Inheritance

We often think about inheritance in terms of the will of the deceased. What I mean is that each person gets what someone left to them in their last will and testimony. The will functions to express the wishes of the person who owned the assets. I suppose our reasoning is that since the property belonged to this person, their personal property rights extend to their posthumous will. I must admit to my modern sensibilities this seems correct. This post is not intended to be a full treatment of a Biblical view of personal property rights. To be clear, I think that the Lord gives us the privilege, authority, and responsibility of personal property ownership in the pages of Scripture. But this post is about what God may be teaching us through the rules of inheritance in the Scriptures.

 In Numbers 27, we see God amending the inheritance stipulations for Israel so that daughters can inherit in the absence of any brothers. The context goes on to explain how the nearest relative of a person had the right of inheritance. What is interesting about this is that God did not leave it up to the will of the individual to decide who would receive the inheritance but rather God chose through the mechanism of the legal code. 

It is clearly true that many of these kinds of civil laws given to Israel are specific to Israel in that they are meant to show the distinction of Israel from the other peoples around them. These laws also serve to preserve the tribes and their allotments which is an important part of why the familial connections are so important. Keeping the land or possessions in the family also keeps them in the tribal portion. 

But what if there is still another reason for this instruction? Could this other reason be that God is showing us that the requirement for the true heirs is relationship? I think so!

Heirs of Abraham

After God initiates His covenant relationship with Abraham and the promises that belong to the future new covenant, all the believers throughout the Old Covenant period recognize their inheritance comes through their relationship to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is because God made and reestablished His covenant relationship with them and their descendants (Genesis 12;15;17;26;35). However, not all the physical descendants were spiritual heirs of the New Covenant promises. Even while they were under the external demands and privileges of the Old Covenant.  

This is why the opponents of Christ are so adamant that they are not illegitimate but are Abraham’s children, because their relationship to Abraham truly is their relationship to God (John 8:39-45). They truly thought that God was more concerned with external obedience and genetic connection than true love of God and man from the heart (Matthew 22:34-40). But the true sons of Abraham may not have the blood of Abraham but they have his faith (Romans 4:13-25).

Heirs of Christ

The reality is that now after Jesus has come and brought us into the New Covenant through His mighty death and resurrection, we are made true heirs of Abraham because of our relationship with Christ (Galatians 3:23-29). The inheritance we receive as believers is the result of the relationship we have with God. Because we are now in Christ and indwelt with the Holy Spirit and at peace with God the Father, we are therefore, fellow heirs with Christ and heirs of God (Romans 8:12-17).

So, dear Christian, rejoice! For you are an heir of God by sheer grace and according to the electing, redeeming, and adopting will of God. This inheritance is sure because it is kept in heaven where no capture or corrosion or corruption can ever happen (1 Peter 1:3-5).

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