Was the land promise to Abraham fulfilled?

[charlesj]

The bible is very clear on the fact that the promise was fulfilled.

Most people (me too) when they read the bible "read into" (eisgesis) rather than "read out of" (exegete). This is something that we must be careful of.

I believe, as the scripture says, that the “land promise” recorded in Genesis has been fulfilled.
Joshua led the children out of the wilderness, over the Jordan and into the land of Canaan. After the conquest of Canaan, when they had settled in their respective allotments assigned to them in the land, Joshua told them that the promise God made to their fathers to give them the land had been fulfilled in the whole of it . . . no part of it failed.


Joshua 1:1-6
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. 5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
6 “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.
NIV

Then read Joshua 21:43-45:

Joshua 21:43-45
43 So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them. 45 Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled. NIV

Thus, every syllable that God had sworn unto their fathers concerning the possession of the land of Canaan was fulfilled. Joshua said that God gave the “all” the land that he had “sworn” to their forefathers.
Read another statement from Joshua:

Joshua 23:14
14 “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. NIV

“Every promise has been fulfilled; NOT ONE has failed.” What can I say? Do you say that the Holy Spirit here is wrong?
Do you say “what about the ‘larger land?’” Did Israel ever posses “the larger land of Canaan?” Well, the so-called “larger land of Canaan” would have to be a part of “all the land,” would it not?
Joshua said that God gave them ALL THE LAND that He swore to their fathers. Joshua said “He gave them ALL -- nothing failed, not one thing --- they possessed it…”

What about the “larger land?” What did God say?

Genesis 15:18-21
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girga****es and Jebusites.”



The next question would be “did Israel posses it?” Joshua said they did!

Joshua 21:43
43 So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there.

If there was any land, which Israel did not possess, it was not a part of the promise, which God made to their fathers – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But Joshua foretold that neither the inheritance nor the possession of it would be permanent. He also said the inheritance and possession of it was conditional. He him:

Joshua 23:15-16
15 But just as every good promise of the LORD your God has come true, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil he has threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. 16 If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”

It can be readily seen that the possession of the land of Canaan by Israel was conditional. Furthermore, in Judges 2, we find that God commanded Israel to drive out all of the idolatrous nations from the land and to “throw down their altars,” but Israel did not obey this command. The altars of idols were left standing, and the idolaters were not driven out. Then God said to Israel:

Joshua 23:13
13 then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.

With these facts, you are ready to read Samuel for some later developments:


2 Samuel 8:3
3 Moreover, David fought Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when he went to restore his control along the Euphrates River.

What is this that David was to do? David was to “restore” or “recover” What was David to restore or recover? He was going to “recover” his border. What border? At the river Euphrates!
This is the border of the “larger land!” How could David recover or restore something for Israel that they never possessed?
David did accomplish it:

1 Kings 4:21
21 And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These countries brought tribute and were Solomon’s subjects all his life.

There is that “larger land” of Canaan, the very boundaries named in its survey in Gen 15 –“from the river (Euphrates) unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt.”


That’s it – and these passages tell us that David “recovered or restored” it, and Solomon, his son, reigned over it. Then again in 2 Chron:

2 Chronicles 9:26
26 He ruled over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt.

The foregoing is enough – but citing additional evidence to already sufficient proof, hear the eloquent Nehemiah say the last word on the subject:


Nehemiah 9:7-8
7 Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham; 8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girga****es, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:

Here Nehemiah not only describes the land promise, but to make sure there is no mistake about it, he names the tribes that were mentioned in the initial survey.

Joshua said, through the Holy Spirit, ALL the promises have come to past,
Israel possessed it,
David recovered it to the extreme borders,
Solomin reigned over all of it.
That’s it! I believe it.

Your servant in Christ,
charlesj

 

[davo]

Absolutely spot-on.

charlesj said: "He also said the inheritance and possession of it was conditional."

This is a crucial point -all God's covenants are unilateral and conditional, even the New Covenant i.e., "repent and believe" "you must be born again" -there is a condition to be met. It has been traditional in some circles to say that God's original covenant with Abram was unconditional and therefore forever binding -in short giving free licience to Israel.

Gen 12:1-3 (NKJV) 1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Quite plainly, without reading into the text the conditions were these:

1) Get out of your country.
2) Get out of your family (his people)
3) Get out of your fathers house (his immediate family)

Why did God bless/honour him? Because in faith he met the condition:

Gen 12:4 (NKJV) So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

davo

 

[GW]

Great post Charles J.

This is also a crucial topic of concernt to the N.T. apostles. For they taught that Abraham HIMSELF didn't consider his own sojourn in the promise land during his own lifetime to be the fulfillment of the promise God gave to him -- and that was proof that Abraham considered HEAVEN to be the true country specified by the promise.

Stephen taught this in Acts 7:2-5 and then the writer of Hebrews taught the full meaning of this same point in Hebrews 11:8-16! Abraham dwelt in the promised land as if in a foreign country with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was GOD (Heb 11:9-10. And they desired a BETTER country, that is, a HEAVENLY one (Heb 11:16).

 

[drmmjr]

Abraham has not gotten the land promised to him yet.

In summing up the life of Abraham from the book of Genesis, Paul says in Hebrew 11:8,9: "By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country." This land in which Abraham sojourned, or lived as a stranger, was the land of Canaan, later called Palestine. It says that Abraham was to inherit this land "afterwards" and calls it the land of "promise". Verse 13 says he died in faith, not having received the promise. In Acts 7:5, the martyr Stephen refers to the same fact, declaring that God gave Abraham "none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him."

The covenant of promise is, then, that Abraham and his seed (ourselves, if in Christ, Galatians 3:29) are promised "all the land...forever." To inherit all the land forever, one must have eternal life. This is just what Jesus said in Matthew 5:5: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Jesus said in Revelation 5:10 that "we shall reign on the earth." Of course God's people are not reigning on the earth today, they shall after Jesus returns.

 

[GW]

Drmmjr,

The LAND promise was received in full by the LATER descendants of Abraham under Moses as attested so well by Joshua and other passages Charlesj listed.

The N.T. apostles taught that the fact that Abraham himself indeed lived in the Promised Land as if he was a foreigner there was PROOF that Abraham was looking for the BETTER country, that is, a HEAVENLY one (Heb 11:16).

Abraham cared NOT about earthly real estate, and the occupation of his later descendants of the land formed an O.T. TYPOLOGY of Heaven and the Kingdom of God. The apostles taught that Abraham Isaac and Jacob themselves NEVER received the promise in their lifetimes even though they indeed occupied the Promised Land. THEREFORE the promise was never for earthly land (from Abraham's perspective) but for entrance into Heaven itself and the Kingdom of God.

That is the New Testament teaching on this matter.

 

[charlesj]

GW:

Amen and amen!

your brother and servant in Messiah, Jesus,
charlesj

 

[drmmjr]

You are correct in the fact that Joshua and those comming out of Egypt went into the "Promised" land. But they still hadn't inherited it forever. Time after time, they have been taken captive by other countries and driven from their land. Even now, fighting goes on concerning this land.

To find out more on how Abraham and his seed will inherit the land forever, read:
The Christian Hope: Life in the Land of the Promise Made to Abraham

Abraham cared NOT about earthly real estate, and the occupation of his later descendants of the land formed an O.T. TYPOLOGY of Heaven and the Kingdom of God. The apostles taught that Abraham Isaac and Jacob themselves NEVER received the promise in their lifetimes even though they indeed occupied the Promised Land. THEREFORE the promise was never for earthly land (from Abraham's perspective) but for entrance into Heaven itself and the Kingdom of God.

But the Kingdom of God is to be set upon the earth. Look at Revelation.

Rev 3:12 - Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Rev 21:2 - And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

As you can see, the New Jerusalem will come down from heaven. At that time, Abraham and all his seed will inherit the land forever.

 

[GW]

Originally posted by drmmjr
You are correct in the fact that Joshua and those comming out of Egypt went into the "Promised" land. But they still hadn't inherited it forever. Time after time, they have been taken captive by other countries and driven from their land. Even now, fighting goes on concerning this land.

The land promises to Israel after the flesh were conditional (and fulfilled), the promise to Abraham and his seed (Jesus) was eternal (Gal 3:16-19).

In fact, the "forever" part is fulfilled in Christ and the Church, who now are the rigthful rulers of the entire earth and who are exercising their dominion mandate that in Abraham/Christ all the nations of the earth are blessed (Romans 4:13-18; Gal 3:8-9, 14-16,29). Israel was the Jewish Church (the remnant of Israel and Judah) that entered the New Covenant promised by Jehovah (Heb 8:6-13; Jeremiah 31:31-34) and went out later to include gentiles to create one new Nation under Messiah (1 Peter 2:9; Matt 21:43; Eph 2:19-22).

Once the King and Kingdom came on time back in the first century (during the fourth Kingdom prophesied by Daniel -- Mark 1:15; Daniel 2:40-45), Christ became the eternal Monarch seated on the eternal throne of David (Acts 2:30-36; Matt 21:1-17; Mark 11:9-10) and has gained all domnion and rule over heaven and earth forevermore, Amen. (Matt 28:18-19; Rev 1:5; Eph 1:20-23; 1 Peter 3:22; Jude 25; Isaiah 9:6-7).

Abraham and his seed Jesus ALREADY have inherited the land forever (Gal 3:16-19; Romans 4:13-18; Daniel 7:14, 27).