Articles
The "Land of Promise"
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians (via the militant terror group, Hamas) once again brings to the forefront the question of territorial rights. It is assumed by many, especially those influenced by premillennial doctrine, that: 1) Israel owns the land in perpetuity by virtue of the Abrahamic promises; 2) that the land will be fully restored to the Jews before the end of time; and 3) the “Battle of Armageddon” spoken of in Revelation will take place in this region.
For example, Ainsley Earhardt, a Fox News commentator, made this observation: “That’s why so many Christians support them (the Jews, jj). We know what the Bible says – the chosen people; Jesus was Jewish. And that land was given to Abraham, and we read about that in the Bible. And one day, the Bible says, that land will go back to his people” (interview with Piers Morgan, 10/16/23). This is typical of the views one will hear in the public arena concerning the land of Israel. To put it mildly, this was an erroneous assessment of the current conflict and both the historical and futuristic significance of the land.
Here are some things often missed in this discussion:
1. The land was the means to a greater end. Like the nation of Israel itself, as well as the Law of Moses, the land of promise was merely the prescribed dwelling place of Abraham’s descendants, variously known as Hebrews, Israelites or the Jews. The promise of land to Abraham (not for himself but future generations of his descendants) had utilitarian purpose: to house, provide for and protect Abraham’s posterity so that through Abraham’s “seed” – Christ (cf. Gal 3:16) – salvation would eventually come into the world (cf. also Ac 7:5; Jn 4:21). When this land is today referred to as the “Holy Land,” it implies that there is a present divine significance to the property itself that is inviolable. This is the very mindset that got ancient Israel into trouble; they thought their promise-deed to the land was perpetual and could not be abrogated. But they were wrong, and God fulfilled His promises to purge the land of them on two separate occasions. Only the land of Judah was restored, but even then the die was cast and it was only a matter of time before the Mosaic covenant was removed.
2. Reception of the land was unconditional; however, retention of the land was conditional. God had said many times over to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: “To your descendants I give this land” (or some variation thereof; cf. Gn 12:7; 13:15, 17; 15:7, 18; 17:8; 24:7; etc.). The book of Joshua chronicles the fulfillment of the land promise: “So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers ... Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass” (Jsh 21:43-45).
However, Moses had made clear that retaining the land would depend upon their faithfulness to God. If they ever rejected God, the land of “promise” would become a land of “profaneness” and would fail to provide for and protect them: “You shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess. Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods … And among those nations you shall find no rest …” (Dt 28:63-65; see all of ch 28 for curses to fall upon Israel’s disobedience).
Both politicians and preachers today still assume that the land belongs to the descendants of Abraham (so far as that can be determined genealogically, but we will grant that for the time being). But to what standard were the Jews to be faithful in order to retain the land? The law of Moses, the same covenant-law that has been removed by Christ and is no longer a viable law document (cf. Heb 7:12; 8:6-13; Gal 3:23-25). In other words, there is no way for modern Jews to retain the land since the law has been fulfilled and removed. This leads to the next point …
3. The Jews no longer have significance relative to Abrahamic descent. This is a shocking idea to many: The Jews of today have no special standing before God and are not recipients of any future blessings or consideration by God on genetic grounds. They are spiritually irrelevant as a people, though not as individuals in need of salvation. They have the same access to the redeeming blood of Christ as any others. The NT has abundant references to Jews and Gentiles stand on the same footing: cf. Gal 3:28; Eph 2:14-18; Rom 11:15-24; Rom 1:16; etc.).
Again, the denial of this is the same mistake made by Judaizing teachers in the first century. They stubbornly clung to the idea that Jews had some special status, and the Gentiles had to become de facto Jews to be saved. Paul refuted this contention over and over again.
4. The physical has been replaced by the spiritual. The NT consistently sustains a basic principle that summarizes pre- and post-Christ elements and events: the earthly types and shadows came first, but Christ is the substance and reality (cf. Heb 8:5; 10:1; Col 2:17). The physical temple becomes a building of people; animal sacrifices are replaced by the blood of Christ; feast days yield to the Lord’s supper; the playing of instruments is supplanted by unaccompanied voices; etc. A basic flaw in thinking is evident here: those who are preoccupied with the physical and temporal have not matured in spiritual aspects of the gospel. God framed so many things in both the patriarchal and Mosaic age in a physical context so that spiritual truths and concepts would be more readily understandable to people via Christ. To revert back to such carnal ideas and practices is, as Paul said to the Galatians who fell into this trap, foolishness (Gal 3:1, 3): “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
But what about the land of promise being an “everlasting possession” (Gen 17:8) or given “forever” (Gen 13:15)? Briefly, those words carry the connotation of “permanent under circumstances that qualify the promise.” So long as Israel remained faithful to God and fulfilled the conditions of retention of the land, the land would remain theirs. But if they disobeyed, the promises would be nullified. They disobeyed, and the land was lost. But by God’s grace something even better is available to the Jews, the very thing that their beloved ancestor Abraham sought: “They desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Heb 11:16). Heaven is lost while carnal factions shed each other’s blood over God-forsaken property.
