“Protect Our Valuable Heritage” (10 min.)
For some, an inheritance may be something already prepared to receive it and for others it may be something unexpected. But regardless of how it was obtained, we are sure that this inheritance must be protected and cared for. And as Christians, we too have to do the same. In this section of Treasures of the Bible, with the title: "Protect our valuable inheritance."
We will analyze how one can take care of it by having received it, how others can react to receiving it without any effort and they could simply waste it. And on the other hand, how could we make all the necessary effort to take care of it, to protect it, not to lose it?
To serve as an example: Let's look at the case of Caleb, who has been talked about these weeks in our section of the book of Joshua. Let's see how he protected the inheritance that was being given him an inheritance, in this case of land, and also for the protection of his identity as a servant of Jehovah.
LET'S READ: Joshua 15:14.
So Caleb expelled from there the three sons of Anac: Sesai, Ahiman and Talmai, descendants of Anac.
This action described in this verse was not easy at all. Anac was a man of very large stature, and that is why they had the strength to stay in those territories. And here Caleb, along with the rest of Judah, was not the only one they had to defeat. What's more, Anac was gone now there were his children, three of whom are mentioned here.
So to take care of what he had been given to protect, he had to first take down those people. And it wasn't easy at all. It was a battle where he could risk his own life. And he did it because he knew that if he did not perform it, he would have nothing to enjoy.
Today as servants of God. We also need to be careful with our surroundings, with things that we have to remove completely from our lives, which could be a hindrance in our service to Jehovah. We could perhaps be thinking of time-wasting activities that we could use in our activity in ministry, in our attendance, in meetings, in our personal study and Bible reading.
If we realize that sometimes we have to make firm decisions, decisive in terms of removing things that hinder us. For example, activities such as outdoors, recreation are not bad. But when they exceed the time or take the time away from our service for Jehovah or our spiritual activities, this can jeopardize our spiritual heritage.
Now why do you have to do it? Why do you run the risk of losing it? An inheritance can be squandered or squandered by someone who receives it without much effort. Today it has been seen how parents have made fortunes or have owned properties in quantity, or perhaps in a reasonable measure.
But by giving it to their children as they did, it has cost them nothing. They start wasting it, wasting it, and losing it. That happened with the Israelites. They had many things almost effortlessly. Some of them only had to take possession of the land and nothing else. And they wasted it.
LET'S READ: Joshua 16:10
But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; Canaanites continue to live among the Ephraimites to this day and have been subjected to forced labor.
The Israelites described here, those of the tribe of Ephraim, conquered that land, but they did not do what Jehovah asked to be done, that the Canaanites who were among them be expelled or killed. It is true that the verse indicated that they were subjected to forced labor, but they continued with them.
Now what was the danger? The Canaanites did not worship Jehovah. They had their own false gods having them so close. Could at some point incite or push the Israelites to copy this same way of acting? And it was known that sooner or later they were going to push the Israelites or seduce them to worship their false gods. And biblical history proves it.
Today we can have an attitude similar to that of these Israelites, believing that we can handle the situation and that nothing will happen to us. How wrong we are, even anointed Christians of the time after Jesus. They failed by not taking actions as they should be. Each of us must sincerely examine what could hinder or affect our service of Jehovah and make radical decisions.
We do not want to have dishes outside of work with our co-workers, because that could harm us. One could say no, but I don't like to drink. I do not like to smoke, I do not like to commit immorality, but by associating ourselves with people who do it and who could at some point incite us to do so, we could fall and lose our valuable inheritance.
We all need to be cautious, we all need to be careful. The temptation will always be for everyone. Even the Lord Jesus Christ himself had a temptation or several temptations from Satan, and if he had not acted as he should, he would also have fallen, which was a possibility. We don't think we are stronger than anyone else. We must take care of our precious inheritance.
Returning to this point, we know that to receive an inheritance certain requirements must be met. A father out of love for his son, that is the requirement, his emotional family affiliation. For others it may be having served that person very hard and in gratitude the inheritance is given. But something must be done. Jehovah also gave the inheritance that was due to the people who deserved it.
LET'S READ: Joshua 17: 17,18
So Joshua said this to Joseph's household, Ephraim and Manasseh: “They are a large people and they have great power. It will not only touch a part of the land, 18 but the mountainous region will also be yours. Although it is a forest, they will clear it, and it will be the limit of your territory. They will drive out the Canaanites even though they are strong and have chariots with iron sickles ”.
Although we already saw that not all were expelled from the place, however, Jehovah gave them the inheritance in its entirety and little by little they were taking complete control, although some Canaanites remained alive. This then shows that Jehovah is willing to give the inheritance. He sees that we make an effort and of course, he also wants to comply.
Today the inheritance that Jehovah offers us is eternal life. It is something that we cannot achieve on our own, and he wants us to make every effort to protect and secure this inheritance. How can it be done?
We do not want to be like some who receive inheritances and do not care for them or waste them thanks to our current faithful service to Jehovah. We can get difference but we need to protect it, take care of it. Let us do our best to show Jehovah that we are eligible for difference and that we will do our best to protect her now and in the future.
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