- An Everlasting Possession
Genesis48:4 And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.
Jacob is speaking to Joseph telling him that God Almighty appeared to him at Bethel and promised him in these words. “The Lord will make me fruitful, multiply me, make a multitude of me, and give my seed this land.” The kicker is in the last two words: everlasting possession. The seed of Jacob will have the land as an eternal holding.
The seed of Jacob, Israel, is everyone who has received this promise by faith in the Seed, Jesus Christ. We are the seed, and therefore, the recipients of the promise. The land cannot be the geographical area of Palestine, for it is not everlasting. The earth, the ground, the soil will pass away when it is burned with a fervent heat. Neither can it be said that any person or family or group of people possesses the land. We may own some land, but all of us cannot own the whole land. Therefore, the land must be something spiritual and eternal: it is the kingdom of God, heaven, or the spiritual realm that God dwells in and rules. Although it is called the kingdom of God, and God does own it, He gives it to us as a possession.
All believers indeed have (own, possess) eternal life. It is given to us by grace and received by faith. Faith claims it, faith owns it, and faith has it. And it is secure forever. No foreign enemy or power will ever take it from us. We own it now, and we will own it forever.
God is so gracious that even though He owns it all, He has given it to us to own. He gives us His own life to enjoy forever. And we possess it now. We are surrounded by death: things die, people around us die, loved ones die, and we are dying. But in the midst of death we have life, now and forever. We live in a kingdom ruled legitimately by evil, death and Satan. But in the midst of that world God entered, lived, died, and rose again. We have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and death and transferred into the kingdom of light and life. This is the promise given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and each one of us.