Inheritor, Beneficiary, Successor, Possessor, Recipient
Reflect
Open your heart to God as you wait before Him today. Ask Him to meet you, to speak to you and reveal His perspective. Consider for a moment the brevity of your life. Whether one believes the world is thousands or billions of years old, our time on the earth is only a breath in comparison. In contrast, the triune God has no beginning and will have no end. Jesus is both antecedent and subsequent to every iota of life on this universe or others. Ponder this as you read the following verses aloud, offering them as a prayer to Him.
There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.
Psalm 86:8-12
Read
Slowly contemplate the verses below, before reading the devotional that follows.
I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession."
God -- in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
Psalm 2:7-8, Hebrews 1:1-2, Revelation 5:9
What is it? It is the throne-room of the living God, a spiritual splendor where the supremacy of Jesus Christ in His infinite and transcendent beauty is fully manifested. Throughout Scripture we see fragments of what this looks like in something called theophanies, encounters with God where our spiritual eyes are opened to see for brief seconds, eternity in all its glory.
Moses and the elders were wowed by the feet of God resting on a pavement of brilliant sapphire stones, in an eternal expanse as clear as the heavens. Isaiah was undone as the quaking temple filled with smoke while flaming six-winged seraphim cried out in antiphonal chorus. Ezekiel's vision of a fire-cloud spewing lightning flash, and Daniel's river, ablaze as it flowed from the Ancient of Days, boggles the mind. Paul was not even allowed to reveal the inexpressible words he heard when he was taken up into the third heaven. [Exodus 24, Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7, 1 Corinthians 12]
Though fire clouds and flaming seraphim strain our finite imaginations, something of far greater magnificence moves the heart of Almighty God as He takes in the grand scene around His throne. It is the inheritance He granted His Son before the foundation of the world. The prophets foretold it, Jesus lived and died to gain it, and His final words on earth were a mandate for us to be a part of bringing it about. John's vision resounds with the glory of it:
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands (Revelation 7:9).
When God the Father made His Son the Heir of all things, Jesus became the desire of the nations, guaranteeing that believers from every tribe and tongue would one day worship at His feet. This is the joy that was set before Him, the ecstasy He envisioned when sweating drops of blood, stumbling down the Via Dolorosa, and groaning on Calvary's tree. As a result of His suffering, the Father delights to present to His Heir a kaleidoscope of worshipping saints whose hearts have been made new through the gift of redemption.
This is the wonder that captivated a small group of Moravian refugees one night in 1727 when the Spirit of God fell upon their chapel services. As revival fires burned through their midst, they became enthralled with the crucified Christ, and set out to win for the Lamb the reward of His sufferings. The small commune of 300 soon began a 24-hour a day prayer meeting for souls, which was sustained for 100 years.
In the three decades following this amazing move of God, the Moravians carried the Gospel of salvation by the blood of the Lamb not only to nearly every country in Europe but also to many pagan races in America, North and South, Asia and Africa. History reveals that in 20 years they initiated more mission endeavors than the whole Evangelical Church had done in two centuries. [Appelman, Hyman, When the Spirit Came, Bethany House, 1967, p. 15-16].
And the cause cannot but continue until the whole world knows, for all of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and his Son among all the peoples of the earth. [Piper, John, Let the Nations be Glad, Baker Books, 1993, p. 15]. Let us press on with all our might, scorning the treasures of this world, enduring all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. (2 Timothy 2:10). May we live for the moment when we too will join that symphony of praise, chorus of cultures, panoply of colors and torrent of tongues who bring delight to the Father as we worship Jesus, the Heir who died to make us His inheritance.
Respond The triune God determined even before the foundation of the world to bring people from every ethnic group into a saving relationship with Him, that they might one day enjoy together His glorious presence and worship at His feet. This is seen throughout Scripture and mandated in Jesus's final words -- the Great Commission. Why do you think God has chosen to accomplish the task of spreading the Good News through us? How might an overemphasis on Jesus as our personal Savior keep us from living out this unique call? In what ways are you participating in God's global agenda to secure His Son's inheritance? Praying? Giving? Going? Sending? Proclaiming? As followers of Christ, having been transformed by His saving blood, the Father longs to fulfill our deepest desires for joy by allowing us to win for the Lamb the rewards of His suffering. How might this perspective change the way you approach every aspect of your life? Consider this, and write a prayer of response.
A Prayer
O Lord, You alone are Heir, for no one else is worthy. How I long for You to receive the reward of Your suffering. I see You hanging from Golgotha's tree, and wonder if You heard that colossal chorus of praise in every conceivable language echoing like thunder from Your throne. I feel as if I can almost hear it now -- a cacophony of delightful worship – and I want to run to the nations until all have heard and You come to claim Your inheritance. Stir me today oh glorious Heir of all things, that I might ever live for the joy of that majestic moment.
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Copyright © 2004 Tricia McCary Rhodes