Whose Promised Land? (5^th edition), by Colin Chapman.

Synopsis of chapter 4 – The Land Before Christ

4.1 The Promise of the Land

God’s promise to Abraham is recorded in Gen 12:1-3 and is repeated many times, both to him and to Isaac and Jacob.

The were four components:

• ‘I will give you the land as an everlasting possession.’
• ‘I will greatly increase your numbers… and I will make you into a great nation.’
• ‘I will make an everlasting covenant to be your God and the God of your descendants.’
• ‘I will bless those who bless you, and all people on earth will be blessed through you.’

The first stage of fulfilment is recorded in Gen 23, with Abraham’s purchase of a cave in Hebron where he buried his wife, Sarah.

The promise of the land has important entailments:

‘We cannot have the promise about the land without everything else that goes with it – including the privilege and responsibility of belonging to a group of people who have a special relationship with God, and being part of his plan that will eventually bring blessing to all the peoples of the world.’

4.2 The Boundaries of the Land

The boundaries of the land are described in different ways.  This variability may be due to the fact that the Israelites never controlled the entire territory of Palestine (they probably reached their greatest extent under Solomon, 1 Kings 4:24-25).

It is therefore not possible to use the Old Testament to define the area of land that Jews today might have the right to live.  Moreover, we must see the land promises in the light of God’s concern for the whole human race.

4.3 The Conquest of the Land

The sons of Jacob (Israel) had settled in Egypt.  The return to their land was begun under the leadership of Moses and completed under Joshua.

Many Israeli Jews today can identify with the conquest of the land under Joshua.  Conversely, many Palestinian Christians will be troubled by any identification of them with the ancient Canaanites.

Can we believe that God actually commanded ethnic cleansing?

Some would answer this by saying that what is recorded is a very biassed history, written from a partisan perspective.

Better, however, to take the text seriously and to acknowledge:

(a) The reality of what happened

We must be careful not to exaggerate the extent of the destruction.  Only a few towns were completely destroyed.  The conquest was never complete.  Many of the original inhabitants continued to live alongside the Israelites.

(b) The problems of judging the morals of the past by the standards of today

So, especially, with the conquest of the land under Joshua.  They are rightly regarded as evil by today’s standards.  The concept of human rights is a comparatively new one.  It is only international law (again, a modern development) that makes is possible for us to judge ethnic cleansing as heinous.

(c) Other Old Testament perspectives

• The land as a gift from God. It did not belong to them, but to the Lord, Lev 25:23.
• The land given by the Lord to Abraham in fulfilment of his promise. Therefore, the other parts of the promise (including the blessing of all nations) are applicable too.
• The conquest of the land was a judgment on its inhabitants. See Gen 15:16.
• The Lord will be just as severe on the Israelites if they commit the same abominations as the Canaanites, Lev 18:28.
• Obedience to God’s law, Deut 18:9-15.

All these themes are brought together in Deut 8:19 – 9:1,4-6.

(d) The New Testament perspective of progressive revelation

The idea of progressive revelation (see Heb 1:1-2) suggests that the truths God wished to reveal at any time needed to be adapted and limited to what people could understand at the time.  God had to work within a culture to lead them towards a better way.  Old Testament history is to be understood as a record of preparation for God’s fuller revelation in Christ.

The New Testament presents Jesus as a ‘new Joshua’, who leads his people, not into a piece of real estate, but into the kingdom of God.  The Book of Acts records, not the conquest of the land of Palestine, but the spread of the gospel throughout the world (see Acts 1:8).

It is inconceivable that Jesus would act as Joshua did.  If we read the Old Testament through the lens of Christ, then we can never feel comfortable with the story of the conquest.

Accordingly,

‘The conquest of the land becomes one stage in the unfolding of God’s plan for history – a shameful but vital stage, one that was not to be repeated, and need never be repeated.’

4.4 The Land and the Temple

We can think of the sequence: land – Jerusalem – temple as a set of concentric circles.  The temple (and the tabernacle before it) was to be thought of as the dwelling place of the Lord (Ex 25:8, etc.).  See also Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8, concluding with the hope that ‘all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other’ (v60).

4.5 Exile from the Land

If the gift of the land was conditional upon obedience, then it follows the disobedience would lead to forfeiture of the land, Deut 4:25-27.  So too the temple could be forfeited, 1 Kings 9:6-7.

These were no idle threats.  Israel fell to Assyria in 721 BC, 2 Kings 17:5–8, 18.

Judah fell to Babylon a century later, in judgement upon the nation, Jer 9:13-16 and its land, Jer 12:7-11.  The elite were carried off the Babylon, leaving only the poorest, 2 Kings 24:13–14; 20.  It would have been seen as an utter catastrophe to the people of Judah:

‘All their leaders were banished from the land. The king was deported and stripped of all his powers. The temple was in ruins, and the priests were no longer able to offer the sacrifices. It must have seemed as if God had broken every promise he had ever made to Abraham and to David.’

4.6 Return to the Land

The Jews survived the exile in Babylon partly because they were kept together (not scattered as their people of Israel had been in Assyria).

Also, their prophets had given them hope that if the people returned to God in genuine repentance, he would restore them to their land (Deut 30:1-5).  Such hope is articulated by Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

This hope came to fruition when Cyrus of Persia captured Babylon in 539 BC and set about repatriating the different groups of exiles.  The return of the Jews to Jerusalem is recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–3.

In the postexilic period, the Jews developed a strong sense that they belonged here, in the land God had promised them as an everlasting possession.  But the great threat was not that they would be exiled again, but that they would have to live under and alien occupying power,

Between 200 BC and AD 100, apocalyptic writing became popular as writers tried to explain why evil powers were frustrating God’s purposes, and as they looked forward to the time when those purposes would be fulfilled for God’s people in their land.

The Jews were in the land but not masters of it.  Only a small remnant returned to the land, and their territory was only a fraction of that ruled by David and Solomon.  They had no king and lived most of the time under some foreign power.

4.7 The land and the hopes of Israel

Was this all that God had in store for them?  Was there to be no spiritual renewal?  Could they look forward to the complete fulfilment of God’s promises to Abraham and all the hopes of Israel?

The prophets had held out just such a hope – Isaiah 35:1, 3–6, 8; Jeremiah 24:5–7; Ezekiel 36,37; Zechariah 8:1–8; 10:6–10.

In summary, their message was:

• The people would live in the land for ever.
• They would become a great nation.
• God would be their God.
• Through them all people on earth would be blessed.

3^rd January 2026