Focus: Eternal Legacy

Text: Jh.4:6

"Now Jacob's well was there..."

Vitor Belfort said, "Legacy is not what I did for myself. It's what I'm doing for the next generation." And let me add, true legacy is what you do in time that has the stamp of eternity in it. It lingers even when time is no more. It is what no earthly fire can consume, what no waters of earth can drown, and what time and memory cannot erase. It outlives us and continues forever.

Jacob bought a piece of land, dug a well in it, and handed it over to Joseph as a gift. It was the double portion he received, which should have gone to Reuben as the first son, but lost it to Joseph.

Firstborn sons got double portion of their father's inheritance, and also served as priests and kings of their families.

In Reuben's case, he lost the kingship to Judah, the priesthood to Levi, and the double portion to Joseph. To make matters worse, Reuben's tribe diminished in number each time census was done. (It's a message for another time.)

Jacob's well was dug on Joseph's inherited land known as Shechem in Genesis, and called Sychar in our text of John.

Now for generations men had been drinking from that well. Each generation that comes finds it extremely helpful. Jacob's well refreshed many a life. Even in the time of our Lord, it was still serving its purpose. What a gift! What a legacy! Jacob was long gone, but the legacy he left behind continued to meet an essential need in everyone's life. Water is a basic need in human existence.

Jacob, though dead, remained alive in the minds of the people because they drank from the well he left behind. Everyone drank from it, friends and foes alike. The woman of Samaria gladly boasted of it.

What mark are you making in people's lives? What legacy are you leaving behind that may linger for ages or for eternity? Who is happy because of you? Who is going to heaven because of you? Are you making God proud of you through faith and obedience? What will you be remembered for? What legacy are you taking with you to eternity? The Scripture says, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their LABOURS; and their WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM."

Are you doing and accumulating works that will follow you into eternity?

O, the legacy of a good name, the legacy of love, the legacy of souls won to the Lord, the legacy of good works, and the legacy of friendliness! I could go on and on.

O, Lord, help us not to live in vain or die unfulfilled! Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter