“I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD” (Exodus 6:8).
PROMISED LAND (Pt 2)
We said that we learn important lessons from the Old Testament. We are led forward into God’s kingdom: “giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light” (Col 1:12).
The children of Israel walked out of Egypt with hands held aloft in joyful victory. We walk out of sin’s darkness into Emmanuel’s land.
So, we understand using the Old Testament lessons that God’s kingdom is in our hearts, where he dwells. “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isa 57:15).
Jesus highlights our hearts as land for seeds to be planted in: “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart” (Matt 13:19). Notice that the seeds are planted in our hearts. Our hearts are the land, “you are God’s field” (1 Cor 3:9). This is where God is pleased to dwell, this is the land that has been promised. An eternal land, not a part of this physical universe.
We pray that the seeds that are planted in our hearts will bear much fruit. “he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty”.
To this end we grow in the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is fruit that we find grow well in the promised land.
So we move on into the good land that God has given to us, for it is indeed a good land. Joshua and Caleb certified it so, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good” (Num 14:7).
The people refused to listen to Joshua and Caleb’s advice, and did not enter the land: “Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (Num 14:3–4).
May we not be among their number. Through faith we enter the promised land—the children of Israel had doubt rather than faith: “: We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we” (Num 13:31), they had no faith in God.
Faith is essential to enter the promised land: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith” (Eph 2:8).
“See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and their descendants after them” (Deut 1:8).