Present Possession and Future Promise.
God's best gifts to his loved ones are not always in good things of immediate possession. Some who are very dear to God have only promises to live on; they walk by faith, and not by sight, all their lives through. In the glowing record of the ancient workers of faith, in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, it is said, with reference to the earlier patriarchs: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth;" and, again, it is said, of the later men and women of God, at the close of that roll of fame: "And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise"—in its fulfillment. This same truth is brought out most touchingly by Joshua, in his closing address to assembled Israel at Shechem. In repeating the story of God's dealings with his covenant people, Joshua tells of Abraham, called out from his Mesopotamian home, and promised an inheritance in the land of Canaan. "And I took your father Abraham; . . . and led him throughout all the land of Canaan," says the Lord, speaking by Joshua, "and [I] gave him—Isaac." All that Abraham received in the present was first a promise, and then a link with the next generation, to which the promise was handed down. Abraham never had a permanent possession in Canaan, except in a burial-place, and that he had to pay full price for. "And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau," continues the Lord. "And I gave unto Esau Mount Seir to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt." Esau was the first one to receive solid earthly possessions; and that was because he despised promises, and preferred to have in hand whatever was to be his treasure. All the others lived and died "not having received the [fulfilled] promises," and not being dissatisfied with their lot. After this, as the Lord reminds his people, the Israelites had Canaan given into their hands to possess and to enjoy. But the sequel shows that that people did not walk so surely by sight as their fathers had walked by faith. After all, the best things which God could give to his children now, are not the things which show most in, and for, the present. Esau's share is not so desirable as Jacob's, in the long run. Neither a mess of pottage nor a real estate transfer is so good a portion, for a true-hearted child of God, as an inheritance in the promises. Esau and Jacob each chose what he preferred; and the Lord gave him what he chose. And the Lord is likely to give us that which we choose. Hot pottage and real estate do look tempting at times; but the promises are worth infinitely more. When the choice comes to us, we must decide for the one portion or the other. We cannot look for both.—Sel.