. 39 So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks delivered striped, speckled, and spotted offspring. 40 Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Moreover, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the drinking troughs, so that they would mate by the rods; 42 but when the flock was sickly, he did not put them in; so the sickly were Laban’s, and the stronger were Jacob’s. 43 So the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

WOW! Jacob really was an expert in managing a particular asset. He knew how to make it more profitable through his own actions. He was not born with this ability, but he developed it throughout his life. This expertise had a cost though. Jacob paid for his education with his time and effort over many years. Though it helped that he grew up in this line of business where he was trained by other “craftsmen”. Laban, on the other hand, paid for his lack of education with the wealth he could have had otherwise. Laban had prospered under Jacob’s management, but now he was slipping back to before Jacob’s arrival.

The Takeaways from this period of Jacob’s life shows how difficult it is to remain “poor” when we have valuable skills and abilities that can improve our own lives as well as the lives of other people. Skills are developed over time and are best perpetuated by other skilled “craftsmen”. It is also important to “pay your dues”; learn skills and display them in a way that reveal to others the benefits of utilizing your abilities. Sometimes this may require reduced wages or free services until the opportunity arrives to negotiate your wages.

A Legacy of Faithfulness

I am convinced that God was using Jacob to reveal Himself to Laban and his family, desiring them to see His grace and choose to follow Him as well. This is consistent with God’s plan to establish His glory throughout the whole world through His people. Unfortunately, Laban and his family chose to continue in their own way.

• Genesis 31:1 Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw the attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as it had been before.

Jacob did NOT take Laban’s wealth. He “made all [his] wealth… from what belonged to [Laban]”. This is to be expected when the management responsibility, and opportunity, is abdicated to someone else. Though Laban had acknowledged God as the source of Jacob’s success before, his sons focused on Jacob and their jealousy of him, blinding them from God’s truth. They had experienced the blessings of God firsthand and it was very difficult to watch it slip away. They were focused on the blessings, not the bless-er.

Like Laban’s sons, we tend to get jealous of the “managers” we hired, rather than learning to do what they are doing with our wealth. We keep trusting others to take care of us, instead of managing our own resources according to our own abilities, then we blame them when they don’t produce enough for our benefit.

• Genesis 31:3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.” 4 So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field, 5 and said to them, “I see your father’s attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength. 7 Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times; however, God did not allow him to do me harm. 8 If he said this: ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock delivered speckled; and if he said this: ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock delivered striped. 9 So God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
• Genesis 31:14 Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any share or inheritance in our father’s house? 15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also entirely consumed our purchase price. 16 Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has told you.”

A good person leaves an inheritance to his grandchildren, And the wealth of a sinner is stored up for the righteous. — Proverbs 13:22

It seems Laban, rather than Jacob, struggled with ‘sudden wealth syndrome’ in that he used the wealth that Jacob had created for him to feed his excessive consumption. Over consumption not only harms the consumer over time, but destroys wealth for future generations, as Rachel and Leah acknowledged.

Jacob fled with his family but Laban pursued and confronted him about his secret departure (Genesis 31:22–28).

Jacob’s response:

• Genesis 31:38 For these twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks. 39 I did not even bring to you that which was torn by wild animals; I took the loss myself. You demanded it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night. 40 This is how I was: by day the heat consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 For 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 changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.”

Verse 3 of chapter 31 (above) indicates that Jacob waited patiently for the Lord’s direction. He could have left anytime he wanted, to escape his hardships, but chose not to. Jacob’s patient endurance for the Lord’s instructions paid off.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. —Romans 8:28

The Takeaway: This account of Jacob’s history reveals the importance of waiting for God’s instructions. God had blessed Jacob richly, but it was according to His will for Jacob. Jacob trusted, obeyed, and prospered. Though there were some challenges, it was worth it in the end.

A Legacy of Peacemaking

There was some animosity between Jacob and Laban, so they made a mutually beneficial agreement together (Genesis 31:43–55).

Contracts serve as visual representations of agreements between parties that spell out terms and consequences. With this agreement, he was done serving his uncle and they had established peace between them. Jacob was following in his father’s, and grandfather’s footsteps in choosing to seek peace with others. Though they had the wealth and strength to dominate the other people, they chose peace.

Now that Jacob had peace with Laban, he could transition his focus to seeking peace with his brother Esau.

• Genesis 32:13 So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a gift for his brother Esau: [A LARGE NUMBER OF VARIOUS ANIMALS] 16 Then he placed them in the care of his servants, every flock by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between flocks.” … 20 and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.’” For he said, “I will appease him with the gift that goes ahead of me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”
• Genesis 33:4 Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

The generosity of Jacob is evidence of his humility. In his youth, he was deceitful toward his brother and father. Now he was ready to seek peace and face the potential consequences of his actions. He demonstrates for us how generous gifts can help appease negative perceptions to foster reconciliation and acceptance. Generosity can only be a result of proper stewardship. No matter our economic circumstances, we each have a choice to be a blessing to others and seek peace.

Jacob could now settle down in the land of his father and freely provide for his family.

• Genesis 33:18 Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped before the city. 19 He bought the plot of land where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money. 20 Then he erected there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.
• Genesis 34:10 (Hamor, father of Schechem, speaking to Jacob) So you will live with us, and the land shall be open to you; live and trade in it and acquire property in it.”

As discussed in other articles, money is any tool mutually acceptable to aid in the transferring & acquiring of property. In this case, and in many societies throughout history, their money was silver by weight.

From Jacob’s proper stewardship of the resources God had entrusted to him, he produced great wealth according to God’s management principles. From his wealth, he was more able to actively participate in free-market, mutually beneficial (peaceful) trade, to purchase a home for his family to prosper and praise God for His provision.

The Takeaway from this time in Jacob’s life is the importance of seeking peace with everyone. We could easily imagine how much more difficult Jacob’s life could have been if he was antagonistic towards his uncle, his brother, and the other people of the land. He would not have had much of a lasting legacy without being a peacemaker like his father and grandfather.

Conclusion

Stewardship and Wealth is a process, not a product. All three generations (Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob) seem to have gone through a rags-to-riches experience. Knowledge and faith were the only wealth they started with, but deployed correctly resulted in abundant material wealth as well. Each generation understood the process.

• For any multi-generational wealth strategy to last, there must be a shared and perpetuated vision that is openly and often communicated within the family. Everyone must be accountable to the mutually beneficial vision.
• Each member must be encouraged to develop skills and abilities of some kind that can benefit other people. Mentorship/discipleship from other “craftsmen” is the most powerful and efficient means to acquire expertise in anything. We can be mentored by others directly, or indirectly through books, videos, trainings, etc. Intimately know “your asset” so that your own abilities can make it grow.
• The family members must also patiently endure and regularly realign with God’s plan.
• No successful wealth strategy can last without unity and peace between the individual members, and the surrounding people such as co-workers, friends, neighbors, etc.

The absolute best financial tool for implementing a simple multi-generational wealth strategy is through the Infinite Banking Concept (High Cash Value, Dividend Paying, Mutually Owned, Whole Life Insurance).

In the book ‘Becoming Your Own Banker’ by R. Nelson Nash, he explains in the section titled: An Even Distribution of Age Classes, how families can utilize whole life insurance contracts to create perpetual and exponential family wealth.

Pg. 72 — “As each generation becomes grandparents, they buy life insurance on their grandchildren. If the message is passed on to each child-bearing generation — as they become grandparents — then [they] can create… “perpetual motion” in [their] family’s financial world!”

Significant advantages to this plan:

• Covers multiple generations — promotes long range planning and accountability.
• Tax-Free access to Cash Values (if done correctly).
• Precludes any need for Social Security.
• Assures Passive Income.
• Simplifies Estate Planning.
• Grandparents can more easily afford to pay premiums for grandchildren.
• Premium outlays are very small compared to the ultimate yields.
• Transfers “wealth mentality” to succeeding generations over a long period of time to produce consistent understanding. They are learning a process, not buying a product.
• Promotes the understanding of what stewardship is all about.
• Becomes self-sustaining when a [tax-free] death benefit occurs.
• + other advantages.

Let each generation pursue their own gifts, as long as it is financed through the family banking system. If they understand the simple concept of banking, everything else will naturally fall into place.

“Everyone should be in two businesses — the one in which you make your living and the other should be the banking business that finances whatever you do for a living. Of the two businesses, banking is the most important. Businesses come and go — but banking is eternal.” — R. Nelson Nash