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September 29 Daily Devotional

The Blessed Inheritance

Frans Bakker

The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance. —Numbers 27:7

Bible Reading

Numbers 27:7–11

Devotional

You, child of God, can never fully comprehend that your inheritance has been paid for with the blood of Christ. And with God, the inheritance cannot be given as long as the testator is alive. It is the One greater than Moses, the Mediator of the New Testament, who had to die. He shed His blood on the cursed cross. How He cried on the cross for a place with His God! But there was no inheritance for Him. His inheritance was the pangs of hell. God did not want Him, for He had been made sin. His own Father cast him out, so that He could merit a place with God for the fatherless. The people cast him out of earthly Canaan, outside of the camp. God, His Father, cast him out of the heavenly Canaan. He was thrown into the agonies of hell. Otherwise there never could have been an inheritance for spiritual sons and daughters of Zelophehad. Then, though they cried day and night, their prayers would never have been heard, since God requires justice.

What is there then to boast about in yourself? It is not because of your prayers that you received an inheritance. Neither is it because of your tears that you received the inheritance. With this inheritance, the sinner is abased and God is glorified. It is free grace alone. That great inheritance is truly received in heaven. The half of its beauty has not been told to you. And yet that inheritance starts here below on earth. The foretaste of blessed heavenly life is already experienced here. Heavenly life does not start in heaven, but here on earth. These are, however, but short moments. This life on earth remains a wilderness for God’s church. They are on a journey to a better land, to the Canaan of rest. Therefore it is so necessary for a child of God to remain a stranger here on earth.

Do not marvel if the Lord gives you earthly sorrows and losses. You cannot be without these. They are to cause you to remain a pilgrim here. Your earthly inheritances are ruined in order to teach you to long for a heavenly inheritance. Then your longing is not because of the palms, or the pearly gates, or the streets of gold, but only because of God’s presence. To be with Christ, that is far better. That land of rest would not be heaven if God were not there. And there God gains lost man back again. To be with Him is true joy forever. That is only received through the only Son of God, who said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.”

Zelophehad had no son, but God had a Son. Therefore you, spiritual children of Zelophehad, will enter into the Canaan of rest and you will live there forever.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.

 

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