The promised land: a gift

Since 70 A.D. with the destruction of the temple and gradual dispersions of Israelite people off the land of Israel out of the regions of Palestine from various waves and periods of rule by the Romans, Christian and Muslim rule, the Jews have wandered through the world without a land of their own, and seeking a land to be restored to Israel as God promised he would do.

But is the statelet of the Jews today, the state of Israel, the true fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and God’s prophesy of Israel’s return to the land?

The modern state of Israel exists today largely because the Jewish people established it themselves through the long lobbying efforts of the Zionists who worked with the Communist Russians, the Ottoman Turkish Muslims, the English British government, the German Nazi Third Reich, only years before the Nazi holocaust of World War II, and anyone else who was willing to facilitate a Jewish homeland for a Jewish people. Armed violence and terrorism, with incendiary bombs, were even facilitated by the Zionists to achieve a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

The fact is that the land of Palestine was occupied already by people, Arabs, Jews and Christians, when the Zionist Jews came from Russia and Eastern Europe to settle the land, they believed belong to them.

Despite the Jewish people’s horrific experience of the cruel and inhumane suffering and murder of the Jews by the Nazi regime in World War II, and preceding centuries of mistreatment, the Jewish Zionists came treating the inhabitants of Palestine with no regard for their livelihood or rights and cruelly and militarily violently forced the majority of the Arab Palestinians in the region, out, and off the land, to become the new Jewish homeland and the state of Israel established by the United Nations in 1948.

Today the violent conflicts, with the remaining Palestinians, which arose early on by the first settlements of Zionist settlers, continues to this day with the Israelis’ plans to annex more Palestinian occupied land for the Jewish state.

As a result, the region is war-torn and divided and defiled by the shedding of blood; the very land YHWH promised to Abraham and his seed is a land of misery and an eye sore to the world and a powder keg ready to explode today.

Can the promised land be taken by military force? Did God deliver the land by military force to Abraham and his seed?

Abraham was a righteous man and had faith in God.

Can sinful men claim land that God gave to Abraham?

Many Christians who support the Zionist state believe so, but what does the Holy Bible teach us about the land God gave to Abraham and his seed?

God appeared to Abram, the Hebrew, and told him to get up out of the land he lived in, to travel to another land where God would bless him.

Genesis 12:1-3
¶ Now YHWH had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Abram by faith left his country, and moved from there, like God said, to another land.

Genesis 12:6-7
¶ And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 7 And YHWH appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto YHWH, who appeared unto him.

God promised to Abram he would inherit the land that Abram stood upon, and all his eyes could see.

Genesis 13:14-17
¶ And YHWH said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: 15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. 16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. 17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

Genesis 15:7
¶ And he said unto him, I am YHWH that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

God by his grace gave the land to Abram and to his seed.

Genesis 15:18-21
In the same day YHWH made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: 19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, 20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, 21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, and God gave Abraham an everlasting covenant with him and his seed after him, and a promise of everlasting possession of the land of Canaan.

Genesis 17:4-8
¶ As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. 5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. 6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 7 ¶ And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. 8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

YHWH God also later appeared to Isaac, Abraham’s son and gave him the promise.

Genesis 26:2-5
And YHWH appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; 4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

God also appeared to Jacob, the son of Isaac, and gave him the promise.

Genesis 28:12-15
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13 And, behold, YHWH stood above it, and said, I am YHWH God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

God changed Jacob’s name to Israel and promised the land to his seed after him.

Genesis 35:9-12
And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. 10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. 11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; 12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

The children of Israel believed in God’s promise.

Genesis 50:24
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

When God appeared to Moses to bring his people Israel out of Egypt, he mentioned the promised land of milk and honey.

Exodus 3:15-17
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, YHWH God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. 16 ¶ Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, YHWH God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: 17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

After God delivered the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage Moses speaks of the promised land to be given to Israel.

Exodus 13:3-5
And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand YHWH brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. 4 This day came ye out in the month Abib. 5 And it shall be when YHWH shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

Moses warned the children of Israel not to walk in the ways of the nations, which God was going to remove from the land, and give that land to Israel for their possession.

Leviticus 18:24-28
Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: 25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. 26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: 27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

Israel was warned that if they forsook God and his laws and committed abominable acts of the nations, and worshipped their gods, that they too would be vomited out of the land.

The God of Israel demanded that the children of Israel had faith in him and his promise that they were to go into war to conquer and inherit the land God had promised them.

But when the children of Israel sent spies to spy out the land, they came back with an evil report which caused fear among the people and they lost faith in God’s promise of conquering the nations in the land.

They, in their fear, did not believe the word God had said to them despite having witnessed all the miracles and acts of YHWH beforehand. Thus, YHWH was angry with that generation of the children of Israel.

Numbers 14:21-24
But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of YHWH. 22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: 24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

The children of Israel after being reprimanded by God and Moses then decided the next day that they would go up and fight the inhabitants of the land to take the land by force, but YHWH was not going with them nor would he fight their battles.

Number 14:40-45
And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which YHWH hath promised: for we have sinned. 41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of YHWH? but it shall not prosper. 42 Go not up, for YHWH is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from YHWH, therefore YHWH will not be with you. 44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of YHWH, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.

This lack of faith would cause Israel to lose the opportunity to go into the land, thus God punished that generation of Israel to wander 40 years in the wilderness, however their children would be a new generation of faithful followers willing to do what their forefathers failed to obey and do in faith.

Number 32:10-27
And YHWH’S anger was kindled the same time, and he sware, saying, 11 Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me: 12 Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: for they have wholly followed YHWH. 13 And YHWH’S anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of YHWH, was consumed. 14 And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers’ stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of YHWH toward Israel. 15 For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and ye shall destroy all this people. 16 ¶ And they came near unto him, and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones: 17 But we ourselves will go ready armed before the children of Israel, until we have brought them unto their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land. 18 We will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance. 19 For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, or forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side Jordan eastward. 20 And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before YHWH to war, 21 And will go all of you armed over Jordan before YHWH, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, 22 And the land be subdued before YHWH: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before YHWH, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before YHWH. 23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against YHWH: and be sure your sin will find you out. 24 Build you cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which hath proceeded out of your mouth. 25 And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spake unto Moses, saying, Thy servants will do as my lord commandeth. 26 Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle, shall be there in the cities of Gilead: 27 But thy servants will pass over, every man armed for war, before YHWH to battle, as my lord saith.

This new generation of the children of Israel had faith in YHWH.

Numbers 33:51-54
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; 52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: 53 And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it. 54 And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man’s inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit.

Deuteronomy 1:8
Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which YHWH sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

It was not Israel’s military numbers or might on the battle field, but YHWH and his power whom would fight for the children of Israel to overcome their enemies.

YHWH sought Israel’s faith in his power to fight for Israel.

Deuteronomy 1:30-39
YHWH your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; 31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that YHWH thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. 32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe YHWH your God, 33 Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day. 34 And YHWH heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, 35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, 36 Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed YHWH. 37 Also YHWH was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39 Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.

YHWH demanded faith and obedience to his ways and laws for Israel to possess the land of Canaan.

Deuteronomy 6:17-19
¶ Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of YHWH your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. 18 And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of YHWH: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which YHWH sware unto thy fathers, 19 To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as YHWH hath spoken.

YHWH reminded Israel that it was not their righteousness that YHWH will give the land to Israel to possess, but God’s oath to Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

Deuteronomy 9:4-6
Speak not thou in thine heart, after that YHWH thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness YHWH hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations YHWH doth drive them out from before thee. 5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations YHWH thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which YHWH sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Understand therefore, that YHWH thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

The land was given to Abraham’s seed, but living on the land clearly came with conditions.

Deuteronomy 11:16-17
Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; 17 And then YHWH’S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which YHWH giveth you.

If Israel did not meet God’s rules and conditions of obeying his laws and statutes, then Israel would be removed from off the very land God gave them to possess.

Deuteronomy 29:24-27
Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath YHWH done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? 25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of YHWH God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: 26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them: 27 And the anger of YHWH was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: 28 And YHWH rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

Moses warned the children of Israel to obey God and his laws and statutes, to keep possession of the land God was going to give Israel.

Deuteronomy 30:15-18
¶ See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; 16 In that I command thee this day to love YHWH thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and YHWH thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. 17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; 18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

During Israel’s conquest of the land one of the men of the children of Israel sinned by disobeying God’s commandment. One man kept a spoil of the conquered nation, which was against YHWH’s laws and commandments. God could not tolerate sin, or the accursed thing, being among Israel in his holy presence.

Joshua 7:11-12
Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. 12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.

God would not be with, nor fight for the children of Israel, until they had found and removed the accursed thing amongst the camp of Israel, and punished the man guilty.

Joshua, who followed Moses, warned the children of Israel to obey and love YHWH, do his commandments, and do not do the way of the inhabitants of the land, lest they too perish off the land.

Joshua 23:11-16
¶ Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love YHWH your God. 12 Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: 13 Know for a certainty that YHWH your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which YHWH your God hath given you. 14 And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which YHWH your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. 15 Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which YHWH your God promised you; so shall YHWH bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which YHWH your God hath given you. 16 When ye have transgressed the covenant of YHWH your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of YHWH be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.

So, we can see that the land was a gift to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The land and its blessings were promised gifts to those whom YHWH chose to be his people. Israel was not given the land by their righteousness, nor by their own abilities, nor military might, but because God swore an unbreakable oath to Abraham and his seed. Abraham was an obedient, faithful, man who obtained righteousness by God. God blessed Abraham and his seed with the promises and gift of the land.

It’s clear that when the children of Israel had not faith, and tried to do for themselves with their own military might, God was not with them and they failed.

Thus, possession of the land, and ability to enter into the promised land, requires faith.

It required faith in God, and his promise.

When fear and disobedience to God took place, there was no faith and God would not do a work among Israel. Failure to obey God and his laws and statutes and disobedience to God, would result in not only punishments, but possible removal from the land.

Thus, there are conditions by God for dwelling on the land. Israel cannot live however it chooses and still retain tenancy of the land. The Land belongs to God and is his gracious gift to Abraham and his seed.


Realize that Israel eventually sinned so greatly, so many times, that God eventually casted out, or spued out, Israel, all of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel, off the land of Israel. Later after the captivities of Israel (722 B.C.) and Judah (586 B.C.), God restored a remnant of Judah, or Jews, to the land of Israel to wait on the Messiah, up unto the time of Christ. After Jesus was crucified, and bled for the sins of the children of Israel, many years later in 70 A.D. Jerusalem was sacked and the temple destroyed by the Romans, and once again, the Jews were dispersed out of the land to wander the earth, with no land.

If this is the case, then only the righteous, obedient, and faithful in God, can have any right to enter into the promised land and remain there forever.

If this is the case, then what of the Zionist statelet of Israel today? a state created from a people who did not truly believe in God’s promises that He would gather them and return them to the land, but who took it upon themselves to create the Jewish homeland they wanted, using the most sinister means and by most violent bloody means, and militarily forcing out the inhabitants of the land leading to generations of bloodshed and war with the Palestinians?

The Jews believe that because they are Israel, they are entitled to the land regardless of the fact they live and continue to live in sin against YHWH’s laws and statutes and cling to outdated and corrupt Judaism, which is a religion based on the Old Covenant and not on the New Covenant God made with Israel. The Jews largely continue to reject Jesus, their Messiah and the king of Israel, and instead cling to traditions of men in their Judaism.

The Jewish people, by and large, lacked faith in God and his Son, thus are dead in their sins.

How can the modern Israeli state resemble the great promises of land that God gave to Abraham and his seed where God would give Israel peace and rest?

What does the prophesy say for Israel and the land?

Ezekiel 37:21-27
And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: 22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: 23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. 24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the heathen shall know that I YHWH do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

God said he would gather Israel. They would no more be divided as Israel and Judah, but one unified kingdom under David, his servant, and Shepherd, Jesus the Christ. They would obey God’s commandments and dwell in the land promised to Abraham and his seed. God would make covenant of peace, an everlasting covenant. God would set his sanctuary in the midst of Israel forever more.

Perhaps the New Testament writer of Hebrews can explain the promised rest of God.

Hebrews 3:14-4:10
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. 1 ¶ Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. 6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11 ¶ Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

That true rest is found only in and through Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.

Matthew11:27-30
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

By faith, we seek a promised land, that is established from God, not one established by man.

Hebrews 11:8-16
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. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

Those in Christ Jesus seek and desire a better country, or land that is heavenly, where God can be worshiped in truth and in Spirit.

If the scriptures say we seek a new city God has prepared for his people, then what of the earth city of Jerusalem?

Read the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Galatians 4:21-5:6
¶ Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. 28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. 30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. 1 ¶ Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

It's clear we in Christ Jesus seek a new city and a new Jerusalem, a new promised land from above which is given by God and created by God for his people to live with God.

The earthly land of Israel and earthy Jerusalem are merely but empty shadows when compared to the greatness of God’s glorious promises to come in the new earth and the new heavens which shall bring the new Jerusalem, peace and rest to the people of God.

Revelation 21:1-5
¶ And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 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. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

What an amazing glorious gift of grace, that God gave Abraham and his seed, a promised land of promise and peace and rest, and all made possible through our Lord Jesus the Christ God’s Son who paid the price for our sins and all the sin of the world!

It’s through Christ Jesus we have any inheritance in Israel and any hope of entering the promised land in righteousness and true peace and rest that God promised to his people.

Lord, we thank you for your glorious promises to Abraham and to his seed.

Glory and praise be to your holy powerful name, now and forever!