When making our wills, we wanted our children to share equally yet realized certain things cannot be cut up in parts, at least not without selling them and dividing the proceeds. However, our adult kids have amazing camaraderie. They decided that one of them gets a parcel of land that no one wants sold. This is now his, and when the time comes, any division of other ‘stuff’ will be adjusted to equality.
An OT word translated PORTION often refers to a share of something, also a lot or inheritance. Most of the time this word is about what is granted to people or divided up among people, but a few verses speak of God having a portion or being our portion.
Deuteronomy 32:8–10. “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye . . . .”
“When the Lord divided to the nations their inheritance, He first separated the sons of Adam and set the bounds of every people. The children of Israel were few in numbers yet He chose them and made them His inheritance.” In other words, God considers His people as His portion. He takes care of us because all those who believe in Him belong to Him.
Another verse is special to me because of my heart condition. It tells me where my strength lies:
Psalm 73:26. “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
This verse puts God as my inheritance also. It says that heart failure and even death will not change the fact that not only do I belong to Him but He also belongs to me. He is my inheritance for all eternity. Because of that, He occupies first place in my life and my desire is to follow His direction and cooperate with His will:
Psalm 119:57–61. “The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words. I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law.”
In his poems of grief over the fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah the prophet ends on a high note because he knows these same truths about being God’s child and about God being his inheritance . . .
Lamentations 3:22–26. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”
The NT speaks also of what the Lord shares in and what He has no part of. For instance, 2 Corinthians 6:15 asks two questions: “What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?”
Belial is a name for Satan from a Hebrew word that means “worthlessness, unprofitableness, wickedness.” As all these qualities depict Satan and anyone else who is opposed to God. They are not part of Christ’s portion nor should they be included in our lives. When the choices in life parade before me, I must denounce and reject all manner of Antichristian uncleanness and evil.
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. That I am His portion has implications for this life yet also the life to come. Because I believe in Jesus Christ and share His life as He lives in me and shares in my life, I will participate in a major event after this life is over:
Revelation 20:6. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years (figurative perhaps).
Because of Christ, my portion is eternal life, expressed here as undying and ruling with my Savior for a long time in this verse and forever according to other passages. This is not so for those who reject Him:
Revelation 21:8. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
These thoughts are motivation for worship. My Savior not only forgave my sin but became my portion and I became His portion. He takes care of me, now and forever. I am amazed and in awe — and so thankful!
(Btw, photo is retired Brazilian footballer, Kaka)
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