The Hebrew Bill of Rights (2)

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places, yes, I have a beautiful inheritance. Psalm 16:6

Inheritance – If my destiny is in the hands of the Lord (as we learned in the first part of this verse), then what rights do I have? If I live under His Kingdom as a citizen in His government, what rights can I claim? Now David uses a different Hebrew word to capture this part of his thought. Here the word is nachalah. This is possession, property and tangible inheritance. This is a piece of the land (Numbers 26:53-56). No wonder David says that the “lines” have fallen in good places. His property lines establish his claim in the land of milk and honey.

Is that all? Is David simply saying that he got a good piece of property? Not likely. David also knows that the same word is used to describe the inheritance of the Levites, the priests. But their inheritance is not any part of the land. Their inheritance is the Lord Himself (Numbers 18:20). Now, which would you rather have; a piece of the land of Israel or a portion of the relationship with the Lord Himself? Careful! There are some fairly big implications with either answer to that question.

One thing is certain. NONE of it is a right! In the Hebrew worldview, you don’t have a right to life, liberty and property (the original wording of the Declaration of Independence). In fact, you don’t have a right to anything. Why? Because you stand under a holy God who is the absolute monarch of all creation, who made it all, owns it all and controls it all. Your sin excludes you from any guarantee except punishment since your sin brands you a rebel against the one and only Ruler of all. You are a traitor and traitors deserve to die. You have no rights – but you have been given many gifts. The amazing thing about God is that He doesn’t pay any attention to your “rights” either. Instead, He operates completely on the basis of gift. In His Kingdom, He gives you life, liberty and property simply because He is gracious, compassionate and loving. The second we forget that it is all gift, we stop seeing the world through Hebrew eyes. That’s when we start expecting something just because we are here. Even the famous Declaration of Independence doesn’t capture the thought of the Hebrew constitution established at Sinai. God gives! That is the basis of all my actions, thoughts and expectations. David got it right. My destiny is in the throwing of the lots, and He does the throwing.

Does a slave have a right to anything except what the Master determines to give him? Of course not. That’s why he is a slave. Does a citizen have a right to anything except what the King (not the Congress) decides to give? No. Change politics if you want to understand the Hebrew bill of rights. Move your mind to a dictatorship under the absolute sovereign of the universe. Then see how far you get with complaints about “rights.”

We have a lot to be thankful for, not least of which is the fact that we serve a God who gives. Maybe that’s the place to start today – thanking God for everything as a gift.

Topical Index: gift, right, inheritance, nachalah, Psalm 16:6