Written by Paul J Bucknell on February, 23, 2019

The Promised Land—An Everlasting Possession? Genesis 17:7-8

The Lord Yahweh’s promise to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants as an eternal possession became the source of the term ‘Promised Land’ but also a key difference of interpretation of the two major theological systems of Covenantalism and Dispensationalism. I have sought a unified biblical perspective by carefully examining terms like God’s promise of an everlasting land. Instead of defending one’s theological assumptions, I pursue a deeper understanding of what God has said, what He wanted us to understand by those words, and an ability to dialogue around fixed issues such as this promise of an everlasting possession.

The Promise of the Land

⁷ And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. ⁸ And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. (Genesis 17:7-8) (NASB used here and later)

For those holding to the integrity of the Scriptures, there is no needed discussion on whether the Lord called Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3) or made a covenant with him (Genesis 15). “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates…’” (Genesis 15:18).

Though some people solely focus on the land, there are two parts to the promise: that they would be a great people and that He would give them this land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. Jacob reiterates this on his dying bed, “And He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession’” (Genesis 48:4). We, I assume, agree that the Promised Land was later defined as what we now call Israel, the land where Joseph was buried.

While Dispensational speakers strongly emphasize the re-securing of the Promised Land of Israel, the Covenantalists and others seem less concerned on the literal fulfillment of the promise. And so, we come to one of the lynchpins that divide Christians and their theology. Instead of majoring on what we differ, it is essential that we come to agree on what God’s Word does clearly say. Yes, differences will arise but let them remain beyond the scope of God’s revelation. By securing some theological conclusions, we perhaps as a whole can move forward in one hope (Ephesians 4:4).

Let me provide an example of one unnecessary murky point. Dispensationalists like to restate, “But God promised the land to the Israelites. God keeps His promises.” While their tenacity to hold onto God’s promises is applaudable, don’t they think the others believe it is important for God to fulfill His promises (Jeremiah 33:25)? Of course, all those that love His Word agree to God’s faithfulness, but they subtly move the conversation away from the interpretation of the land to the question of the other group’s commitment to God’s Word. Some groups do drift from God’s promised Word such as those who teach there never was an Exodus, nor a man such as Abraham, nor a divine covenant. Their comments are not worthy of room in our commentaries. There is, however, common ground in trusting God’s revelation upon which we must pin our arguments. We agree that the Eternal One will fulfill His everlasting covenant by giving the everlasting possession to Abraham and his descendants. The difference of opinion is not on God’s faithfulness, the trustworthiness of God’s Word, or the fact that God made a covenant to Abraham but on the nature of this promise.

An Everlasting Promise

The “everlasting” aspect of the promise, however, gives us, what I hope a clear looking glass that can help clarify the nature of God’s promise. We must look beyond the land of the United Kingdom under Saul, David, and Solomon as well as the reclaiming of the land in Ezra-Nehemiah’s time. These passages importantly identify the land and royal line, but they also poignantly remind us that God promised an everlasting possession rather than a temporal one, something the exile forces us to ponder upon. Abraham dared to venture forth in faith and found the Promised Land. He bought a foothold as a grave there to die. But God describes the land not only by its productiveness in the words “milk and honey” but also its nature — eternal state. The Hebrew word for everlasting has several synonyms: perpetual, ongoing, forever, everlasting. They collectively forge an image of perpetuity.

My question is, “How does this eternal possession take shape?” Most Dispensationalists emphasize the present happenings and the thousand-year millennium but minimize its eternal nature. On the other hand, others, highlighting God’s redemptive plans allow the promise to lose its temporal footing in the glow of the future.

But we must openly face that a thousand-year millennium falls far short of the promise. A thousand years sounds nice and rosy, removed from the evil seen in the world today, but the key problem still exists: What happens afterward? I am not trying to deny God’s promise here nor to discuss the millennium but to ascertain God’s meaning. Again, we ask, “What was it that God wanted us to foresee here in this promise to Abraham?” Or what was it that Jesus and the apostles believed? Don’t we agree the promise was not fully fulfilled in Solomon’s great kingdom, nor in the post-exilic temple, nor even in a future thousand years of paradise? I think so.

The eternal aspect of God’s Promised Land designates a place where He and His people would meet forever. Perhaps, God birthed this promise/covenant from the ashes of His original hopes for the Garden of Eden. When the Psalmist retold the statement, “Oh let Israel say, “His lovingkindness is everlasting,” (Psalm 118:2), was he thinking of a place where God would forever dwell with His people? Again, I think we can agree on this.

Not favoring any particular theological system—as I am much more interested in clear biblical expression and belief, it seems rather clear that we are to relate the everlasting possession with the New Testament promises of eternal life; the two forged into one thought and future. Jesus spoke clearly of the eternal state. “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). The Jewish believers no doubt attached this promise of eternal life with God’s promise to Abraham’s descendants. Jesus oft used Abraham to speak of the eternal age: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being cast out” (Luke 13:28).

What is it that the believing Jews understood by Peter’s bold promise, “For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself” (Acts 2:39)? This kingdom was heavy on the disciples’ minds, but the Lord simply told them to fix their eyes on the expansion of the kingdom rather than on its immediate fulfillment:

⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; ⁸ but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)

But that brings us back to consider what was the fulfillment to look like? What was Jesus hoping for?

Another Promise

Once we ascertain the certainty of eternality into the promise, then we must face the issue of God’s broader plan for the earth and heaven that contained the literal land of Canaan. There must be some way to go from the temporal to the eternal fulfillment. The transformation of the old heavens and earth demands a solution to the eternality of the temporal Promised Land. The prophet anticipated something new by using the word “new” regarding the covenant: “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear” (Hebrews 8:13). The same reasoning can be applied to the heavens and the earth.

Isa 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

Isa 66:22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before Me,” declares the LORD, “So your offspring and your name will endure.

The problem is self-evident. How can the promise of an enduring possession of the land of Canaan be on an earth that is “ready to disappear” with the upcoming transformation from the old to the new earth?

Now it is possible to think that the “new” would just be a symbolic cleanup, but other scriptures dictate a full transformation. “But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7). This negates the possibility of a general transformation on the present earth for it will be destroyed. This destruction leads to the creation of a new heavens and earth (Isaiah 65:17). So let me ask, if in the Old Testament we already had the “new” promised, then how is this promise of this land to be an eternal possession to be fulfilled?

Now, I do not doubt it will be fulfilled, but we need to stretch our minds a bit to see that the Lord has a greater way of fulfilling these “eternal” promises without obliterating the seed of promise in the old. The eternality could find fulfillment in, perhaps, a renewed reality of the old, a new dimension connected to the old, or possibly a complete makeover, but it does not mean that the Promised Land will not still be the earth. We expect persistent similarities in the transformation even as we hope in the resurrection of our bodies to find sufficient commonality to our old persons on earth. Even as I, Paul, will still be Paul, though dramatically changed, the Promised Land will remain to be the Promised Land. Some of this discussion at this point does drift into speculation, but all of us are fully assured that the Lord will keep His promises to His people.

If we all can agree to the Lord’s ability to remake the old into the new without losing grip on His old promises to Abraham, then we can bridge the divide with this greater hope. “One hope” can mean that we all believe God will be perfectly faithful to His promises of an everlasting possession to His people, even if it somehow needs to be transformed beyond the contamination of this present earth with its sin and death as well as the time-bound millennium. We can together anticipate looking for a Paradise where the Lord will fulfill all our united hopes.

At the same time, in our admission that we will never see its full completion here on this present earth, we must be careful not to dismiss the temporal footing of these land promises to Abraham’s descendants. It is, for example, quite probable that the Lord’s promises will have a temporal sense of completion on this earth, even as He ordains other old kingdoms to arise for a final spectacle of His power (Jeremiah 49:39). But this will be a temporary phase, at most, and will quickly find its complete fulfillment in the re-creation of the “new earth and heaven.”

A Land and a People

There are some who see this land fulfillment running in parallel to the expansion of God’s people. This admittedly is not our major focus here but let us indulge a bit for discussion sake, especially as it regards the land of promise. For in Abraham’s seed, that is, Christ, we find that all true believers are his descendants through faith (Galatians 3:16, 19). “It is you who are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your Seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed’” (Acts 3:25). Is it possible, that as the revelation of the promises expanded (or narrowed down) to those united to God’s family through faith in the Messiah, that the promised land becomes a Promised Land? This appears what John presents to us in Revelation, the city of God’s people in the new and remade city of Jerusalem.

^21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them.(Revelation 21:1-3)

I admit there are unresolved interpretations. Who are the nations mentioned in Revelation 21:24 since those whose name is not written in the Book of Life were “thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15)? It appears, however, that God’s people of all the nations comprise the new city of Jerusalem with the prophets and apostles comprising the foundation. This image is taken as a fulfilled picture of God’s original purpose when He created the Garden of Eden with the river that would bring blessing to the rest of the earth. A few pieces of the puzzle are left out, but we ought to listen to the conclusion of Apostle to the Jews carefully.

¹³ But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. ¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (2 Peter 3:13-14).

Did Peter find the “Promised Land” fulfilled in the New Jerusalem, the new heavens and earth or in a small place on the new earth that replicated the latitude and longitude of the present national Israel? This we do not know for sure, but there was one hope for all of God’s people, one hope that unites all of His true believers to live righteous lives in anticipation of the Promised Land where God and the Messiah live with His people. David captured this one hope well, “And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6).

Summary

The eternal age will swallow up the temporal through God’s fiery judgment of the heavens and earth. The hope of God’s promise of an eternal possession to Abraham and his descendants, however, will not lose its fulfillment in the upcoming transformation into the makeup of the new heavens and earth but be fully realized. Time will pass away, and sin’s devastating consequences will finally pass. God’s people will shine in God’s presence. All our concerns of eternality, whether found in the temporal protection from invasion or in the eternal battles of dark powers, can be put aside. We will revel in the fulfillment of God’s plush promises and allow our hopes to fully rest on the new river flowing through the new city of Jerusalem providing for all the needs of God’s people for all time.

Our conclusions on how God will continue to work with Israel in this present age might differ among believers, but this vision for an eternal land where God dwells with His people must remain our “one hope” and now join our hearts together in praise. Meanwhile, we allow for the temporal fulfillment of the Promised Land to the Israelites. Jesus rightfully turned the Jews’ inquisitive minds back to the mission to be His witnesses (Acts 1:6-8). Time will tell how God will work; the Lord, however, will fulfill what yet needs to happen on earth. Each of us has our opinions, but something greater is ahead of us, causing all of Abraham’s spiritual descendants who are united by the Lamb’s blood to exalt in the one Lord. Peter has well summarized our transfer of hope, “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13) a place linking God’s people and their hope with their God forever.