–continuing from yesterday’s post.
The Land Promise Fulfilled?
But was the actual promise fulfilled? Were the boundaries of the land promised in Gen. 15:18-21 ever completely owned by Israel? The dispensationalists say no, and they point to history and the Biblical record of what land Israel possessed. The Philistines and other groups remained in the land such that Israel never truly owned all the land.
However, as I started studying these claims on my own a few years ago, I came across an article by my friend Nathan Pitchford which pointed out that Scripture Itself declares that the promise of the land was fulfilled. In his article entitled Land, Seed, and Blessing in the Abrahamic Covenant, Nathan pointed me to Joshua 21:43-45. Since then, I’ve also seen this restated in other scriptures, which I will quote below.
So the LORD gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the LORD gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the LORD gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:43-45)
So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. (Nehemiah 9:24-25)
Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. (1 Kings 8:56)
Nathan goes on in his paper to explore how Abraham himself viewed the land. He was looking for a heavenly city and not satisfied with an earthly inheritance, according to Hebrews 11:10, 13-16. Nathan shows how even in Genesis we can see this heavenward focus about Abraham. I encourage you to read his paper for more.
In the next post in this series, I will explore a Scriptural justification for “spiritualizing” the land promise. And I’ll link you to another resource that may put everything into perspective for you.
These texts show the faithfulness of God, but not the full faithfulness of God’s people! They failed to give and exercise their full responsibility and possess their land! Here again we see that aspect to human responsibility and our part in God’s synergy in the covenant of grace.
Fr. Robert
Fr. Robert,
Thanks for your interaction here. Yes, man is responsible, but God has said he fulfilled what he promised. A passage which bears on this point is found in Jeremiah 18:7-10:
This reveals the built-in, conditionality, in God’s covenantal dealings with man. With the covenant of grace, however, Jesus fulfilled the conditions and by his active and passive righteousness, we are eternally blessed.
Blessings from the Cross of Christ,
Bob
Bob,
Indeed with God the condition is always our responsibility, though our wills are hardly “free” they are given the place of responding to the voice, will and word of God! Here God will judge us, as He has judged His people Israel! But thanks be to God he has a covenant of grace – Heb.13:20-21.
“The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,…and in this place I will give you peace.” (Hag.2:9)
“The house [that is] to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries.” 1 Chron.22:5)
“The glory of the Lord…filled the Lord’s house.” (2 Chron.7:2)
“Destory this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”He was speaking of the temple of His body.” (St. John 2:19, 21)
Yours in Him,
Fr. Robert
(Brother I am an Irishman, but educated in England, and from the UK)
I was born in Ireland, but I have been all around the UK…I am in my 50’s. But I have a younger brother (also Irish, and former American Marine – I was a Royal Marine) who lives in the USA.
Thanks Robert,
Nice name by the way. I’m American through and through, although I flew through London once, and spent a year in Zambia, Africa with my parents who are missionaries there. I have an English (or Scottish??) name, however, coat of arms and all.
Heb. 13:20-21 are indeed a blessing to us. Your temple passages remind me of one of the passages I’ll share in tomorrow’s post, Lord willing.
Nice to chat mate! If you noted my e-mail screen name? I am indeed, just an old “Bohemian” sinner (in myself).
In, under and by God’s good mercy & grace,
Fr. Robert
Oh brother, so you’re going covenant on us are you? 🙂
God may have gave all of the land to them, but they didn’t take it all and that’s a fact:
Judges 2:1-3 And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. 2 And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? 3 Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
Abraham expected physical land where his physical descendants would abide. God didn’t promise him a heavenly land where a heavenly Israel would abide.
Reading Hebrews 11:10 back into the covenant to change it into something that the Reformers made up is not good hermeneutics. Up until this point, the all the promises about the land of Israel to the physical people of Israel have not happened yet. For example:
Ezekiel 37:24-28 24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
The people of Israel returning in 1948, the end of the time of the Gentiles in 1967 (Luk 21:24) has not taken place by coincidence. We Gentiles are not the new Israel, we have been grafted in, and the Jews will acknowledge Him whom they have pierced and accept Jesus as Messiah nationally. (Zech. 12:10) I am not saying this as a dispensationalist, I really don’t care about that system of theology. But, I say this because prophecies are being fulfilled pertaining to the nation of Israel to this day and God is still dealing with them as a nation. I think that too many of us think that the Reformers and their systems of theology are close to flawless. No matter how we revere them, their theology wasn’t fully informed by the Jewish understanding of Old Testament, therefore much of their conclusions concerning Israel, the end times, etc. come from the theological systems of their own making.
I am not a dspensationalist, and I believe that Rom. 11:23-29 does teach that the covenant of grace will swing back sovereignly and redeem Israel as the covenant people too, once again (verse 24 again, see also verses 11:30-31).
Note St. Paul always taught: “to the jew first” (Rom.1:16) See also Acts 26:6-7. This has nothing to do with any dispensationalism, but the honor, glory and purpose of God to redeem His once and still chosen people! (See Isa.60:21-22 / Isa. 66:8…)
God will be glorified in all people!
Will,
After I get post 3 up, I’ll respond to some of your points here. I’m not certain how 1967 is clearly ending the time of the Gentiles, though. That seems a stretch, and an extra-Biblical one at that.
Blessings, brother.
Bob
Thank you, sir, for the research you are doing and passing along. The reference from Joshua is one that we ought to memorize. God is faithful, and does fulfil his promises.
By the way, The Contemporary Calvinist has a post about a book written in response to Dr. MacArthur’s claim that every Calvinist should be a premillenialist. Sounds like it might be good.
Great subject matter Bob!
I agree with Mr.Dudding that God did His part concerning the land of promise. He delivered all of Israel’s enemies into their hands, but they did not complete their end of the deal in many cases, failing to destroy their enemies completely. However I disagree that Israel is still being treated as a “chosen people”. The very idea that we are waiting for the temple to be rebuilt and sacrifices to be resumed as a plan of God is an affront to the final sacrifice of Christ! The Bible says Christ died for sin “once for all”. (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 9:26 and 10:10). God would never subjugate His Son’s work to the shadows again!
As for Abraham looking for a heavenly city, this comes into complete agreement with what Paul says in Romans 4:11-14. Abraham was promised he would be the father of MANY nations in verses 17-18 which pointedly disallows that the descendants of Abraham would be the “designated” heirs of the promise.
The whole dispensational argument depends on Israel still being under covenant, and this premise, like that of a pre-tribulation rapture leads many to look for signs and an escape from persecution. Jesus plainly stated that the end would come at and hour “when you think not” meaning no one can pinpoint or even guess as to when Christ will return – one last time. Not two or three times.
I agree with what you’re saying here, NW Prodigal. Thanks for keeping the discussion alive.
Will,
You and I might say the promises about the land weren’t fulfilled, but Nehemiah said they were — all of them. The very promise you quote in Ezekiel is tied to the new covenant– the covenant of peace. Heb. 8 teaches the new covenant is fulfilled now. The specific promise in Ez. 37:27 is fulfilled ultimately in Rev. 21 as this post declares, but it also is fulfilled in God’s people the church according to my post today, which discusses 2 Cor. 6.
I ask you to follow the posts in this series a little further, and see if you can’t understand where I’m coming from in all of this.
Blessings brother,
Bob
Did anybody notice that Neh. 9:25 states that the Israelites essentially had an “obesity epidemic” in the Promksed Land? That always intrigued me, but nobody else caught it. (This is the error of those Chritsian heal gurus who try to use the Promised Lamd as their ideal, but then encourage weight-loss attempts.)
Your link is broken. The writing by Nathan Pitchford can be accessed here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20131008154027/http://psalm45publications.com/articles/land-seed-and-blessing-in-the-abrahamic-covenant/
Peace.