The prophet's dictionary guide to the supernatural

other authority figures sent. Each group had their own center, and the epistle writers subscribed to the practice of having and using their own couriers for the sake of safety and integrity. Frequently, messages were sent with travelers who doubled as couriers for their families and neighbors. Otherwise, the wealthy of the land shared the postal network of the powerful. A message was always sealed to certify its authenticity and messengers had to see that their parcels and letters were delivered intact. The seal of the sender was important, and rich families and high powers all had theirs handcrafted and kept on their person. To steal or forge a seal was popular yet dangerous as any type of correspondence could be fabricated and dispatched in the name of the owner of the seal. This frequent tactic made messenger reliability critical and false or deceitful messengers suffered great damage when they were exposed. In early times, message delivery was a very risky job. Being wholly reliant upon human carriers, people’s messages could get waylaid in a hundred different ways. Eavesdroppers could set traps along the way so that the carrier failed to get through. Seditionists could lurk along the roadway to seize government or military correspondence and destroy it before it reached its destination. Spies of enemy camps and countries could intercept the messenger to learn of their enemy’s plans and counterattack by sending a false messenger to the destination with a counterfeit plan. If goods and valuables were being transported, the risk of harm and theft grew immensely. Typically, using the strength in numbers strategy, messengers traveled in packs, but the danger remained and many communications failed to get through and return to the sender to say the task was completed. The angel wrestling with Jacob was motivated by this requirement. When daybreak came he was not to be in the earth but was to have returned to the Lord with a report of his assignment. Jacob perhaps understood this and used the knowledge to get what he wanted, something he was accustomed to do. Many times the messenger was the scribe who wrote the message directly from the mouth of his sender. At other times, he may be the postal administrator who received and dispatched mass communications to their designated areas. The institution was critical to business, government, and communal life, and messengers were a prized group of laborers in their day who were well respected, stringently tried, and cautiously trusted. Their uprightness had to be impeccable since their persona and sentiments were expected to diminish for the duration of the assignment to their feelings, beliefs, even personality from corrupting their messages. For professional reasons, verbal and commissioned messengers became mere orators who repeated what was put into their mouths.