It is not at all surprising that the casual reader of the Bible should conclude that all that God ever promised to Abraham and his seed, was the possession of what was and is known as the land of Canaan.
But it is surprising that men should insist that an earthly inheritance was all that was promised them, after they read that the promise was that they should be "heirs of the world," (Hebrews 4:13) and that it was such an inheritance as could be obtained only by faith in Christ.
First, let it be remembered that if it were true that the promise was that Abraham should have a temporal inheritance in the land of Canaan, then the promise failed, because he did not have it. "[God] gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child." (Acts 7:5)
But God's word cannot fail. Nothing can frustrate His promises, but everyone of them will be fulfilled to the minutest detail. Sometimes we hear it said that God tried one plan, and that when that failed, He tried another. But that cannot be.
"[God] works all things after the counsel of His own will." (Ephesians 1:11)
He is true, although every man fails. Neither did Abraham's descendants possess the inheritance that God promised them. Isaac and Jacob, as well as Abraham, "sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles. ... [They] confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." (Hebrews 11:9,13)
It is true that when God led the children of Israel out of Egypt, He did give to them the inheritance, and they began to possess it by faith; but they did not keep the faith, and so they put from them the inheritance. They did not realize how great a thing God had given them, and so they let it slip from their grasp. As it could be gained only by faith, so it could be held only by faith; but we are told that the word preached to them did not profit them, because faith was lacking. (Hebrews 4:2) "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:19)
This refers not only to those who died in the wilderness, but to those whom Joshua led into the land of Canaan, because we read that Joshua did not give them rest. "For if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day." (Hebrews 4:8)
Canaan's Importance
The land of Canaan, and especially the locality of Jerusalem, has from the earliest times been prominent in God's plan. It was there, on Mount Moriah, that Abraham offered Isaac, and found a ram to offer in his stead. (Genesis 22:2,14) On that same spot the plague was stayed in the days of David, and there the temple of Solomon was built. (2 Chronicles 3:1) It was of this place that Moses in his song after the passage of the Red Sea, said, "You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which You have made for yourself to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established." (Exodus 15:17)
In this last text we have reference to the Sanctuary of which Christ is Minister, "the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." (Hebrews 8:2)
Take this with the verses immediately following the one quoted from Exodus, "The Lord shall reign for ever and ever;" (Exodus 15:18) and also with the statement that Abraham "looked for a city which have foundations, whose builder and maker is God," (Hebrews 11:10) and we shall see that none of the faithful had the idea that they were to possess a temporal inheritance in this present world, but that they desired "a better country, that is, a heavenly." (Hebrews 11:16)
If we are children of Abraham, then, "our citizenship is in heaven." (Philippians 3:20,RV)
We have "come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven." (Hebrews 12:22-23)
A City with Foundations
"[Abraham] looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Hebrews 11:10)
Read in Revelation 21:14-20 the description of the foundations of the city of God. The heavenly Jerusalem, therefore, is the city for which Abraham looked. "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." (Galatians 4:26)
But this Jerusalem is coming down from God out of heaven, to be the capital of the new earth. "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. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 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." (Revelation 21:1-3)
And where will the heavenly Jerusalem come down? The prophet tells us that in the time of the great battle of the day of the Lord, "His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. ... and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with You. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear nor dark." (Zechariah 14:4)
That is, as stated in the margin, it shall not be clear in some places and dark in other places. "But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night; but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea; in summer and in winter shall it be. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one." (Zechariah 14:7-9)
Even if the Jerusalem that is now on the earth were a fit place for the tabernacle of God, it is altogether too small for all Israel. "The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell." (Isaiah 49:20)
The text from Zechariah tells us how the place will be made large enough. We have read that in that day living waters shall go forth from Jerusalem. That is because the tabernacle of God is with men, and from His throne proceeds a "clear river of water of life." (Revelation 22:1)
Then will Abraham and his seed inherit the land of Canaan.
Both Spiritual and Literal
But someone will say that we are spiritualizing the text, when it ought to be taken literally. No; we are taking it literally, for the city will be a very real city. "Spiritual" is not opposed to "literal." The law of God, even the whole Bible, is spiritual, yet it is very real. God himself is spiritual, yet He is a very real, living God.
The trouble with so many who read the promises to Israel is that they forget that the word is spiritual, and so leave Christ out of them. The promise is the promise of the Spirit, and the inheritance will be shared only by those who are spiritual, but it is so real that it will endure when everything else passes away. The promise that Abraham and his seed shall inherit the land of Canaan will be fulfilled to the very letter.
Now it is easy to see that the possession of the land of Canaan is in reality the possession of the whole earth. For when the New Jerusalem comes down and all the saints with it, the earth will be made new, and the Lord will be King over all the earth. "But why did not the Lord say 'the heavenly Canaan,' instead of simply Canaan, when He made the promise to Abraham, so that we need not make so great a mistake?"
Well, in the first place, it is no more strange that He should say simply Canaan, than that He should say simply the earth, instead of "new earth," in the promise, "Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5)
And secondly, the Lord made it so clear that He meant a heavenly and not an earthly inheritance, that Abraham understood Him, and looked only for a heavenly country. If Abraham could understand the promise, there is no reason why we should make a mistake in regard to it.
And now that we know what the promise is, let us remember that they who do His commandments, through faith in Christ, "may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." (Revelation 22:14)
Those gates have on them the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, (Revelation 21:12) so that the gathering of the saints of God into the New Jerusalem is the fulfillment of the promise through the prophets, that Israel shall return to Jerusalem.--Present Truth, September 20, 1894.