CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

July 19, 2009

25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373

www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm

PRAYER AND PRAISE:

God’s will for our congregation Various friends, relatives, and co-workers

Our nation, leaders and military The shalom (peace) of God

COVENANTS OF GOD (6)

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

Each covenant of the Old Testament builds on the previous one as God responds to human sin. All four covenants have three underlying promises in common though each will emphasize certain aspects of those promises. These promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ through His life, death and resurrection. The promises to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his family line or seed are fulfilled in Christ as Paul argues in Romans 4 and Galatians 3.

A second promise is that of holiness. When God repeated the covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He emphasized not just the blessing of the seed but also the need to live a holy or righteous life. Israel was set apart as a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-6). The law or covenant with Moses emphasized the idea that the nation would be different from the nations around them, recognizing that Yahweh was their God and that they would live holy lives as light to the world. Their history shows that their faithfulness and unfaithfulness was a roller-coaster ride. Eventually they appealed to God for a king. The purpose of the king was to lead Israel in holy living, but this too was not very successful. Jesus came to fulfill that holy living; He had no sin in Him (Hebrews 4:15). Through the Holy Spirit, we as His people have become a holy nation to live holy lives.

There is a third promise given to Abraham that runs through the covenants. This is the land promise. God led Abraham to a land that he would show him, what in scripture is called the land of Canaan. In Genesis 15, God told Abraham that his family would return to this land in about four hundred years. Israel was led by Moses out of Egypt and on to what we call the Promise Land, where they would settle as a nation. Now let me say this, the following is something I am thinking through. I’m trying to connect some dots from other studies but in the end, I am just thinking out loud about this land promise. In further study I might or might not agree with what I write now. There are two views that I know of concerning the land promise.

The first I learned in school and is probably the common view held in churches of Christ. Abraham was promised the land of Canaan. Israel would be led by Moses to the land and Joshua would conquer the land. In Joshua 21:41-43 and 23:14-16, we are told that God fulfilled the land promise and that as long as they kept the covenant (of Moses), the land was theirs. In this view, the land promise is pretty much ignored from this point on.

There are some problems within the view itself. For instance, many who teach this view say that the land promises was for Israel proper, that is, the land that is between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Just check any map in your Bible and you will see this. One reason for this is that Moses did not enter the promised land because of his disobedience. As far as this goes, the promise is kept. Yet there are some aspects that are not considered. Two and a half tribes receive land east of the Jordan River. David eventually rules over territory from the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt in the Sinai desert. It appears that these are spoken of as part of the promise. These are just minor criticisms of this view.

A more important criticism is how the land is addressed throughout the Old Testament. Reading through the Psalms and Prophets, the land plays an important role in Israelite history and prophecy, that is, teachings to the nation. Keeping and losing it becomes a warning to an unfaithful nation. God uses land as judgment by saying that a well watered land will become desert and desert a well watered land. There appears to be more to the land promise than just the conquering of Canaan by Joshua.

A second view of the land relates to what is called premillenialism or the “second” coming of the Lord at the final or last day. This view has been popularized in a number of books and is seen on television by a number of preachers, or as I like to call them, prophets of impending doom. What has caused this view to take off in particular was the return of the Jewish people to Israel and the establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948. From this has risen a variety of interpretations about the coming of the Lord including when He will come and the events leading up to that. Every event that occurs in the Middle East, and even Europe, is interpreted in light of Bible prophecy.

Reading and listening to these people can become a difficult experience as they string together texts all over the Bible, ignoring contexts, and coming up with all kinds of theories. They fail to understand the nature of prophecy and of apocalyptic literature. This view sees the land promise as not yet fulfilled because Israel has not occupied it forever. They spend their time reading the newspaper (what’s left of them) and then trying to find Biblical texts that will “fit” the news. As events change, so do the interpretations. This view just as too many problems with it and misses too much to be worth considering.

Let me add a footnote here. I think that God has a special place in His heart for the Jewish people. I think that Romans 9-11 teaches that. I do not know how all that works, and we do need to keep Jesus in view when we discuss this aspect of scripture. Read again Genesis 12:1-3 and keep in mind that God will bless those who bless Abraham’s seed and curse those who don’t.

Here is what I am working on or thinking through right now. It’s not a big deal and I’m not making an issue of it; I’m just thinking about this. Two promises given to Abraham, the blessings of the nations through his seed and being a holy people, continue today in Christ. While we are not a “nation” as such, we are God’s holy people and are blessed through Christ. Paul argues in Galatians 3 that Jesus is the seed, singular, that would bring the promise into the New Covenant. He would send His Holy Spirit to live among us so that we will be set apart as a holy people.

What if the land promise is also meant to be continued, not necessarily as a piece of territory, but of a return to God’s original intent. As I said above, land played an important role in the Psalms and the Prophets. Part of the teaching is that God will rebuild the land, that enemies will live in peace; the lion or wolf and lamb will lie down with each other and a child will play with poison snakes. There appears to be an idea of a return to the Garden of Eden. These glimpses give us something to think about just as the glimpses into the coming Messiah are there.

When we come to the New Testament, we do not see much about the physical land of Israel other than location. We do have some interesting texts, some of which we have already looked at. In Matthew 5:5, Jesus tells us that the meek will inherit the earth. What does that mean? Have we made that a figure of speech or a metaphor, or have we just ignored this while emphasizing meek living? When we read the Beatitudes, are we reading them as metaphors or are they attitudes that can be lived today? Can we be humble, comforted in mourning even if sin is in view here (one interpretation of the text), and the rest? If there is more to each Beatitude than just a metaphor, then could not the inheriting the earth have something more involved?

We go to Paul for a possible answer. In Romans 8:18-25, we learn that the creation groans for its redemption along with us. While some have given this a figurative interpretation, I think what Paul has in mind here is that the creation that God created and was very good would be returned to its original intent as seen in the Garden of Eden. As such, this could be a fulfillment of the land promise, something that might be behind the promise in the first place. Many appeal to 2 Peter 2 as the end of the creation in God’s final judgment. However, if we understand it in light of apocalyptic literature, and realize that the earth was “destroyed” in Noah’s day, understanding that it was washed by water but recreated after the flood, then the destruction by fire might just be a form of cleansing to make holy what sin had corrupted.

Finally, there is the picture in apocalyptic literature of Revelation that has a new heavens and a new earth and the coming down of a new Jerusalem out of heaven. It is pictured as a Garden, certainly with Eden in mind. Could it be that we will have come full circle? As I and others have argued, would God destroy something He created and saw as very good? If He made a great effort to redeem us, and we are created in His image, would He not also make a great effort to redeem His creation? As someone has argued, if Satan can corrupt the earth, would not God want to redeem it rather than give Satan a victory?

To sum up then, I am thinking that the land promise has a greater fulfillment than just the nation of Israel being given Canaan. Jesus seems to indicate that it broadens to include the earth, which would be the new earth of Revelation. Paul speaks of the redemption of creation, which then would be to God’s glory and to accomplish the original purpose God began in Genesis 1. It is something to think about and if you wish to comment, you are welcomed to. Like I said, I am just thinking out loud right now. Further study might enhance this or I might end up changing my mind on it all.

George B. Mearns