God’s Promises For The Promised Land
God’s promises for the Promised Land are central to the covenant relationship that God wanted for His chosen people. God’s promises for the Promised Land are not only for people in the Old Testament. They are relevant for people in the New Testament, as well as for us today.
God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants are not just about land. They are about God blessing God’s chosen people to become a great nation. And to be God’s special chosen people and have a covenant relationship with Him. And ultimately the greatest part of God’s promises is how God would send the Messiah, the Savior of the world, through the nation of Israel.
God first made the promise to Abraham, assuring him that his descendants would inherit a land “flowing with milk and honey”. This land, later known as Canaan, symbolized God’s faithfulness, provision, and covenant with His people. Despite periods of wandering, exile, and conquest, the promise of the land remained a sign of hope and divine blessing. Reflecting God’s enduring commitment to His people and their future.
God’s Promises For The Promised Land
God’s Promises to Abraham
God’s promises for the Promised Land go back almost 2000 years before Jesus was born on earth. Abraham was born approximately 2000 years before Jesus.
When Abraham was 75 years old, God spoke to Abraham. God called Abraham to leave his native country, and go to the land God would show him. This land was the land of the Canaanites, and it would eventually become the Promised Land. The land that God promises to Abraham and his descendants.
Not only did God promise Abraham the Promised Land. He also promised that Abraham’s descendants would become a great nation. And that all peoples and other nations on earth would be blessed through the future people and nation of Israel, God’s chosen people. This is the greatest part of God’s promises to Abraham. God promised not just land, and not just a new country. God promised that the coming Messiah, the Savior Jesus, would come from the nation of Israel.
Genesis 12:1-3 “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
When Abraham was 85 years old God spoke to him again. And God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants to be God’s chosen people. And God confirms His promise for the Promised Land, and He gives a detailed description of the Promised Land He would give to the nation of Israel.
Genesis 15:13-14 “Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own (Canaan & Egypt) and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.”
Counting from the time Abraham’s descendants, starting at the birth of Isaac, were strangers in the land of the Canaanites and then were living in Egypt (mostly as slaves after Joseph died), and then to Israel’s exodus from Egypt, it was 400 years. Just as God had told Abraham in Genesis 15.
Genesis 15:18-20 “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
God’s Promises For The Promised Land
God Tells Abraham To Teach His Children & Descendants About His Covenant & Promises
Later on God spoke to Abraham again. God confirms again that his descendants would become a great nation, and that all nations on earth would be blessed through him. Another reference to the promised Savior Jesus. God also instructs Abraham to teach and direct his children and household to keep the way of the Lord. And to instruct his children and household about God’s promises for the Promised Land, and about becoming a great nation. And about the promised Savior.
Genesis 18:17-19 Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD, doing justice and judgment. This is to fulfill the promise God made to Abraham.”
When Abraham was 100 years old his promised son Isaac was born. Isaac was a miracle, born to Abraham and Sarah well after their child bearing years.
Isaac knew all about God’s promises to his father Abraham about the Promised Land, and about becoming a great nation. And about the coming Messiah, the Savior Jesus. As God instructed Abraham, he taught Isaac all about God’s promises and covenant with Abraham and his descendants.
Even though Isaac knew all about God’s promises and covenant, God still appeared personally to Isaac.
Genesis 26:2-5 “The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees & my instructions.”
It is one thing to hear or read about God and His promises and plans. By reading the Bible you can know all about God. But knowing God personally by experience is a far better way to know God. So God personally appeared to Isaac and spoke with him. And God personally confirmed the promises and covenant with Isaac.
God’s Promises For The Promised Land
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
When Isaac was 60 years old, and Abraham was 160 (he live until 175), Jacob and Esau were born. As his father Abraham did with him, Isaac was instructed to teach his children and household all about God and His promises and covenant with them.
It was clear that Esau did not care about his family heritage, since he sold his birthright for a measly meal. And Hebrews 12:16 gives us a little more insight into Esau. Paul, writing to the Hebrews in Hebrews 12:16, calls Esau a “godless” man. So Esau did not care about the great spiritual heritage his family had, and the covenant and promises God made with them to be God’s chosen people.
Esau would not have been a good choice to lead Abraham’s descendants onward towards becoming God’s chosen people, and a great nation. And onwards towards taking the Promised Land. So it was God’s providence that caused Jacob and his mother Rebecca to decieve Isaac when he was old to give God’s blessing to Jacob and not Esau.
God’s Promises For The Promised Land
God Personally Appears to Jacob
Jacob knew all about God’s promises to Abraham & Isaac and their descendants. And about their family heritage and their great spiritual heritage to be God’s chosen people. And that they would become a great nation and receive the Promised Land. And about the greatest promises of them all, for a Messiah or Savior.
Jacob would have been taught and instructed about these things by his father Isaac. And Abraham was still around for 15 years to teach Jacob as well. Even though his father and grandfather taught him all about these things, God still appeared personally to Jacob. God personally appeared to Jacob on 3 separate occasions.
Genesis 28:10-15 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying (Bethel). Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
The third time God appeared to Jacob was in Genesis 35.
Genesis 35:10-12 “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob (“One who follows” or “Supplanter and Deciever”); your name will be Israel. So He named him Israel (“One who struggles with God”). And God said to him, ‘I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation—even a company of nations—shall come from you, and kings shall descend from you. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.’
Jacob had 12 sons. Just like his father and his grandfather, he also taught and instructed his children all about God’s covenant and promises.
10 of Jacob’s sons would become the heads of 10 of the 12 tribes of God’s nation Israel. One of his sons, Levi, would not be the head of one of the 12 tribes, or receive a portion of the Promised Land in the future. Levi and his descendants would become the priests that personally serve God.
God’s Promises For The Promised Land
God Uses Joseph As His Instrument to Save God’s Chosen People
Jacob’s second to youngest son was Joseph. At the time Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son. He gave him a special coat of many colors. Because of Jacob’s favoritism towards Joseph his brothers hated him.
When Joseph was 17 his brothers had enough of him. They decided to kill Joseph, but by God’s providence they instead sold him into slavery. And Joseph was taken to Egypt as a slave. He served Potiphar, an officer and captain of the guard in Egypt. Then Joseph was wrongly accused by Potiphar’s wife and thrown into prison.
Joseph was a slave and then a wrongly accused convict in jail until he was 30. So he went through very difficult times for 13 years. But God was still with Joseph and blessed him, despite all of the terrible things he went through. And Joseph remained faithful to God, and walked closely with Him.
Joseph knew all about God’s covenant and promises to Abraham and his descendants. And during those difficult 13 years Joseph most likely felt that he had been removed from his family’s great spiritual heritage of being God’s chosen people. But God had a plan to use Joseph as his instrument to save His chosen people.
Joseph became at age 3o the 2nd in command of all of Egypt, only under Pharaoh. Because only Joseph, with God’s help, could interpret a dream Pharaoh had about 7 coming years of prosperity, followed by 7 years of terrible famine.
In the 7 years of prosperity Joseph had his 2 sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Manasseh means “to forget”, and Joseph said that God had helped him forget his troubles, and his household and what they did to him. Ephraim means “blessing or double blessing”, and Joseph said that God had blessed him in the land of his suffering.
When Joseph was 39, after the first 2 years of the 7 years of terrible famine, Jacob and his household were running out of food. So Jacob sent his sons to Egypt because they had stored much grain during the 7 years of prosperity under Joseph’s leadership. It was then that Joseph was reunited with his family. And it was then that Joseph realized God had sent him to Egypt years earlier, to be His instrument to save God’s chosen people.
In Parts 2 and 3 we will continue to look at God’s promises for the Promised Land, and how these promises relate to us in today’s modern world.
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