Waiting for the Promised Land
One of the reoccurring themes in the Bible is that there is a place called the Promised Land. When we use the phrase Promised Land we are usually synonymous with the geographical place called Israel, but it can be so much more.
A Land of Promise
Gen. 2:8
Gen. 3:23&24
Rev. 22:2&3
The first land a person might see as a promised land is the Garden of Eden. We see it in Genesis 2:8, “Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.” We understand the Garden of Eden to be a beautiful place crafted by the hand of God.
This was the sinless place. Eden is the spot where sin did not stand between God and man. Eden was never called the Promised Land, but it is the land every person longs to enter, the land where we can speak directly with God and live under the hand of His continual blessing. Eden did not last long in Genesis 3:23 we read, “So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”
This first promised land is now only a written memory, but it is also a picture of a promise. Genesis 3 points to man’s exile from the Garden and the Tree of Life, Revelation 22 speaks of a coming time when Jesus says believers will again have the right to the Tree of Life.
Another Land of Promise
Gen. 12:1-3
Gen. 15:18-21
The second promised land shows up in Genesis chapter 12,
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
2 “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.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
This Promised Land was a land God was going to show Abraham.
A Great Nation is a land of security,
A place where he would have a great name, which is a land of success.
A place where God’s blessing is upon him and curses were on his enemies.
It was also a place where all people would be blessed.
The first land of promise, Eden was described by its beautiful and Divinely planted foliage. This second land of promise is defined by its Divinely blessed people.
If you are a student of the Bible or even just a student of life, you know these two lands would be a great place to be. A land where our work is rewarding, money is never an issue and friends are abundant and happy. A place where bad people are punished and good ones are praised. A land like this is Thomas More’s Utopia, Don Quixote’s chivalry, James Hilton’s Shangri-La, Dorothy’s Kansas, Columbus’ New World or the Puritans finding their religious freedom. A land where dreams come true. Why would God give us the picture and the promise of a land we can only dream about? He didn’t.
The Promised Land is the land of God’s making, we are the ones who developed and settled other places. God made Eden, Adam failed to keep it. God gave Abraham and his descendants a land and they only took part of it. According to the last 3 verses of Chapter 15, the land God gave Abraham would today would encompass Israel, Syria, Jordan and parts of Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But, Abraham failed to take it.
Our Land of Promises
Ezekiel 34:26
Likewise God has made promises to us. Spiritual and physical promises, like Ezekiel 34:26, “I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.” Today we are living in the wealthiest and most powerful nation the world has ever known. We may also be the most dissatisfied and quarrelsome nation the world has ever had. For eight years, we listened as Democrats cried, “We have got to get Bush out of the Whitehouse, before he ruins the nation.” Now for six months we have listened to the Republicans saying, “We have got to get rid of Obama before he converts us to Socialism.”
Here’s a quick Bible history lesson to help you the next time you are wondering which political party will lead us to the Promised Land.
In Genesis after God promised Abraham the great parcel of land, Abraham became busy with the affairs of daily life and he failed to establish growing borders. Abraham has a son, Isaac and Isaac has a son, Jacob. Abraham gets old and dies. Isaac gets old and dies. Years go by and we are well into Jacob’s life. About 200 years have past since God promised his grandfather that he would be a great nation and then a famine hits the land. Too bad Abraham and Isaac failed to expand their border to the south, to the promised Nile River, because that’s where they had to go to find relief from the famine.
Not The Promised Land
Gen. 47:13-21
Genesis 47 beginning at verse 13 recaps what happened next.
13 There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine.
14 Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace.
15 When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is used up.”
16 “Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.”
17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.
18 When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.
19 Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
20 So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s,
21 and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other.
I hope you are familiar with the life of Joseph, a great story about the advantages of walking with God and upholding the Lord’s principles. Here’s a brief snapshot of what took place to prior to this passage in the life of Joseph.
Joseph’s brothers sold him to Gypsies. The Gypsies sold him to a wealthy Egyptian who educated him. Through a series of unfortunate events, Joseph is wrongly convicted and sent to prison. While in prison the Pharaoh has a dream that he knows is prophetic. Word gets to Pharaoh that Joseph can interrupt dreams, so Pharaoh sends for Joseph and tells him the dream. Joseph says two things will happen seven years of abundance, then seven years of famine.
Joseph advises the Pharaoh to during the good years fill the national treasury; I mean barns, then sell it back to the people during the bad years. Pretty ingenious, the government takes from the people, and then sells it back to them at a profit. Sort of the world’s first stimulus package.
Sad thing is it never had to be. If Abraham would have taken the land God gave him, the Hebrews would have had half of the fertile Nile River valley. Had the brothers not sold Joseph, they would have had him to orchestrate their own stimulus package and Israel would have never became slaves to Egypt. If they had not been slaves, they would have never spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness, they would have never had to fight to reclaim the land they left to go to Egypt. In later years they would have been powerful enough to repel the attacks of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans. This means they would have never lost their land in the first century A.D. So they would have not needed to be returned to Israel after WWII, which means there would be no fighting over Gaza or the West Bank today. So in short, if they would have trusted God’s instruction rather than resting in the good times, our world might just be at peace today.
So which political party will guide us through our current crisis? It doesn’t really matter. As Christians our position is not a political platform; our position is to exalt the cross of Christ. To point to the forgiveness of sin, how to reconcile with God and to give the repeated warning that the next life is the more important than this one.
It is up to us to walk the path Christ has called us to walk. It is up to us to inform or remind our family, friends and neighbors that the system that lead us into a mess can never lead us out, we must repent, follow Christ, trust God and receive the Holy Spirit.
Government bailouts lead to government control, government control leads to servitude and servitude leads to two places: first oppression, then either destruction or deliverance.
Jacob led his beloved nation into Egypt. But before he died, he made Joseph promise not to bury his body in Egypt, because it was not his land.
Later when Joseph was old and near death, he made his people promise to bury him in his father’s land. Then when he died they embalmed his body and placed it in a coffin and waited and waited and waited. For 360 years, they waited. Kids would ask, "What’s in that box?" "That’s your old Grandpa Joseph’s bones." "What are they doing here?" "We’re waiting to bury them in the promised land when we go.”
It was 401 years from when Joseph died until he was buried in the land of his father. Jacob & Joseph were godly men who knew Egypt was not their home. They knew God had made a promise and they knew He would keep it.
The Final Promised Land
Rev. 21:3-4
No matter how many times we botch something, God can fix it. If we will let Him.
George Bush could not save America, Barak Obama will not save America, and whoever comes next will not save America, because America is not the Promise Land. This is only the place we are living while we wait to go to the Promised Land.
We cannot lose sight of God’s promises. There will be showers of blessings, there will be deliverance, there will be healing, there is a place where God will be with us, where He will wipe away every tear, where there is no death, no mourning, no crying and no pain. There is a place better than utopia, Shangri-La, or Kansas, God has promised and He always delivers.
Do you know God’s promises? Do you know Jesus? Has it seemed like a long time since God answered a prayer for you? Are you disappointed and tired of waiting? Don’t give up, be prayerful, be vigilant and be ready. This isn’t Egypt, we aren’t waiting for Moses. This is America and we are waiting for Christ to return and rapture His Church. He has always kept His promises and He always will.
