Our Inheritance

Numbers 34:13 Moses commanded the Israelites: "Assign this land by lot as an inheritance. The LORD has ordered that it be given to the nine and a half tribes, 14 because the families of the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance. 15 These two and a half tribes have received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan of Jericho, toward the sunrise."

It is easy to forget what Job knew so well:


Job 1:21 7 He said," Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."


Solomon echoed his thoughts later:


Ecclesiastes 5:15 As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so will he return as he came He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand.


When we look around, even if we have created something for ourselves or others, ultimately, nothing is actually ours. We have built a society in which we value labour by assigning possession to what we have laboured over. But God has provided everything we use to create things in our labor.

Personal possession is not forbidden in the Bible. But we see the tension of possession and God in the portion of my daily reading today. God owns everything. We really possess anything only as an inheritance. To discredit labor is not God's intention. He created us to work. That was a principle in the garden before the fall. But He also continually reminds us that everything is His gift to us. 


Ecclesiastes 5:18 Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.


The concept of inheritance was used by God to describe the land and all that came from it. Inheritance is a perfect word.


An inheritance is something that someone else provides for us as a gift. We cannot earn an inheritance. It is a freely given gift. It may have conditions placed upon it for us to satisfy if we are going to receive it but it is not the fruit of our hands. It comes from another's generosity. The tribes of Israel would have to fight and work for the land but understood that the right of possession came from God.


The gift of an inheritance is meant to create a sense of gratitude in those who receive it.


I believe that behind so many of our difficulties in life is our failure to understand the basic principle of inheritance as God wants us to understand it. If we always understand that nothing we possess is actually ours we are in a much better place to live in a sense of wonder and gratitude for all that God gives us. We are given it to work with but God is the ultimate source of everything.


There are three principles out of which every sin on earth comes:


1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.


While I have a more detailed teaching on this subject that I will share at sometime on my teaching blog: http://word-of-grace.blogspot.com/ I will briefly say that the three mindsets that destroy these three foundations of sin are these:


Thankfulness defeats the lust of the flesh since they are generated out of self pity.
Contentment defeats the lust of the eyes since they are generated out of covetousness.
Humility expressed through serving others defeats the pride of life since it is generated by narcissism.


One can see that knowing that everything we own, and everything in the world is really from God's generosity creates thankfulness, contentment and the desire to share what we have been given with other.


I want to say one thing further for the present conversation. When we know that something actually is another's possession which they have given to us to use for a period of time if we honor them we will want to take care of what they have entrusted us. We will want to use it the way they intended it to be used. The biblical word for this is stewardship. A steward in ancient times had full control over the possession of his master but did not have the right to do anything with them except what the master desired. God has graciously given us possession of our material goods and not demanded us to be stewards. If we honor Him though we will give back the right of possession and take His inheritance and understand it as best considered a stewardship of love.