Inheritance
Deuteronomy 18:2
leapt off the page as I read it this morning. “The Levites shall have no
inheritance among their brothers, the Lord is their inheritance.” Wow. What a
really cool way to describe the relationship that God has with His priests.
What is it that we like to say? “In the world but not of it!” This is saying
the exact same thing.
God’s priests are not
to be concerned with their physical worldly stuff. God can and will provide the
means to life. Worldly inheritance is so minor when compared to having an
inheritance from the Lord – and from a New Testament perspective we can even
say with confidence that we have an eternal inheritance with the Lord! After all, what is actually more important:
anything in this life or the eternity with God yet to come? The Lord is our
inheritance, and we who claim to be in Christ should live life as though this
is true. This is a powerful concept for me to begin to explore it depths on
this day.
I think this actually
has much to say about our effectiveness as Christians. After all, are we not all priests in the
Kingdom of God? Yet, when we live with
the same agenda as the world I can’t help but believe that the world is
confused. They look at us saying, “I can
live just like I’m living now and have to do the church thing? No thanks.”
When our lifestyle emulates what the world is doing, why would the world
want what we have? However, if we live as
though our God is our inheritance and start living according to God’s agenda,
then we give the world a different opinion indeed! Sure, many in the world will not want to make
the worldly sacrifices required of living a life focused on an eternal inheritance. But those few who are interested will
actually see something different about us.
I fully believe that
our lifestyle has more to say about the stagnant nature of the church than
anything else in our life. When we are
living like the world and attaining the same agendas that the world seeks to
attain, what’s the point of joining a religious organization? What to make a difference in the world around
you? Stop living for the inheritance of
this world and start living with the perspective of having an eternal
inheritance.
The Occult
The next section of
the passage deals with things that typically get labeled as occult: magic,
necromancy, séances, etc. The question is: why are they inherently bad? There
are many answers to this question, and today I am drawn to the answer of
motivation. People who try to speak to the dead are looking to gain an
advantage over something, perhaps even life itself by attempting to know the
future. People who use magic are attempting to gain an advantage over life or
even one another. These “religious” practices are not about glorifying God. Such practices are about glorifying the self
and this current life.
God does not teach us
to look for our advantage. God teaches us to live a life demonstrating love to
others by abandoning our advantage and giving of ourselves to the advantage of
others. God teaches us to become the servant, not the master. Occult practices
are just the opposite. Occult practices – or the practices of any false
religion for that matter – are about becoming the master. It is completely contrary in purpose to how
God teaches us to live.
Why is the occult so
dangerous? The occult is designed to
give us a sense of power. The occult is
designed to give us a sense of mastery.
It’s kind of like yesterday’s reading when Moses tells the people to not
let the king amass horses and women. God
doesn’t want us focusing on power and wealth and greed and list. Those things corrupt us. The same is true with the occult. The occult gives us a false sense of power
and control. Following God is about
being humble before Him, not about being in control.
Prophets
The last section of
this passage is on a prophet like Moses. As soon as I read that section, I
began to think of the greatest prophet among the Jewish people: Elijah. He did
many great things. He spoke to God like Moses. In every respect, Elijah
fulfills this prophecy. In fact, Elijah doesn’t even die!
However, Acts 3:22-23
gives us a second interpretation to this passage. Although Elijah fulfills this prophecy in
every way, Jesus Christ fulfills it even more. Jesus’ words are true. His words
are faithful. His words are in line with the Father’s teachings in the Old
Testament. Since His words are true, we should indeed follow Him.
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