I Will Inherit the Land (Part 1)

Who is the man who fears the LORD? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land. (Psalm 25:12-13)

This is the first of three posts in which I want to argue that as Gentile believers in Jesus Christ, we share an equal inheritance with believing Israel of the land promises made to Abraham.

In this first post I simply want to provide some context by reiterating a point that I made several weeks ago when I argued that the Jews do not currently possess a divine right to the Promised Land.  The reason for this, I argued, is that Israel is currently under God’s curse (see Deut 27-28), outside of the covenant because of her disobedience.  In the words of Yahweh in Hosea 1, Israel is currently “not my people” and therefore not entitled to the privileges of the covenant–including the land.  In making this point, I am not, however, arguing that Israel never will be given her inheritance.  The land promises still stand.  So although Israel does not currently possess a divine right to the land, she will someday inherit what God has promised, including the land promises.

Let me explain.

1. God’s covenant with Abraham included the promise that his seed would finally dwell in the land and the final fulfillment of that promise is unconditional. That means that someday Abraham’s seed—those who inherit the promises—will inherit the land. No doubt about that.
2. The promise of the land has not been revoked. That is, God’s promise that Abraham’s seed will someday inherit the land still stands.
3. The Old (Mosaic) Covenant was an administrative covenant that administered God’s relationship with Abraham’s seed. Israel’s enjoyment of the benefits of the covenant was dependent upon her obedience of the conditions of the covenant, namely the law. In other words, possession of the land at any given point in time was dependent upon her status as covenant people. Yahweh said as much when he made the covenant: “If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples” (Ex 19:5). Built into the Old Covenant was a set of harsh sanctions that, when enacted, would remove Israel from her covenant status. In Deuteronomy 27-28 these sanctions are called “the curse.” When Israel failed to obey the covenant they would fall under his curse, rendering them as a nation just like all the other cursed nations of the earth. The curse included, among many other things, losing the privilege to dwell in the land in the presence of Yahwah (just as happened to Adam and Even when they broke the covenant). The prophets frequently reflect upon Israel’s status as a cursed people. God inspired Hosea to tell Israel “you are not my people, and I am not your God” (1:9). This was not some kind of reckless hyperbole. Nor are they the words of a modern anti-Semite. They’re God’s words. Again, if the conditions of God’s covenant with Israel mean anything—that is, if we really take seriously the sanctions and curse proclaimed in the law, then we must conclude that Israel is currently in the same condition in which she found herself in Hosea: “not my people.” So it’s vitally important to understand that the right to possess the land is conditioned upon Israel’s status within the covenant. Under the curse of Deuteronomy, Israel has been driven out of the Promised Land by God himself (Dan 9:7). They are under the sanctions of the law. They are being divinely punished for their sin and currently hold no Divine claim to the land. As Paul says in Romans 11, they have been “cut off” from the olive tree of God’s covenant people.
4. God, because of his faithfulness to his promises to Abraham, always held out the offer to Israel to return to covenant status. That offer was conditioned upon Israel’s repentance and obedience. The problem was (and continues to be) that Israel never has and never will be able to meet the conditions of the Old Covenant. Ultimately, the law can only bring a curse. That’s where the New Covenant comes in. Under the New Covenant God promises to do an internal work in the hearts of Israel so that they can obey him and live before him in covenant faithfulness.  So Old Testament New Covenant passages like Jer 31 and Ezek 36-37 make it clear that it will not be under the Old, Mosaic Covenant that Israel is restored to covenant status, but under the New Covenant.  Both in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36-37 Israel is promised a return to land when they are restored as God’s covenant people under the New Covenant. It is then, and only then, that “I will be their God and they shall be my people” (Ezek 37:23, 27). It is then that, to use Hosea’s words, “in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ it shall be said to them, ‘Children of the living God.’” It is only as children that Israel will inherit the promises made to Abraham’s seed.
5. Now what about Israel’s present occupation of Palestine? As a theologically informed observer, I can see God working now in Israel in preparation to fulfill his promise to someday save all of Israel. I believe that Israel as a nation will someday turn to the Messiah, repent of her sins, and participate in the blessings of the New Covenant (cf. Rom 11). And God’s ongoing work in the nation of Israel confirms my belief that someday Israel will be grafted back with us into the covenant people of God and thus inherit the promised rest—i.e., the land (Heb 4). But they still don’t own it in a New Covenant sense. Our support for Israel should be on the grounds of fairness and human justice and we should treat the Palestinians with the same fairness and justice. To argue (on emotional grounds) that Israel has a Divine right to own the whole land at this time and that we should drive the Palestinians out after they’ve lived there for hundreds of years betrays a fundamental misunderstanding Israel’s current condition, I think. Jesus Christ will settle this at his coming when Israel turns to him and once again enters the covenant (when, to use Romans 11, they’re grafted back into the tree of God’s covenant people).

In Part 2, I plan to argue that those promises are not limited to Israel, but are blessings to be enjoyed by all of God’s New Covenant people, including Gentiles.