The Lord Our Inheritance

Today the Scriptures set two cities before us: the city laid waste in grief, and the ordered dwelling of those set apart for God. Jerusalem sits solitary because sin is no light thing; when a people refuse the Lord, glory becomes ruin, friends become traitors, and songs become lament. Paul speaks of the same desolation within the soul: the good law is not the enemy, yet sin takes occasion by the commandment and makes a man divided against himself. Thus the outward ruin of Lamentations and the inward warfare of Romans meet in one truth: rebellion brings bondage and shame.

Yet God does not leave His servants without portion. The Levites receive their cities because their life is bound to the service of God. As Irenaeus says, “They shall have no inheritance, for the Lord Himself is their inheritance.” This is the better wealth. The man who can say with the psalmist, “I will call upon the Lord as long as I live,” has learned where rest is found. Not in ease, not in earthly security, but in steadfast calling upon God, in vows paid, in thanksgiving offered, in walking before Him in the land of the living.

So when Paul cries out over the body of death, he does not teach us to make peace with sin, but to hate it and seek deliverance. Tears are fitting; despair is not. Endurance is required. Tertullian says, “Precious (in the sight of the Lord) is the death of the just — arising, no doubt, out of their patient endurance, so that Zechariah declares: A crown shall be to them that endure.” Therefore let us choose the Lord as our portion, confess our captivity, and endure in obedience until lament is turned into praise.