Rethinking our Inheritance

Read Job 20.

It was Zophar's turn again.  The gloves had been taken off.  The verbal punches came faster and harder.  It is difficult to imagine any graphic detail these so-called friends left out in pounding Job.  They kept on trying to beat him into submission and to admit some unconfessed sin.

Zophar expounded a list of behaviors of wicked persons and what God will do to them.

-Their celebration and pleasures will be short-lived. (v.5)

-Their life, no matter how high their position, will one day be gone and forgotten. (vv.6-9)

-Their children will have to deal with those they oppressed and any accumulated wealth will be gone. (v.10)

-Their bodies, no matter how strong, will return to dust. (v.11)

-Their desire and delight in doing evil will one day turn into a lethal poison that will do them in. (vv.12-17)

-Their ill-gotten gains will all be lost. (vv.18-19)

-Their constant striving for more wealth will not spare them from God's wrath. (vv.20-26)

-Their sin will be openly exposed for all to see. (v.27)

-Their possessions will all be gone. (v.28)

That is what the wicked have to look forward to when this life is over.  While those things may be true of the wicked, it was not true of Job.  Nor is this the "portion" (inheritance or allotment) for those who worship the LORD.

Asaph, in Psalm 73, confessed that he was envious of the prosperity of the wicked.  Nothing seemed to bother them.  They do what they want.  They say what they want.  They do not feel any accountability to God.  But when Asaph went entered into worship with the LORD he was reminded of their end.

"Whom have I in heaven but you?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Psalm 73:25-26)  Eternal life and joy waits for those who put their faith in Him.