THE PROMISE OF THE LAND
The promised son was one of the promises that the Lord had told to Abraham. After having fulfilled this promise, there at least two more promises that the Lord should show to the descendants of Abraham namely the promised land and the promised people as the great nation which is also as a blessing to all nations (Gen 12:2).
The Promised Land Was Given to His People
Although the birth of Isaac came later, the promised land was told to Abraham. This promise was given when the Lord made the covenant with Abraham that the land in which he stood would be given to him and his descendants although in that point of time it belonged to many nations. Despite of the present of these nations the Lord gave the land to him unconditionally as the Lord saying, "Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites" (Gen 15:18-21).
This promise was reaffirmed to Abraham after the birth of Ishmael saying, "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. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations" (Gen 17:8-9).
This promise first was seen its fulfilment in the death of Sarah where Abraham bought a piece of land to bury his wife. This was just the starting for Abraham to see this land as his possession (Gen 23:1-20), for the Lord had given him the border of the land from the great river to the river of Euphrates. What Abraham had it was just for the burial ground for his wife and “this became the future burial ground of Abraham himself (Gen 25:8-10).” As Davis comments, "the very fact that Abraham Buried Sarah in the land of Canaan is proof of his unwavering faith. Knowing that his descendants would have to endure 400 years of bitter bondage in a foreign country (15:13), he looked beyond that to the ultimate fulfilment of God’s promise. ...Abraham is remembered for his far reaching faith which caused him to look for a city ‘whose builder and maker is God.’"
Therefore the great fulfilment to this promised land would be seen further in the time of Abraham descendants through Jacob and his twelve sons (became the twelve tribes) possess the land.
The People Was Restored to the Land
The land that Abraham had bought became the possession of his descendants, even to his grandson Jacob. Jacob with his twelve sons lived in Canaan. The famine that happened in this country had caused them to leave this land and went to Egypt as the command of Joseph his son whom became prime ministry in Egypt. The prophesy of Abraham descendant as being strangers for 430 years was being fulfilled in this land of Egypt (Gen 15:13). During these long years, the descendants of Abraham as known Israel had been suffering under the bondage of Egyptians. But despite of this hardship, the Lord had had blessed them that this nation had grown to two millions people. This was the fulfilment of the promise of the Lord to Abraham that his descendants would be innumerable.
The land of Canaan that had been left for 430 years would be restored by God to the children of Israel that the Israelites who were under bondage for many years would be brought back to the promised land. Indeed under the leadership of Moses, they left Egypt and marched to the promised land through the way of wilderness, and under the leadership of Joshua they had conquered the land and destroyed those nations who lived in the promised land as the Lord commanded them to do. The divisions of the land had been done and the land was divided according to their tribes (Joshua).
After the death of Joshua and the elders of the Israelites, the children of Israel did evil before the Lord and worship other gods, and the Lord sold them to their enemies. Because of the apostasy that happened among the Israelites, the Lord had commanded His prophets to warn them that they might obey and follow their Lord. One has said that "The land aspect of the Abraham promise had particular importance for the prophets of the declining and post-monarchy era. Because of apostasy, Israel was losing the land and consequently her nationhood, but that was not the last word. Through the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel in particular, God sustained the hope of the faithful with promises of a return to the land."
Many a time in spite of obeying their prophets they ignored them, even in time the prophets telling them that they would be captive by the Assyrian and Babylonian. Their hearts were hardened and disobeyed the Lord. In this time many Israelites were killed and many were exiled for seventy years in Babylon. The promised land was taken by other nations. After their return from exile some of the land was taken by their surrounding nations, and their land was smaller than before. One commented that "The exiles who returned to the land under Ezra and Nehemiah rested their faith in the God of Abraham. Even while they were still under the domination of others (Neh 9:36-37), they based their hope of restoration on God’s covenant with Abraham, as we see in their prayer of national confession and their determination to obey God’s law."
Whereas the Lord had promised to Abraham how large the promised land it is. But even in the first entering of the Israelites to the promised land, the land was not fulfilled as the Lord had commanded. Therefore the promised land should be restored to his people as the Lord had said, even in AD 70 many had taught the nation of Israel no longer, and yet in 1948, the nation of Israel exists again. Therefore the promise of the Lord also should be fulfilled to the nation of Israel today. As Macnaughtan comments “The land is to be restored to the people of Israel. The unconditional covenant made with Abraham, not yet fulfilled in all its details, as we have seen, requires this.” He further comments with regard to the fulfilment of the promised land: "We know of no one who would have the temerity to claim that, under Joshua and his immediate successors, the Israelites ‘possessed’ and ‘dwelt in’ the whole land from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates! Either we must conclude that the solemn promise God made to Abraham was never intended to be taken on its face value - and this we can not accept- or that the promise is yet to find its complete fulfilment."
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