How ironic: “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours” (Lk 20:14).
“Their inheritance was by lot” (Jos 14:2). What seemed to be random was the way God used men to enact His will: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Prov 16:33). Israel’s landscape varies dramatically—from snow-capped Hermon to palm groves at Jericho, from wheatfields in Bashan to the verdant Jezreel, and from Galilee’s fishing villages to the tiered vineyards of Samaria. How many could say, “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good inheritance” (Ps 16:6)? I daresay they all could, each in their own way. Would the Lord have been unfair with any of them? Today two-thirds of Israel is semi-arid or worse, besides having a shortage of water. But this is not biblical Israel; it has been ravaged by the judgments of God, the abuse of oppressive foreign powers, and centuries of neglect after the Jews were driven out. In Bible days it was far different. For example, what is now wasteland was once the Forest of Ephraim, so dense that “the woods devoured more people that day than the sword” (2 Sam 18:8) in Absalom’s defeat. Even the testimony of the naysayers was that it was indeed “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Num 16:13). But this was not Israel’s true inheritance. Forgive me if I seem to wander. I see Roman soldiers casting lots, too. They have stripped a Figure of His clothes and are gambling for them. In doing so, unwittingly, they also perform God’s will (Ps 22:18). Obviously this One had far more than His garments rent that day. Yet only in this way could Israel receive their true Inheritance. What is the inheritance of Psalm 16:6? See verse 5: “O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance.” If only they could see that the Heir is the inheritance!