What should Christians do with passages of Scripture that speak about the everlasting covenant God made with Abraham and the nation of Israel?
Psalm 105:8–11 says, “[The Lord our God] remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.’”
Does this promise apply to the church? Is this an abiding promise for national or ethnic Israel and not the church? Has it been abrogated? Has it been fulfilled? How are we to interpret such Scripture passages?
These questions are part of a larger discussion concerning the relationship between Israel and the Church. Everyone agrees that there are elements of continuity and discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments. But where do you draw those lines? Theological systems like covenant theology and dispensationalism diverge sharply at this point.
Much ink has been spilt on this subject and I don’t presume to solve every issue in this article, but I do want to provide some aid in thinking about the land promise repeated in Scripture.
Here in Psalm 105:11, we see the land of Canaan as part of the everlasting covenant God made with Abraham. In Galatians 3, Paul makes the case that the promises given to Abraham are abiding. He writes, “To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise” (Gal 3:15–18).
If the covenant promises God made to Abraham are abiding and the giving of the law or the coming of Christ does not abrogate it or add to it, then what do we do with the land promise? Was the land promise for Israel and remains reserved for Israel in the future? Does the coming of Christ and his identity as “the offspring” affect the land promise? What we will see in Scripture is that the Gentiles have become full heirs of the promises given to Abraham through faith in Christ—including the land.
Gentile Believers Included in the Land Promise
By the incredible grace of God, Gentiles who have faith in Christ are included in the blessings spoken to Abraham. Galatians 3:13–14 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us … so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
If the Gentiles are included in the blessing of Abraham through faith in Christ, does this include the land promise given to Abraham?
Consider the sermon on the mount where Jesus promised, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The Greek word translated “earth” can also be translated “land” (cf. Acts 7:3, 6; Matt 2:20; 27:45 where the same word is translated as “land”). In other words, the meek in Christ—whether Jew or Gentile—shall inherit the land.
We also see in Revelation that the nations redeemed by the Lamb will inherit the land. Revelation 5:9–10 says, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Again, the phrase “on the earth” can be translated “in the land.” In fact, this is how the ESV translates the phrase in Ephesians 6 when Paul commands children to obey their parents, quoting the 5th commandment, and says, “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land” (Eph 6:3).[1] The blessing of the land, made to the children of the old covenant, is applied to Gentile believers in Jesus Christ under the new covenant!
The Expansion of the Land Promise
It is clear in Revelation how the promise of the land is not confined to ethnic Jews or the region of Palestine. Rather, the land promise now extends to cover the earth! Revelation 21 speaks of a new heaven and new earth in which God’s people will dwell in the presence of the Lamb.
Some indeed maintain that these promises given to Abraham will be fulfilled in a future, national state of Israel in the land of Palestine serving Christ. This is referred to as Christ’s millennial reign where the temple will be reconstructed, memorial sacrifices will be offered, and the “unfulfilled promises” of the old covenant will find their fulfillment.
Those holding to this interpretation would argue that I’m reading New Testament passages back into the Old Testament in an illegitimate way. They would see my argument thus far as violating the context and literal interpretation of the Old Testament.
However, I believe this objection to be unfounded and plan to demonstrate that these New Testament promises—which include the Gentiles in the land promise—do not originate with the New Testament but were taught in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament Promises Include Gentiles in the Land
The expansion of the land promise and the inclusion of the Gentiles in the New Testament is consistent with the promises of the Old Testament.
Consider Isaiah 66:18–21 which says, “For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory…. to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the Lord.”
We see here the Gentiles—all nations and tongues—coming to declare the glory of God and worship him. God will even take these Gentiles and make them priests! This passage reads like Revelation 5:9–10. This should not surprise us since Isaiah 66 speaks about the new heavens and new earth as well.
Similar promises of Gentile incorporation into the end-time people of God are expressed in other prophetic writings (see Jer. 3:16–4:4; Amos 9:11–15; Mic 4:1–3; Zech 8:7–8, 20–23).
The inclusion of the Gentiles can be understood as an expansion of the promises of God given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). This does not replace Israel, or the promises given to Israel. We should be able to affirm that Romans 11 speaks about the conversion of ethnic Israel and the grafting in of the Gentiles into the promises given to Abraham through Christ.
This expansion of the promise to Israel to include the Gentiles is not a teaching read back into the Old Testament (see verses cited above), and neither is the expansion of the land promise to include the nations of the earth a New Testament teaching read back into the Old Testament. There is an expansion of the land promise explicitly taught in the Old Testament.
Genesis 15:18–19 says, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.’”
That promise from river to river is expanded in Psalm 72. In Psalm 72:8 it says, “May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!” If you continue reading this psalm, you will see verses 9–17 include the nations as part of God’s promised land and inheritance.[2]
Lest we downplay the significance of Psalm 72 as poetic overstatement, God expanded the land promise when he spoke to Jacob (Israel). In Genesis 28:14 it says, “Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
The same hope of the borders of Israel, God’s promised land, to cover the earth is expressed by the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 54:1–3 says, “‘Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,’ says the Lord. ‘Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.’”
What is clear in these texts is that the Old Testament itself predicts the inclusion of the Gentiles into God’s covenant, making them priests, and expanding the land promise to include the nations. The whole earth is the Lord’s (Psalm 24:1). Christ will be exalted over the all earth, redeeming it for his own by his shed blood.
The Promised Land and Eden
It needs to be remembered that the land promise did not begin in Genesis 12 with the promises given to Abraham. To land promised to Abraham is not the baseline to which all references to land should be compared. The land promise goes back to the garden of Eden where God planted a garden and called Adam and Eve to cultivate it for the glory of God. The language of Eden is used at the end of the story when Revelation 22 speaks about the river of life and the tree of life. Again the Lord will walk with his people in the cool of the day.
Between the Eden of Genesis and the Eden of Revelation, the promised land spoken of in the Old Testament is also repeatedly linked to the garden of Eden (cf. Isaiah 51:2–3; Ezek 36:35; 47:1–12; Joel 2:3; Zech 14:8–11). The presence of God in the garden was manifest in the land of Israel and is being manifest throughout the earth today, and in the future will cover the earth leading to an Edenic state in all the earth.
The land promise is not exclusively for ethnic Israelites. The land promise is Christ’s inheritance. It was won by Christ’s victory when Adam and others failed. It is his inheritance which he will divide with those who have faith in him (Isaiah 53:12; Matt 5:5; Rev 5:9–10; 21–22)—both Jew and Gentile.
To use Paul’s words in Galatians 3, the land is not the possession of Israel but of Christ. It is in Christ that all the promises of God are “Yes” and “Amen” (2 Cor 1:20).
One Last Objection
There is one nagging objection that I’ve failed to address thus far. What about the literal boundaries that God promised to Abraham? Isn’t an expansion a violation of what was originally promised? How can we have confidence in what God has promised us if it can be expanded or altered in any way?
These are great questions. Let me be clear that I don’t believe the promises given to Abraham are strictly figurative, typological, or find their “spiritual fulfillment” in Jesus and the new heavens and new earth. Rather, the promises given to Abraham and Israel were literally fulfilled but the promises are also part of a larger story of the land that began in Genesis and reaches its climax in Revelation—all of it centering on Christ.
Several passages in the Old Testament speak to the literal fulfillment of the land promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). Joshua 21:43–45 says, “Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”
Nehemiah 9:7–8 also says, “You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.”
These passages demonstrate that God’s promise to Abraham found literal fulfillment in the conquest. But just as we see a pattern of rest (Gen 2:3; Exod 20:11; Psalm 95:7–11; Heb 4:8–11) where there is fulfillment in a creation rest, a weekly rest, the rest of the conquest, and the rest in Christ. So too do we see a pattern of the land in the fulfillment of God’s promises from Eden to Palestine to the ends of the earth.
We are now waiting, in Christ, for the whole world to be filled with his glory! The coastlands, the far reaches of the earth, are waiting for his rule. The land is part of the blessed hope of every believer. This hope is not just for the Jew but also the Gentile grafted into the promises of God through Jesus Christ.
“He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law” (Isaiah 42:4).
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).
Amen!
—Tim Stephens
[1] Both passages end with “ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς” translated by the ESV as “on the earth” in Rev 5:10 and “in the land” in Eph 6:3.
[2] “May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth! May desert tribes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust! May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts! May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!
Long may he live; may gold of Sheba be given to him! May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day! May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the tops of the mountains may it wave; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field! May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!” (Psalm 72:8–11, 15–17)