There are few men who do not value an inheritance that has been given to them, or which belongs to them because of natural ties, yet there are saints of God who have little idea of what God has given to them as "heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ". If we have not some true conception of what God has given to us, it is little wonder that we do not value it. On the other hand, there are those who have heard of the wondrous inheritance that belongs to the saints of God, and because of occupation with the things of this world, and the things of the earth, have very little appreciation of what God, in His wondrous grace, has given to us in association with His own Son, and which is to be presently enjoyed.
The blessing of the Christian far exceeds anything the natural man can conceive, for God has "blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). In the riches of His grace God has taken away our sins, and in the glory of His grace He has brought us before Him as sons, sharing the place of His own Son in His favour and affections. God has brought us as sons into the secrets of His heart, telling us that in the coming, millennial day He will gather all things in the wide universe under the Headship of Christ, the Heir of all things.
Having been associated with His Son, we have in Him obtained an inheritance, sharing all with Him who is the centre of all blessing and the Head over all in the day of His glory. Even now God would have us in the enjoyment of the inheritance, giving us His Holy Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance (Eph. 1:11-14). It is God's own universe, and Christ is the Heir, and with Him we are joint heirs, and God desires that we might even now apprehend something of "the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints" (Eph. 1:18). Israel had an earthly inheritance, but God had something better in His counsels for those who would be associated with His Son, and in the wisdom of God this secret was kept in His own heart till Christ had come, died upon the cross and gone to heaven as the glorified Man. From heaven the divine secret has been disclosed that believers in Christ, from Jews and Gentiles, are "joint heirs" of God's wide inheritance, and "a joint body, and joint partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus by the glad tidings (Eph. 3:6).
If Paul looks at the inheritance in its widest aspect, as all that we shall share with Christ when He is Head over all things, Peter gives us another view, telling us that God has "begotten us again unto a lively hope … to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven" (1 Peter 1:3-4). This hope is ours because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Christ died and rose again, entering heaven in triumph, and there He has secured for His own this blessed heavenly inheritance that He shares with His own.
Israel's inheritance was on earth, and though they lost it on account of their idolatry and rebellion, yet God in His goodness has reserved it for them under the new covenant. Our inheritance is not on earth, but in heaven with Christ. The inheritance that God gave His earthly people was corruptible, and Israel corrupted it and defiled it with their wickedness and sins, but the new creation inheritance of heaven cannot be touched by the corrupting influences of this world or defiled by the tempter or evil of the flesh. All there is pure and holy, taking its character from God and from His Son.
The Holy Scriptures with all the precious, divine truth they contain have been given to us as an heritage from God, for in them we have made known the mind and will of God for His people, and also the wonderful revelation of Himself and all His thoughts that centre in His only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had his own part in making known to the saints the truth of God, that which is to be valued and held fast by those who love God. Having been appointed "a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the nations", Paul had his own special revelations from the Lord to communicate to the saints, not only in his oral ministry, but in inspired writings which have been left for us in the Holy Scriptures.
Timothy was exhorted by Paul, "Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 1:13). An outline of the ministry of Paul was to be held tenaciously by Timothy, for in it was the precious truth that God had vouchsafed to His dear servant. This outline could only be held fast as the eye rested, by faith, on Christ and as the truth was valued in the affections. This precious truth of God, which Timothy had received as a deposit from the Lord, was to be kept "by the Holy Ghost which dwells in us" (verse 14), for the truth cannot be held by human means; it must be in evidence in ministry and practically by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.
The things Timothy had heard of Paul were not private communications given in secret, but divine revelations made public in Paul's ministry, and these things were to be committed "to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Tim 2:2). This blessed heritage of truth was to be passed on in a living ministry for the blessing of God's people. God's standard, by which everything taught has to be tested, is the holy word of God found in the Scriptures, but God has also a living ministry in the gifts given by the ascended Head of the church (Eph. 4:11-13), men who bring the truth of God from His word to men.
In 2 Timothy 3 we read of the last days, days in which we now live, for all the features mentioned in the opening verses of this chapter are to be seen in Christendom today. Our divine resource for these last days is found in the closing verses of this chapter, "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them". Paul's doctrine is to be held fast as guidance for the individual life and for the assembly. Timothy was also to continue with the holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, and with "all Scripture", for it is divinely inspired, and profitable in every way, so that the man of God is "throughly furnished unto all good works". What a wonderful heritage we have in the Holy Scriptures for these last days.
The land of Canaan was the inheritance that Jehovah gave to His people Israel, and the five daughters of Zelophehad greatly valued the inheritance that belonged to the house of their father, even although their father was dead and the inheritance not yet possessed. To show their concern they stood "before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation" (Num. 27:1-5) to make their case known. It was a matter that exercised Moses, who brought the case to the Lord Himself, who said, "The daughters of Zelophehad speak right thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them" (verses 5-7).
Not only did these five young women, who valued their inheritance, receive it at the mouth of Jehovah, but they received something of far greater value, their names written in the Holy Scriptures. When the time came for the division of the inheritance, the daughters of Zelophehad again brought their matter before Eleazar, and before Joshua and the princes, so that it is recorded, "Therefore according to the commandment of the Lord he gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their father" (Joshua 17:3-4). Would to God the zeal of these sisters were imitated by the saints today who have been made heirs of a much better inheritance. How zealous we should be in seeking to learn of the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in His saints, of the inheritance in heaven and the wondrous heritage we have in the Scriptures and truth of God. It is also interesting to see that the sisters were to marry with the inheritance in view and not to marry those who had no real interest in it.
God's purpose for Israel was to have His people surrounding Him in the land of promise, His tabernacle being in the midst of them with His glory in the holiest. The thought of the presence of God in the midst of His people was not uppermost in the minds of the tribe of Reuben and the children of Gad, for their minds were on the "very great multitude of cattle" that they possessed, and they desired to remain on the east side of the Jordan, separated from their brethren who had the God of Israel in their midst. Though angry with them, Moses allowed these two tribes, and the half tribe of Manasseh with them, to dwell on the wilderness side of Jordan, provided that the warriors among the two and a half tribes would, as they had proposed, go armed before the children of Israel until they had inherited their portion in the land (Num. 32:1-32).
Like many Christians today, they were ready to fight the battles of the Lord, but they did not wish to dwell where the Name of the Lord was set. They were content to have their inheritance in a place that was suitable for their earthly possessions, but they came short of God's thoughts for the good of His people. They were doubtless good fighters, but their thoughts would be on their wives and children and their lands on the east of Jordan, and not on the blessedness of being where the Lord's Name was found.
On returning to their possessions, the two and a half tribes built an altar by the Jordan, fearing lest in process of time they would be disowned as not belonging to God's people Israel. This fear was but one of the consequences of coming short of God's purpose. Another consequence was that they were the first to come under God's discipline when Israel turned away from Him, even as it is written, "In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites" (2 Kings 10:32-33).
Although not a great man in Israel, Naboth valued the inheritance that God had given to his fathers, and when the covetous eyes of Ahab would rob him of it, he showed how greatly he valued it in his words to the king, "The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to thee" (1 Kings 21:1-3). Ahab's offer of "a better vineyard" or "the worth of it in money" did not tempt Naboth, for he prized what God had given to his fathers when God brought them out of Egypt into the promised land. Naboth's tenacity in clinging to his inheritance, in spite of the blandishments of the king, cost him his life at the hands of the wicked Jezebel who, acting in the name of the king, falsely charged him with blaspheming God and the king (1 Kings 21:8-14).
The enemy of God's people would rob us of the portion God has given us if it were possible, but he cannot touch the inheritance we have "in Christ" and the inheritance laid up for us in heaven. How often in the history of the church has the enemy sought to rob the saints of their heritage of the Holy Scriptures and the precious truth of God. Soon after the apostles had been called home to the Lord, the enemy succeeded in robbing the saints of the precious things Paul had committed to Timothy, and of much more of Scripture, yet God had His witnesses who, in their measure, were true to God, valuing the precious truth they had learned and standing faithful even unto death. Much of church history is a human record of the attempts of the enemy to rob the saints of their divine inheritance and to turn them from fidelity and what God has given them.
In these last days the endeavour of the enemy is to take from us the truth that God has given in the Holy Scriptures. Leading men in Christendom deny the foundations of the faith and use even new translations of the Scriptures to further the ends of the enemy. What is called higher criticism, or modernism, is but an effort of the enemy to explain away the truth of God and take from the saints the portion that God has given to them to hold fast.
Jeremiah was living in the last days of the kings of Judah. The ten tribes were already in captivity and Judah was about to share in this because of their idolatry and sins against Jehovah. At that time the Lord told Jeremiah that his uncle's son, Hanameel, would come to him and offer to him his inheritance, and, when he came, the prophet purchased from him his inheritance (Jer. 32:6-9). Having completed the documents of purchase, Jeremiah charged Baruch in the Name of the Lord to put the documents in an earthen vessel "that they may continue many days. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land" (Jer. 32:10-15).
Hanameel evidently thought it was better to dispose of his inheritance, and have money instead, seeing that captivity was near. It showed that he valued money rather than the inheritance that God had given him. Is there not a similar spirit abroad in the Christian profession today, when men are lovers of their own selves, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God? (2 Tim. 3:1-4). Moreover, the believer in the Lord Jesus is apt to be affected by the spirit that is in Christendom in these last days, when materialism plays so large a part in the affairs of men and in the professing church.
Jeremiah was of a different spirit, valuing the inheritance of God even in a time when it seemed as if all were to go into captivity and none would be left in possession of what God had given to their fathers. The prophet, by divine revelation, was able to look beyond the perilous times in which he lived, and to realise that even if Israel were in captivity, God would again bring them into the land He had given them, when that which had been lost through their rebellion against God would yet be possessed by His people in God's sovereign goodness on the ground of the new covenant, as foretold in the previous chapter (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
May God, in His goodness, give us the spirit that was manifested in the daughters of Zelophehad, in Naboth and in Jeremiah, that enabled them to value God's inheritance and to show their concern for it.
Wm. C. Reid