Bible Study The beautiful land

[miamited]

Good morning everyone. Well, it's morning here as I write this anyway.

God's word speaks of the area of the earth that He set aside for His people as the 'beautiful land'.

Ezekiel 20:6
6 On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.

This claim of God infers that He searched over the earth for the best of the land for His people. A land that He tells them is 'flowing with milk and honey'. Surely 'milk and honey' is an allegory painting a picture of good and 'flowing' is one of plentifulness. God is telling His people that He was taking them to the finest place, in His estimation, on the face of the earth to live, geographically speaking. Throughout the old prophets He references the place where He established Israel, as the beautiful land.

Daniel 11:41
41 He will also invade the Beautiful Land. Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand.

Finally, we have Jeremiah. Jeremiah's lament seems so very sad for God to be saying to His people:

Jeremiah 3:19
19 “I myself said, “ ‘How gladly would I treat you like my children and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’ I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me.

God hurt for Israel. How gladly He says He treated His 'children'. He gave them a land which was pleasant and was the most beautiful inheritance of ANY NATION. And today so many have no respect for what God has said about Israel. Yes, they're all sinners, too. But God called them to be who they are. He made them to be the people that they are. He worked, for 1500 years to mold and fashion the people and the nation of Israel. He carved out, from all of the land mass of the earth, a place sitting along the Mediterranean Sea that in His estimation was the finest, most productive, land and gave it to a people as an inheritance. Today we debate whether that gift of God to His people was an everlasting, or eternal promise.

I think one of the best pieces of evidence that God intended that Israel have possession of the beautiful land eternally is His covenant with Abraham when the land was first being discussed. God told Abraham that it was to be an everlasting possession and then He repeated that commitment to Jacob as he died.

So, as I understand it, God made a promise to a future line of people to a piece of land for as long as that land lasted. A beautiful land that God considered the greatest inheritance of any of the nations. God knows every atomic molecule of land upon the earth, and He considers the land that He gave unto Israel as the greatest inheritance of land that any of the other nations on the earth would eventually settle on. I believe that God's intentions in giving an area of the face of the earth as a place to be called Israel, where a group of people who for decades and centuries would build up into a great nation of people representing God's presence to us is an everlasting commitment.

Today, Israel, the people, have been restored to that land and I believe that God's 'children' today should support their being allowed to live there and doing what we might do to help them live there peacefully.

 

[Who Me]

a great nation of people representing God's presence to us is an everlasting commitment

The important question is:-

How is Israel representing God's presence as a devout people of God?

Every promise God made about blessings was balanced by a warning of curses if they do not stay Faithfull to the covenant they have made.

 

[miamited]

How is Israel representing God's presence as a devout people of God?

I didn't see that qualifier.

Every promise God made about blessings was balanced by a warning of curses if they do not stay Faithfull to the covenant they have made.

Yes, and God has done what He said He would do for their disobedience. But His promise of returning them to the land has no such qualifier that they had to be strictly obedient to Him. Listen, God knows that kind of people that He is dealing with. Israel has already done the greatest work that God asked of them and for that, He has chosen, long long ago, to bless them with the land that He promised them as an everlasting covenant. Keep in mind that when God made that covenant with Abraham, there was nothing written about the faithfulness of His people. He merely told Abraham that the land he was being given for the generations to come was an everlasting covenant. Not once did He even bring up obedience as a part of that covenant.

 

[Who Me]

I didn't see that qualifier.

Yes, and God has done what He said He would do for their disobedience. But His promise of returning them to the land has no such qualifier that they had to be strictly obedient to Him. Listen, God knows that kind of people that He is dealing with. Israel has already done the greatest work that God asked of them and for that, He has chosen, long long ago, to bless them with the land that He promised them as an everlasting covenant. Keep in mind that when God made that covenant with Abraham, there was nothing written about the faithfulness of His people. He merely told Abraham that the land he was being given for the generations to come was an everlasting covenant. Not once did He even bring up obedience as a part of that covenant.

Please read Deuteronomy ch 30 where God states he will restore banished people when they return to him.
Is a secular state honouring God?

Who today honours God?
Is it only the Jew whose ancestry can be traced to AbrahamIs it the devout Jew who keeps the whole law.

Or could it be those who follow Jesus?

 

[miamited]

Please read Deuteronomy ch 30 where God states he will restore banished people when they return to him.
Is a secular state honouring God?

Who today honours God?
Is it only the Jew whose ancestry can be traced to AbrahamIs it the devout Jew who keeps the whole law.

Or could it be those who follow Jesus?

Hi Who Me I think most of us understand that God's dealing with the Jews is not the same as He is now dealing with all mankind through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. In fact, there is a place in the Scriptures where God says that He is going to make a new covenant and it will not be like the old covenant that He made with Israel in the wilderness. So I think it fairly plain that how God dealt with Israel in the past is not the same as how God is dealing with the whole of mankind now.

After all, the old covenant was only for the Jews. He didn't give it out to the Syrians or any of the Gentile nations. He didn't ask Israel to go out and tell the world what He had done for them. But under the new covenant that's exactly what God has asked. The final command under the new covenant was that the believers in what Jesus has done were to go into all the world proclaiming what he has done and to bring them into the fold of believers and baptize them.

But God's word also tells us that despite how you or I might see His sovereign justice and mercy towards Israel, He has told us that Israel is the apple of his eye. That He loves them with an everlasting love. And some of the prophecies that He has caused to be written in His word tell us that in the end God is still caring about Israel. Now, we can either accept that or not, but that's what God's word says as concerns the matter of whether or not He still cares about Israel despite what you and I see as their continued stiff-necked disobedience.

Be very careful about putting yourself in the mind of God and believing of yourself to know what God thinks about Israel. He has also said that He will have mercy on those whom He desires to be merciful to despite what you or I might think is who He should be merciful to.

Israel, throughout the old covenant was very stiff-necked concerning God's commands and decrees, just as we are. But Israel did accomplish what God had established them to accomplish since the foundations of the world were set in place. They brought forth through the writings of the prophets and all their dealing with God what we today hold in our hands as His word. Israel did that.

Pretty much every word that we find in our Scriptures came to us through the obedience of Israel to write down all that He had done. The bringing forth of the Messiah to the world was through the people of Israel. Their obedience in putting Jesus to death as that sinless Savior is why you and I have the hope of eternal life with God, our Creator. Israel did accomplish the task for which God brought them up out of the loins of Abraham to accomplish. They just weren't faithful to His commands against sin and according to God's testimony, other than Jesus, His Son, no man ever has been successful at doing that. For it is written: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And just in case you or I might think to ourselves, well surely someone has been faithful to God, He ends that claim by saying, "No. Not one."

You and I are just as stiff-necked against God's commands against sinfulness as any Israeli.. according to God's testimony. Be careful in your condemnations that you don't condemn yourself. And you know what Paul wrote on the matter of judging those who are not a part of us? He said that we are not to judge those who are not a part of us. Our responsibility in judgment is for those who claim to be a part of us but don't live as they should.

 

[Who Me]

God says that He is going to make a new covenant and it will not be like the old covenant that He made with Israel in the wilderness

Whether one believes the O T covernant or the new covenant in Jesus applies, they both condemn the modern state of Israel.