The Old Testament is dominated by the topic of the Promised Land. It starts in Genesis with Abraham being told to go to a particular land. Then in Exodus through Deuteronomy, Moses is called to lead the Israelites back to that Promised Land. We read in Joshua of the struggle to gain the land back. Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, the struggle of Israel to remain in the land is at the forefront. Even the Gospels and the first of Acts continue to speak of locations in the land.
The topic of the physical Promised Land there in Asia, along the Mediterranean Sea, is prominent in the Bible; but today, for us, the Gentile Church, this topic doesn’t make much sense. We mostly reference the Promised Land only metaphorically to describe fellowship with God and our future in Heaven. I’d argue that the disconnect rests in us not considering the single narrative running throughout the Bible and history. That’s the point of this series of articles.
In the previous article, we looked at how once God took the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as His, He had to find them a home. God chose this strip of land in Asia. He made a covenant with Abraham and continued that with Isaac and Jacob. This covenant was unconditional. God gave them the land for perpetuity. Yet, as Israel travels back to the land from Egypt, God makes another covenant with Moses and the people. This covenant is conditional, with the conditions being that if the Israelites keep the law, they will live in the land that is theirs and enjoy it; but if they fail to obey the law, they will be removed from the land.
Throughout history, Israel constantly rebelled against God, and prophets were sent to call them back to Him and warn them that if they continued to break the covenant, they’d be removed from the land. This eventually happened. The Assyrians took away the 10 northern tribes, and the 2 southern tribes were exiled to Babylon, but even during the time of exile, God spoke comfort through the prophet Jeremiah: “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant… This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts…’” (Jer. 31:31-33 NIV).
The prophet Ezekiel gave Jews a similar hope for the future: “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 11:19-20). “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezek. 36:26-27).
Jeremiah and Ezekiel gave the hope of a New Covenant. This New Covenant would do two things — reconcile God’s people with Him and make His people able to obey the law. This hope of being able to obey the law was in the context of the removal from the land, which, as you probably recall, was due to not being able to keep the law. So, the New Covenant is providing God’s people a way to obey the law and, therefore, be able to live in the land. This should be intriguing for us, the Gentile church, because we know this promise in Jeremiah and Ezekiel is the Holy Spirit and ultimately receiving our glorified new bodies through faith in Christ.
We celebrate the New Covenant in our churches today. We even call them New Testament or New Covenant churches. Yet, in context, this New Covenant we celebrate equips God’s people to live in the land promised to God’s people. This ability to obey the law and live in the land isn’t just a feature of the New Covenant for Israel, but it is for all who belong to God through Christ, Jew or Gentile.
We get to live in this Promised Land and enjoy it because of Christ and the law being written in our hearts. This may seem foreign but that is because we often think of “Heaven” as being a spiritual place in the clouds. For those who die in Christ now, their souls are in Heaven and are with the Lord. But the Bible is clear that, after the return of Jesus, the afterlife for the saved or “Heaven” is the Millennial Kingdom on earth and, guess what, that Kingdom has a location. God’s people have a territory.
There are many places in Scripture where we can read about this physical, tangible kingdom. Revelation 20-22 is the most vivid, but think just about the passages of the return of Jesus. Those passages put Him returning to the land of Israel. He will step on the Mount of Olives. Armageddon takes place in Israel. The Valley of Decision is a real valley in Israel. Many passages speak to Jesus ruling on the throne of David, which was in Israel. Jesus is called the Davidic King in II Samuel and Daniel. The Davidic king will rule over Jerusalem. Psalm 110 says the Messiah will rule from Zion, which is Jerusalem.
Amazingly, Ezekiel even gives the borders of the future of Israel in chapters 45-48. Israel has never possessed this full territory, and I don’t believe it will until the return of Jesus. Even after the Millennial Kingdom, the eternal city we read about in Revelation 21 and 22 is the New Jerusalem.
The land isn’t an irrelevant Old Testament idea but a major piece of the story. That land promised to Abraham for God’s people is the very land we will live in because we are God’s people.
Dive into the Epic Story yourself by reading Jeremiah 30, Ezekiel 36 and Ezekiel 45-49.
Note: Speaking of the land, as you read this, I’m currently in Israel, seeing the locations of the Oct. 7 attacks in person, along with interviewing families of those killed or held hostage. I look forward to reporting on the Truth on Israel beginning next week.
— Jake is a state missionary and would love to share about the work in Northwest Arkansas and encourage your church to stand firm. (standfirmministries.com)
