Genesis 12:1–3 — Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. 2 Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”

This promise to Abram has four key elements:

1. he will be given a ‘land’;
2. he will be made into a ‘great nation’;
3. he will enjoy a special (covenant) relationship with God;
4. through him all the nations will be blessed.

Of course, this promise is repeated and elaborated many times.

But what of its ultimate fulfilment?

When we turn to the last book of the Bible, we find that (in the words of Colin Chapman):

1. ‘The promise of the land has now given way to the promise of “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1).
2. ‘The nation which God promised would become great and numerous has now become “the 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel” (Revelation 7:4).
3. ‘The promise of a special relationship between God and his people is fulfilled because now “the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).
4. ‘The promise of blessing for all peoples on earth will finally be fulfilled in the “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9)’.

(Whose Promised land? 5th ed., chapter 5)