Deuteronomy 33:1 And this is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
Money can solve a lot of problems. It can also create a lot of problems. If you want an illustration of that, just look at the estate of someone with a lot of money and the people trying to get some piece of that estate after that person is gone. There is a story in the news right now of a wealthy man who had a large estate. Now that he is gone there is a lot of turmoil and legal wrangling over who will inherit his estate.
In Deuteronomy 33 Moses is basically leaving an inheritance. It is not his inheritance; it is God’s inheritance. He is leaving it to the children of Israel who are going into the land that he has seen but will not go into himself. Verse 1 says, “And this is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.”
You see two words in verse 3 that characterize the inheritance that follows. The words are “all” and “each.” The Bible says that Moses blessed the children of Israel; that is a reference to the entire nation. Verse 3 says that God “loved the people” and that “all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.” So, all of Israel had a wonderful inheritance from God through Moses.
Verse 4 says, “Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.” So, the inheritance to all of them was God Himself. It was God’s law, God’s way, God’s wisdom. Then for the remaining verses you have a list of the tribes of Israel such as Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Joseph, etc., and the inheritance that of each of them were to receive. Each of them had a different lot. They weren’t all the same. Joseph’s was different than Asher’s. Gad’s was different than Dan’s. They were all different, but all of them had the same inheritance in that God had left them a law, some guidance for their lives as they went into a new land.
That is true for us today. Jew or Gentile, each of us has a different lot in life. As Israel went into the land, each tribe was literally given a lot of land. They had different lots, different portions of land, different geographic locations. Similarly, each of us has a different lot in life, but all of us who are God’s children have the same inheritance, and that is what is important.
Let me point out two things. First, what we have in God is more valuable than what we have from God. What we have in God should be passed on. We obsess about how much of our money our estate will pass on to our kids. That really is immaterial if we are not passing on the God that we know, the God that holds us. That is important. So, pass a love of God on to your children.
Second, happiness is because of who we are not because of what we have. In the conclusion of this chapter it says, “There is none like the God of Jeshurun [the God of Israel]…The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms…Israel then shall dwell in safety alone…” Then verse 29 says, “Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency!”
The point is that they all had a different lot but the same inheritance. You are not going to have the same troubles, resources, and lot in life as the people living next door or the people you will see in church on Sunday. But, all of us have the same God, and all of us have what matters, the God Who is our help, our safety, our prosperity, and our guidance. That is what we ought to be focusing on today.