Pass It On

I have inherited Your testimonies forever, for they are the joy of my heart.  Psalm 119:111  NASB

Inherited – Two or three words matter here.  The first is nāḥal (to inherit), the second is the familiar ʿēdût (testimony), and the third is joy (śāśôn).  First, nāḥal.  “The verb nāḥal basically signifies giving or receiving property which is part of a permanent possession and as a result of succession. Sometimes the idea of succession is absent but the ‘possessing’ carries with it a connotation of permanence.”^[1]  So what has the poet received that is his permanent possession as a result of succession?  It’s that last part that matters.  We could say, for instance, that he has received the Torah.  It belongs to God’s people, and by extension, to him.  But is it the result of succession?  Well, yes—and no.  Yes, it has been handed down from generation to generation, but no, it hasn’t been handed down his line of succession.  It’s a communal possession, not the possession of an individual tribe or clan.  So what has been handed down to him that does come from his line of succession?

That’s the second word, ʿēdût.  What belongs to him through inheritance is God’s actions in his line, that is, the witness of God’s work among his direct line of ancestors.  In fact, the Bible emphasizes this line when it provides us with long lists of genealogy.  Father to son to father to son to father to son, and so on.  Each tribe, each house, each clan.  God worked His plan with all of them, and my history is their history, unique to me.  Since ʿēd^ewōtê (testimonies) are the particular attestations of God’s continuance with the genealogy, it is uniquely inherited in just the same way that your ancestral story is uniquely yours.  Isn’t that amazing?!  God not only managed the entire community, He engineered your place and part in that community.  And it is uniquely yours.  No one else has that role—and that responsibility.

And now we understand why these engineered actions of God bring joy to his heart.  That word is ś^eśôn, human happiness and delight.  Why wouldn’t you rejoice over the fact that God’s compassion and care is evident in your own genealogy?  When you inherit a history that reaches back thousands of years and demonstrates over and over God’s rescue and revival of your own family line, wouldn’t you celebrate?  Wouldn’t that bring delight and happiness?

ś^eśôn raises an interesting question for us, those not connected to centuries of God’s historical involvement.  What about us?  How do we feel when our histories aren’t so biblical?  What happens to us when we don’t have a few thousand years to review?  When all we know about our own stories is the last few generations?  Can converts feel ś^eśôn?  Can Gentiles? The answer is uniquely Hebraic.  When you join the congregation that began at Sinai, that history is also your history.  You are grafted into a family that stretches back to the exodus.  You belong too!  ś^eśôn.

Topical Index: ś^eśôn, delight, joy, ʿēdût, testimony, oversight, nāḥal, inherit, Psalm 119:111

^[1] Coppes, L. J. (1999). 1342 נָחַל. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 569). Moody Press.