OUR APPRECIATION OF THE INHERITANCE
R. Taylor
Joshua 14: 10–14 (to “of Caleb”); 13: 14, 33; 18: 7; 1 Kings 21: 1–3
I seek help, dear brethren, to encourage our hearts, as the Spirit may be free, to a deeper appreciation of our inheritance. I feel there is a danger of it being held very loosely, and things that are held loosely soon lose their value in our eyes. That is what happened to Israel.
The reason for their going into captivity was because they did not value their inheritance. It was not that the land was not able to support them, nor was there any lack of supply in the provision that was in the land, but they found themselves in captivity under another authority because they did not appreciate what God had given them. It has happened publicly in the western nations. The incoming of Christianity brought a great time of prosperity, but today Christian values are being very much undervalued; the result is lawlessness and a rising tide of evil that has never been seen before, and weakness of government to maintain law and order. These things have happened publicly through not appreciating what God has brought in in the incoming of Christ. Now these things come nearer home to us than that, dear brethren. There has been a great inheritance that we have been called into, but there is a danger of not appreciating it. I speak with deepest feeling, because there is a danger in my heart, as with us all, of not appreciating the great things that God has given us. As that happens we lose the joy of what may still be ours in the way of forgiveness of sins, and many other things; but as we underestimate the glory, the blessedness and richness of what God has given, we find ourselves missing the fulness of God’s blessing. It happened with Israel.
I read these passages, that we may see that what
happened with Israel was written for our instruction. We may learn from what happened there to value the great things that God has given us. How much He has given us to meet our needs. As we see in the history of the children of Israel, it began in Egypt where they were slaves in bondage to Pharaoh. Earlier than that, of course, God called Abraham when he was alone, but the taking up of them as a nation was there in Egypt as slaves and God called them out. What He has done to you and me in His mercy, dear brethren, is that He has called us out from a system of confusion and bondage, but to bring us into the great land that He has chosen for us. There they were, a few slaves in Egypt, but what thoughts God had for them, far more than could ever have entered into their heart at that time. It is like what Paul says,
“Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him”, 1 Corinthians 2: 9. This is what He did for you and for me when He forgave us our sins, when He gave us to see the helpless, hopeless state that we were in, lost, far from God and without hope. That is where God saw us when He spoke to us about the forgiveness of our sins. In the doing of it He was calling us out from a scene of bondage and all that we lay under that we may come under the influence of His love and grace.
Is there one here who has not heard that call of His grace, calling us to come out from all the bondage and despair in which we were held in the power of our sins, and to come into the thoughts and the purposes of His love? He did it in that lamb, by the blood on the lintel and doorposts; so that through faith in that blood there was the beginning of spiritual history with that people. What was there in that lamb in Egypt was to awaken in their hearts that there was One so dear to God. For us it is typical of the Son of His love, whom He gave to emancipate us from the thraldom and the power of sin. “He who, yea, has not spared his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us
all things?” Romans 8: 32. I say again, Is your faith in that blood, or are you still wondering about the despair and bondage you are under with your sins? We would appeal that you may put your faith and confidence in God. God had great beginnings there. The power of Pharaoh and all the host of Egypt could not hold back the power of God coming in towards His people to emancipate them from Egypt and all its power and resource. God was there endearing Himself to their hearts.
Caleb must have known something about that. He would know about that blood being on the door-posts and that lamb being in the house for four days. It was a well-known Jesus who went into death. It was a well-known lamb whose blood was shed after those four days. Caleb would know about that perfect lamb. There was nothing in it to call forth judgment. The lamb was slain, the blood was put on the lintel and the two door-posts, and the flesh was roast with fire and eaten in the house. That was the way God made to take them out from the bondage they were under. It is typical of what He has done for you and for me. Well I think Caleb knew something about that. So it says in Joshua 14 that he desired the inheritance. I would like to stir up a desire in our hearts for the inheritance. I am sure every one of us has some appreciation of it. You can see by Caleb’s remarks here that he was longing for forty-five years to be in the joy of the inheritance. That is why he was kept alive, he valued the inheritance. He valued what God had spoken about. God had given him some taste of it, as He has given you and me some taste of it. In the gospel preaching it is not only a gospel announcing forgiveness of our sins, but Gods glad tidings concerning His Son directs us to Jesus where He is. He is there for us. That is what Caleb came to realise as he went to spy out the land, when he saw Eschol’s grapes and saw something of the land that God had prepared for them. It is like what God gives us in spiritual ministry as we are together in occasions like this. He gives us some insight into that good land which Caleb, in type, embraced in his
affections.
It is quite interesting how far they went in the land if you look at the geography. It says they came to Hebron. Someone said, they would go to the cave of Machpelah. He would come to that tomb and he would see Abraham buried Sarah, Isaac buried Rebecca, and Jacob buried Leah. He would see there the God of his fathers. As we come into that land that is what we see, something of a God who is able to raise the dead, whose promises are all secure and centred in Christ, the Man of His counsels, the Man who has been into death and has been raised to God’s right hand. Caleb had some impression about that, not only of the God who had promised, but who was able to bring him in. He has some sense of that here as he comes into the land. It comes to this point in the history when Joshua is allocating the land by the tribes. As you read this section you get the impression that Caleb cannot wait. It was not quite his turn. Joshua was dealing with some other tribes, but Caleb as it were could not wait, he says, Give me it. It was so precious to him. He says, Jehovah has kept me alive, and I want to speak about it as persons getting the inheritance by desire. That is how things are continuing.
We used to be told, you will get what you go in for, and that is verily true. Most, if not all, of his companions had died. You may say, they did not go in for it. But Caleb went in for it, he appreciated the ministry, he appreciated the gatherings of the saints; to bring it to our time, he valued the times and seasons of the saints being together, and he says, God has kept me alive.
He was kept alive in his affections, but he was kept alive these forty-five years in energy, he says, “as my strength was then, even so is my strength now”. Think of God keeping alive his desire for the inheritance. May I again ask, dear brother, dear sister, Is it kept alive in your heart?
There were the two-and-a-half tribes but it was not kept alive in their affections. They did not go over the
Jordan to live there. They went over and they came back. Caleb had no thought of going back. But there were two-and-a-half tribes, and at this juncture I do not speak of them altogether disparagingly, for it says that Moses had given them their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward. It is like the believer coming to appreciate what God has given you for yourself. You come to appreciate that your sins have been forgiven, you come to rest in the Saviour’s love and grace, without moving forward to live in the area that He has purposed to have you in near to Himself. These two-and-a-half tribes went over Jordan but they came back. They saw something of the land but they did not want to live in it. They saw it and it was held in their affections only objectively. Another has said about it very solemnly that they were prepared to fight for it but they were not prepared to live in it. That is very testing.
There has been ground won through conflicts, persons at great cost have opened up the inheritance for us, and some have gone back from these conflicts to live as they did before.
These things are very near to us and very real in the history of the testimony. Two-and-a-half tribes were content with these matters that had been given them. They had gone through the wilderness; they had known something of coming out of Egypt; they even knew something of that springing well; they had even looked at that serpent lifted up; there had been all that experience, and yet when it came to the point of living in the thoughts of divine love for them they said, No, we will live near to it but we will not be in it.
One thing about the inheritance is, it has very clearly defined boundaries. Outside these boundaries you may carry the doctrine of the inheritance, but to enjoy the inheritance you must be inside those boundaries. Caleb wanted to be in Hebron, in type he wanted to be in the centre of all God’s thoughts and promises secured in Christ, the Man at God’s right hand.
That is where he was wanting to live. These two-and-a-half tribes said, in effect, Well we agree with all that
but we want to live in our own circumstances. What a disadvantage they placed themselves in! Caleb and all the others who went over had all the two-and-a-half tribes had, but they also had the great land that God had spied out for them. Think of how the spies that came back spoke about the mountains and the valleys, the springs, the grapes, the pomegranates. Those who went into the land had all that as well as what the two-and-a-half tribes had. The application for us is that we may have the terms of the truth, but where do we live? The two-and-a-half tribes soon erected a monument. They lived in the past, they knew nothing of the great system of service that was proceeding, they were very far from the ark. These people went over the Jordan but they came back. It has been the history of many souls. Most of us in our histories would feel there are times when we have gone back. That same ark that made a way through the Jordan, it is there enshrined in the land, the centre of all God’s thoughts.
There are people who want to live in relation to the ark and all that is surrounding it.
That is why I spoke about the Levites. The Levites’ portion was centred around the ark. They represent a very special class, persons who want the best. Indeed, they are the persons, of whom we have spoken already, who want what God has prepared for them that love Him.
The Levites represent those that love Him. I trust every one of us in this room would enlist ourselves in the company of those that love Him. What a company they are, and the Levites would represent that. They had been tested and they showed in their affection what the two-and-a-half tribes did not show. They showed they had real affection for Christ, as we speak, and they were prepared to sacrifice, they were prepared for a separate path, they were prepared for the tribulations and the exercises of the testimony to be near the ark. And God says, I have a wonderful portion for you. They had what the others would have, too, because it says they had cities to dwell in and they had the suburbs round about
for their cattle. God took that tribe to demonstrate to us something of the Christian’s portion today because the Levites were spread abroad. It was as if they were put into every local company of the saints, set there by God to maintain the saints in the joy and light of their inheritance. May it be so in every one of our local gatherings, dear brethren, that there are persons who are set in their minds and in their lives to maintain the thoughts of God for the brethren by themselves living in the joy and glory of them.
As we speak of their portion, God says they had a very special part. They were not overcome by the affairs of this life. God provided for them of the best. It says, “the offerings by fire of Jehovah ... are their inheritance”. What an inheritance to have, what God was appreciating of Christ typically. These offerings would be what there was ascending to God of Christ, and the Levites were living on that. They were not living on the breakdown. As you were in their company they would not reminisce about the happenings in the wilderness, they were living on the offerings. Think of God in His grace bringing us to have that for our present portion—
‘Love divine our present portion,
Heaven’s choicest store’. (Hymn 135)
God is dividing out to these Levites “the offerings by fire”. Oh, think of all that would enter into that as they would see these offerings by fire, the sufferings, the atonement, what entered into it, and they were feeding on that. There they are in every local company having the offerings as their inheritance. They were maintaining the standard. That is why Levi was divided through the rest of the tribes, it was to maintain the standard in the unity of the Spirit.
People were bringing in other thoughts, some would want to have a wider path, some would want to reduce the thoughts of separation; the Levites were maintaining the standard, they were maintaining the unity. There was one tribe through the whole of the rest of Israel maintaining the thoughts of God; there they are feeding on the offerings by fire of Jehovah. May we set ourselves, dear brethren, to have this kind of food, to have this portion.
God says more about them, He says, “the God of Israel is their inheritance”. What could be greater? Not only the offerings, but God Himself was their portion. Mr Darby speaks about that in his hymns too—
‘What the God that thou has found—
Patient, gracious, powerful, holy;
All His grace shall there abound’. (Hymn 76)
Mr Darby’s hymns and poetry are so beautiful, they give you an impression of a man who had God for his inheritance. It was not that the Levites were unmindful about everyday matters, but they were all the better able to attend to everyday matters at their true level because God was their portion. The great matter God would have in mind is, that even though we are in the wilderness, we come into wilderness circumstances in the conscious enjoyment of our place in the thoughts and purposes of divine love. Any other way we shall lose our way in the wilderness. But that was Caleb, the land was in him before he was in it. That is our experience at the Supper, where we have some fresh experience of our present portion in divine love. Then we are able to meet exercises in the testimony from the conscious enjoyment that God is our inheritance.
It says too that they had the priesthood. The great service of the Levites in Joshua was to look after the ark, they carried it. At Jericho it speaks about them being on this side and that side of the ark, they were surrounding it; they were cherishing and defending the rights of Christ.
These are the persons who are enjoying their inheritance. Oh, dear brethren, how much is open to us, how much is available for us. May the Levites and what God gave them encourage us. It says, “the Levites have no portion among you”. It does not mean they do not attend to everyday things, but they are not bogged down by them. The great purpose of their life
was the priesthood. That involved looking after the saints, it involved entering into the exercises the brethren face in the testimony, but primarily it involved maintaining things for God. The priesthood maintained the standard, they set out God’s thoughts for the people. It says, “the Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of Jehovah is their inheritance”. Their great object in life was the priesthood, that God should have His portion. I feel tested in these matters as I apply them to myself. I trust all here are likewise tested. As feeling the test as to what our inheritance is, yet God has provided it, in His grace He has given us the resources that we may be maintained in the joy of our inheritance.
In 1 Kings 21 there is someone who would try to take Naboth’s inheritance away from him.
That is the enemy’s great effort today, among other things, but I believe primarily the enemy’s great effort is to reduce in our eyes the value of “the inheritance of my fathers”. It seemed a very fair proposition. He could have capitalised on the circumstances. The king was prepared to give him a better vineyard or its value in money. Dear fellow believer, the enemy is bidding for your soul. The enemy is bidding to try to dull your affection for Christ and His interests. He says, I will give you something else. Would it not have been easy? Yes, he could have had a much easier path. He could have had friends. Maybe Naboth was pretty much alone. It was a difficult day he was in, he must have known very restricted and limited circumstances. What an opportunity. Would he embrace it? No, he is quite definite, “Jehovah forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to thee!”
I would like to speak for a moment of the inheritance of our fathers that has come to us. It has been won at great cost. The inheritance as we know it is here at great cost. It has been secured at great cost to Christ, we sung of that in our hymn (No.429), the cost it has been to our Lord and Saviour that we may come out of Egypt’s thraldom and bondage to come into the inheritance. It has been at great cost to the Father, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things”, Romans 8: 32. What a cost it has been to the Father to open up this inheritance to us. What a cost it has been to the Holy Spirit. We do not speak much about it, but the sufferings of the Holy Spirit in this dispensation are very real. How the Holy Spirit must have felt it in the time since Pentecost, the way He has been slighted, the way He has been set aside in clericalism and in the allying of the church with the world. The sufferings of the Holy Spirit in this present dispensation are very real, and they have gone on for nearly two thousand years. We should think more about that. The Holy Spirit has been brought to our attention of late, and we should think of how He has suffered because He, and He alone, has preserved the inheritance for our enjoyment. It has been through vessels, I know, but the sufferings of the Spirit in the dispensation to preserve the inheritance for us to enjoy it is something that needs to be appreciated more by us. The inheritance that we enjoy has come to us at great cost to divine Persons, but also at great cost to men and women and young people like ourselves. Luther stood for it; there is a man we owe something to. We owe a great deal to the martyrs. They would not give ground. There was popery, there was the church being allied with the world, the state church, oh how the Spirit feels that! Our fathers have stood for things and they preserved an area that we can enjoy the inheritance. May I leave some impression on every heart of the cost it has been for you and me to put our foot down today and enjoy the inheritance of our fathers. Further may I address us all, especially the elderly ones. What are we passing on? Is it intact? Naboth would not allow the inroads of the world. He would not allow the rich inheritance that his fathers had passed on to fall into other hands. That meant he was prepared to suffer.
Now you say, What is the inheritance? To put it simply, it is the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That is what we have been called into. It will soon shine in its lustre and glory when we are with Christ for ever, but today it is enjoyed in the fellowship of God’s Son, and you have been called into it, as I, through grace. May we seek to put our feet down in it, to defend it at all costs and to seek to live in the joy of the inheritance of our fathers. In it there has been the great opening up of the service of God. That is the great point I think that could be read into what Naboth says, “the inheritance of our fathers”. I trust the brethren read the early ministry and the conflicts there were. Whatever time you have been in fellowship, the service of God perhaps has seemed pretty much as it was. You may think things have always been like this. Not so, dear brethren. In the movements that we speak of as the recovery there were persons who were prepared to defend the inheritance. Light shone into their souls of a Head in heaven and a body here, and they were prepared at great cost to leave the established church. There were a few brothers meeting in Dublin in a back room in the city, and others elsewhere, of little account publicly, but they were persons who were valuing their inheritance. In those days it was a great reproach to be outside the established church.
As time has gone on there have been conflicts that persons have gone through to hold the ground so that we may have liberty and joy in the service of God. May we appreciate the service of God as it has been opened up to us. At one time the brethren used to have the box under the table. Why is it on the table? You can find out in the ministry why we have the service of God as we have it today. Beloved servants of the Lord laboured for years to bring the saints into a greater appreciation of the service of God. There are still some dear brethren yet who break bread at the end of the meeting. Why is that? Our fathers have laboured to open up the inheritance to us. There have been Calebs who have spied out the land and they have opened it up.
May we value, in true appreciation, the way that the truth has been opened up to us, so that we know our part as brethren with Christ. Some thought it almost blasphemy to speak of the saints in the way we would speak about them today. It is part of the inheritance of our fathers that the truth has been opened up to see the place the assembly has as the precious counterpart of Christ. That is the inheritance of our fathers. May we value and treasure it.
May we apply ourselves to defend it as Naboth did so that it may be passed on till the Lord comes. And what will He find? He will find the inheritance being looked after. He will not find it has been overgrown by weeds; He will not find that the doctrine as to Christ and His true place in the Father’s affections has been nullified. No, He will find it alive in the affections of the saints, kept alive in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit of God. Dear brethren, may we appreciate what we have so near to hand. It will only go through in suffering. It will only go through as we are prepared to sacrifice. It will only go through as we are set to live within the boundaries. They are not boundaries man has made. Some people think they are only brethren’s ideas about things. The boundaries of the inheritance are divinely prescribed for our protection to enclose a place for Christ and the assembly. May we value it as Naboth did. May we value it as our fathers have, that the joy of it may be preserved in our hearts until the Lord comes. May we have those affections we sang about at the beginning maintained in the time of His absence, giving Him His true place, but longing for His appearing. We look forward to that day when He will come in His majesty, when He will come in His glory. He will come with His saints, those who have maintained the inheritance. Dear brethren, may it be kept alive in our affections through our intimacy with the Spirit and our dependence on Him and His service here until Christ comes, for His name’s sake.
Address at Grangemouth
20 November 1999