{"id":3671,"date":"2021-08-14T13:29:17","date_gmt":"2021-08-14T18:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/?page_id=3671"},"modified":"2025-05-06T14:22:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:22:51","slug":"the-promised-land-that-god-has-promised-his-followers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/?page_id=3671","title":{"rendered":"The Promised Land That God Has Promised His Followers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c7\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><b><span class=\"c5\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/images\/Promised_Land2.jpg\" alt=\"The \u201cPromised Land\u201d is the name given to the area promised by God to Abraham and his descendants\" width=\"359\" height=\"355\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #993300;\">The \u201cPromised Land\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c10\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">The <b>\u201cPromised Land\u201d<\/b> is the name given to the area promised by God to Abraham and his descendants. Thus it more or less refers to the same territory described by such terms as <b>\u201cCanaan,\u201d<\/b> <b>\u201cPalestine,\u201d<\/b> <b> \u201cIsrael,\u201d<\/b> and <b>\u201cthe Holy Land.\u201d<\/b><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">But <b>\u201cPromised Land\u201d<\/b> emphasizes the fact that this territory was a gift from God to the Israelite&#8217;s.<\/span><br \/>\n<b><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"c10\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #993300;\"><b>The HISTORY<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">The importance of this land area is first seen in the Bible when God called Abraham out of Ur and into Canaan. This was a turning point in God\u2019s relations with humankind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">Beginning at this point, he would focus on one people group, living in one area, in his program of salvation. The Lord made two promises to Abraham.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">The <b>promises of land<\/b> and descendants are tied up together. The first time God made the promise of land to Abraham was when Abraham was new in Canaan (<b>Genesis 12:7<\/b>). But he repeated the promise at least four additional times throughout the remaining years of Abraham\u2019s life (<b>Genesis 13:14-17<\/b>; <b>15:7<\/b>, <b> 18-21<\/b>; <b>17:8<\/b>; <b>22:17<\/b>).<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\"><b>the patriarch would have many descendants.<\/b><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\"><b>those descendants would occupy the land of Canaan.<\/b><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">God made the same promise to Abraham\u2019s son Isaac (<b>Genesis 26:3-4<\/b>) and grandson Jacob (<b>Genesis 28:13-15; 35:12<\/b>). But none of the three patriarchs ever possessed the land themselves. They were nomads, moving from place to place with their herds. All they ever possessed was the burial cave of Machpelah, near Hebron, where they were all laid to rest (<b>Genesis 23; 49:29-32<\/b>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">It was left for another generation of Hebrews to possess the land. After the period of the patriarchs, the Hebrew people lived in Egypt as slaves for many years. Then Moses led them out of Egypt and they lived in the wilderness of Sinai for forty years. Only after that, under the leadership of Joshua, did the people begin their conquest of Canaan, the <b>Promised Land<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">All this had been foretold centuries before to the original recipient of the promise:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">Abraham (<b>Genesis 15:13-16<\/b>)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">Even after possessing the land, the people needed to realize that it was a gift to them from God. And in fact, it was God, not they, who owned the land. The Lord said to them, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><span class=\"c9\">\u201cThe land &#8230; really belongs to me. You are only foreigners and tenants living with me\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span> (<b>Leviticus 25:23<\/b>). The Hebrew people could continue to live in the Promised Land only as long as they were faithful to God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">If they were disobedient, God warned them before they conquered Canaan, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><span class=\"c9\"> \u201cYou [will] disappear from the land you are about to enter and occupy. For the Lord will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span> (<b>Deuteronomy 28:63-64<\/b>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c10\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">The eventual Diaspora of the Jews shows that the promise of their own special land was a promise that the Jews should not have taken for granted.<\/span><br \/>\n<b><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"c10\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #993300;\"><b>GEOGRAPHY<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c10\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">The Bible gives a couple of descriptions of the Promised Land\u2019s extent. God told Abraham,<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong> <span class=\"c9\">\u201cI have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span> (<b>Genesis 15:18<\/b>). At another point the Lord said, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><span class=\"c9\">\u201cI will fix your boundaries from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the southern deserts to the Euphrates River\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span> (<b>Exodus 23:31<\/b>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">With these descriptions, we can define the borders of the Promised Land pretty exactly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">On the west, the Mediterranean Sea provided the border.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">On the east, the margin of the desert lands served as a border. The eastern side of the Promised Land presumably included Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Gilead, all lying between the Jordan River valley and the Arabian desert.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">On the south, the border was marked by two natural features. One was the <b> \u201cBrook of Egypt.\u201d<\/b> Today called Wadi el-Arish, this seasonal river forms a natural boundary between Israel\u2019s southern Negev Desert and Egypt\u2019s Sinai Peninsula.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c10\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">The second natural boundary point was the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, an extension of the Red Sea. The Israelite port city of Ezion-Geber was established there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">On the north, the nearest loop of the Euphrates River, in the area of the city of Tiphsah, supplied a boundary. Did the Israelites ever control the whole <b> Promised Land<\/b>?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">Apparently they did, for a brief while, during the nation\u2019s greatest extent under King Solomon (<b>1 Kings 4:24<\/b>). But the constant change in the borders of the nation throughout its history tells a story of the people\u2019s difficulty in fully occupying the <b>Promised Land<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">Some theologians think the promise of land to the Jewish people is yet to be fulfilled in a literal way. They see the modern state of Israel as a foothold from which the Jewish people will eventually reach out and possess the entire land area promised to Abraham.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\">Other theologians are not so sure. They point out that God\u2019s promise of land was fulfilled literally in biblical times. They also argue that, if the promise is yet to be fulfilled in some sense, its fulfillment is of a spiritual sort as Christ\u2019s followers dwell in the <b>\u201cpromised land\u201d<\/b> of heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_3671\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"3671\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon large\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The \u201cPromised Land\u201d The \u201cPromised Land\u201d is the name given to the area promised by God to Abraham and his descendants. Thus it more or less refers to the same territory described by such terms as \u201cCanaan,\u201d \u201cPalestine,\u201d \u201cIsrael,\u201d and \u201cthe Holy Land.\u201d But \u201cPromised Land\u201d emphasizes the fact that this territory was a gift [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_3671\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"3671\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon large\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":397,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"wf_page_folders":[17,24,31,59,49],"class_list":["post-3671","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3671\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wf_page_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavens-beauty.info\/wp-hb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwf_page_folders&post=3671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}