Today I read something powerful. In Exodus 34:8, Moses prays for the Lord to be among the nation of Israel and for him to forgive them for being such a stiff-necked people. Then he makes the most interesting request. "Take us for your inheritance."
Take us for your inheritance.
I could not get passed this verse. I was moved by how all scripture points to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For every believer, we can delight in being the Lord's inheritance through Christ, for He bore our sins, drank the cup of God's wrath on our behalf, enduring the most horrible death--separation from God. By doing that he purchased a people for God and God gave us to Christ as a gift, as an inheritance.
Just recall Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:18, that we would have "they eyes of [our] hearts enlightened that [we] may know what is the hope which he has called [us], what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints."
Moses was praying for Jesus, for only through Jesus can we receive forgiveness of sins! Wow. And to think that not only are we His inheritance, not only do we belong to Him as His treasure, He is also our treasure. He is our portion. We gain in Him.
I am his and he is mine!!!! What a glorious inheritance indeed!!! Oh God, thank you for answering Moses' prayer and for including us in that picture of plentiful redemption.
And thank you for being so faithful to preach the gospel in the old and new testament. I just realized that when you declared, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation," in Exodus 34:6-7, you were preaching the gospel. Through Christ we receive that grace, and mercy, and steadfast love. You will not clear those who remain guilty because they refuse to change their minds and turn to you, but how faithful are you to those who do. Moses repented for his people.
"O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities."
Psalm 130:7-8
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!" Psalm 33:12
Can we pray together for our hearts to be humbled at the revelation of who Christ is and what He is done that we might know Him? And will you join me in praying this for the girls I'm getting to know at Bowie State? That they will all freshly encounter the gospel and begin to live their lives in response to it?
Thanks!
--Laura
