I have a lot on my mind, but don’t have a long blog in me tonight. I will share, though, regarding the verses that have been going through my head a lot the past few days: Psalm 2:7-9. It’s where Jesus recounts the time the Father said to Him:
“You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give You the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
From the very beginning, from day 1, the Father made known to the Son His ultimate destiny: To rule the world. Coming to the earth as a babe to become the suffering servant and then die as the sacrificial lamb of God was only part of the story. It wasn’t the end and it wasn’t the focus. There was something much bigger going on and we catch a glimpse of that Psalm 2, where the Father reveals to the son His plan set Jesus upon the throne of His Kingdom. There was an inheritance to obtain.
In the past, I’ve often read Hebrews 12:2 with a skewed perspective. It reads: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Being the self-centered human that I am, I used to figure that surely the joy set before Jesus was the satisfaction of saving me from my sins. And maybe that was part of His joy. It might even have been a large part of it. But something now tells me that there was more to it than that.
Jesus taught on rewards a ton. One of His primary motivating principles was along the lines of: “Make temporary sacrifices now and you’ll be lavishly rewarded later.” He didn’t demand the disciples pledge their allegiance to Him without incentivizing them. He could have simply said “I’m laying down my life for you, so you owe me yours in return.” But He didn’t. In His generosity, God also provides additional motivators. In Mark 10:29-30, Jesus says that “there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.”
Sure, the persecutions muddy up the picture, as does the prospect of having to leave brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, wives and children. BUT, He promises that we’ll be abundantly compensated for the sacrifice. And so it makes sense that the Father would paint a similar picture for the Son. “Commit to enduring the shame of the cross… of making your self low… And in due time, I’ll give you the nations. The nations!”
Daniel 7:13-14 gives us insight into the transference of this inheritance into the Son’s authority:
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.
Stunning. Just like we will some day, Jesus presents Himself before the Father and inherits an everlasting Kingdom. And it’s from this inheritance that we’re rewarded ours. Daniel goes on to say in verse 18 that “the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and forever” and in verse 22 that “the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.”
There’s a kingdom inheritance for us all—a rewards and benefits package beyond our comprehension. Much of it won’t materialize until the earth is fully repossessed by Jesus and His followers. But the repossession process is already underway and there are lands to be taken now—pillars of society for which the Church has sadly skirted its responsibility: arts & entertainment, business, education, family, government, media and religion.
It’s time that we asked of Him which nations are our inheritance and which ends of the earth are our possession. The devil has ruled this world long enough and it’s time for the revealing of the sons of God.
