"A MAN ‘S REQUEST...AN ISSUE FOR ME TO TAKE HEED!"

"And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.Luke 12:13 KJV"

Jesus’ answer to this man’s simple request did not appear to me as if He was merely advising him. He did not speak in a manner that would make us think He was just making a comment. Much more so, when He went ahead to say, “Take heed.”

What is the meaning of “take heed”? It means “be careful.” Unless there is a danger, you don’t use the word, take heed. If someone is reversing his car and is about to run into another vehicle, people will shout “take care!” Then he will march on the brake. So I wonder what is dangerous in this man’s request that Jesus met him with a very sharp warning: “Take heed!” What is dangerous in someone collecting his father’s inheritance that made Jesus Christ to meet this man with a very serious warning?

"Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."Luke 12:15 KJV

What is covetousness in the thing that the man asked? My own traditional understanding of covetousness is, desiring what does not belong to you. This man was not asking for what does not belong to him. He was asking for his legitimate right. It was an inheritance. Inheritance is your right. It belongs to you. Nobody should cheat you out of it.

An inheritance is something that belongs to someone, by right; nobody should cheat him or her out of it. When Ahab confronted Naboth and said, “Naboth, give me your father’s land.” Naboth said, “How can I give you my father’s heritage? God forbid it that I should give you the inheritance of my father.” Only a useless, irresponsible person will allow his father’s heritage to pass off without seeking to possess it, because an inheritance is not only for your life time. It is for your children and your grand and great grandchildren....(A weekly Devotional by Gbile Akanni)

This is my own understanding. However, when I realized that my understanding clashes and conflicts with that of my master, it made me to seek to understand what His definition of covetousness is. What I discovered bothers my mind and kept me thinking that the Lord Jesus is speaking to me, from this scripture, that there is a danger, a pit into which I may fall without knowing.

The question then is, could a simple, innocent looking request, coming from my heart as a need, be but a thing to treat with a sharp and pungent warning such as “TAKE HEED?!”   Oh, how I need light in my heart to see and a discerning Spirit to know how easily deceivable a man’s heart is. No wonder why the scripture has it that:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"Jeremiah 17:9 KJV

This calls for earnest fervent prayer, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The eyes of our understanding being enlightened; that we may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints is. For this man’s request that has become a warning for me to take heed arose from a desire to receive the portion of inheritance due him. Yet, this seems far from the real inheritance of the saints in Christ Jesus. Else there would not have been a need for this warning from the Master. Everywhere this warning comes, “Take heed”, it is always to forestall a fall.

"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."
1Corinthians 10:12 KJV

Now that it has to do with what looks like a legitimate need, how much heed I need then to take.

Moreover, only one man made the request but Jesus’ response addressed all,“And He said unto them, Take heed…” 
The matter is therefore beyond the exclusive problem of one man. It spans beyond one generation. In fact, it relate not only to issues of this nature but such like. Anybody, at any time and in whatever generation that choose to neglect and take this warning for granted will no doubt fall into this pit even before he knows it.

"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."Matthew 7:24-27 KJV