21Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times- 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. 24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.

I want to make 3 points from this text

Obviously (to common sense) God cannot actually be contained to a geographical area. His glory fills the whole earth. It was never God's intention for Israel simply to inherit a section of the Middle East. This was just a starting point, a base of operations, a place to be a 'city on a hill.' The 'land' of Canaan was, in other words and in my opinion, a shadow of the reality that God's kingdom would entail the entire earth, and even the cosmos.

The passing generation of Israelites missed out on the 'promised land' because of their unbelief/disobedience. Clearly, then, the promise of land was conditional. God disallowed some of Abraham's offspring to inherit the land because of their lack of obedience.

Nevertheless, there were others who did seek to obey the Lord. These would indeed enter into the promised land. The promise applied to them because they had a different spirit and followed God wholeheartedly.

Those who entered the land were given great military victory by God. The end result was a fulfillment of the land promises, as Joshua 21 describes:

43 So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them. 45 Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

Once again, 3 facts should be pointed out

Scripture indicates that all the land promised was obtained in Joshua's day
The benefit of the promise is described as 'rest'
The conquest was viewed as fulfillment of all the Lord's good promises

If the Old Testament ended with Joshua, based on the above passage, we'd have no choice but to accept that the promise had been fulfilled in full and that any loss of the promised land was due to disobedience on Israel's part post-conquest. But as the Old Testament progresses, the promise land is lost due to disobedience on Israel's part (God judges them via foreigners) and the people are exiled. At this point, the prophets began to speak about another 're-gathering' to the promised land. Here are a couple of the many examples:

Jeremiah 30:3 The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their forefathers to possess,' says the LORD." Ezekiel 11:17 "Therefore say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.'

And, of course, these promises came true. Israel, having been exiled by the Babylonians, were allowed to return to the promised land during the Persian Empire. The temple, city & walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt. But it wasn't like before. It wasn't like the glory days of Solomon's temple. There was a sense in which the promises were partially fulfilled, but not fully fulfilled, as redundant as that might sound because not all the Jews had returned. That is why Zechariah, one of the few post-exilic prophets, was still able to prophecy about a future 'return'

: Though I scatter them among the peoples, yet in distant lands they will remember me. They and their children will survive, and they will return. I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon, and there will not be room enough for them.

So Abraham's offspring had been promised land and Joshua (and his generation) received it, but it didn't last. The pre/mid-exilic prophets had been promised land and Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah had received it, but it was only partial. By the end of the Old Testament era, there was a great mood in Israel for a true fulfillment of the 'land' promises. There was great anticipation for the Messiah would would finally provide Israel with peace. That is what Simeon, for example, was waiting for (the 'consolation' of Israel, Luke 2:25).

So what did Jesus say about these important promises? We might have expected Him to re-state the land promises or re-guarantee their future fulfillment. But Jesus, it seems to me, seems far more interested in re-defining what Old Testament structure actually foreshadowed. He seems very interested, for instance, in re-defining what it means to be an Israelite (and therefore, a recipient of the promises) as shown in John 8

I know you are Abraham's descendants... If you were Abraham's children... You belong to your father, the devil..

He admits that they are literally Abraham's descendants, but says that they aren't truly Abraham's children in any way that counts. Quite the opposite, they are children of satan. The rest of the passage describes how the true recipients to the promises will be those who follow Jesus' teaching and example. In Jesus other teachings, He re-defines the 'temple,' but only on only 2 occasions do we actually observe Jesus speaking to the issue of the 'land' (one directly and one by saying nothing about it). Does He re-affirm the promise of literal Canaan or re-define, as He did with the term 'Israel' what the promise truly meant all along?

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5)

Here, Jesus uses the greek word for 'land' (ge). This fits directly with John 8. It won't be genetic Israelites who will inherit the 'land.' It will be spiritual Israelites (those who obey). If Jesus wanted to re-state the land promises in their literal sense He had a perfect opportunity to do so in Acts chapter 1. The disciples, not yet having experienced the day of Pentecost, are still not grasping the nature of Jesus' ministry. They ask when Jesus is going to restore the kingdom of Israel. It seems clear to me that this question alluded to, among other things, the 'land' promises. When was Jesus going to establish the 'true' return from exile? When was He going to bring the lasting 'rest'? What an opportunity for Jesus to re-state and clarify when these promises would be fulfilled! But instead, He simply dismisses their question as irrelevant and reminds them of a much more relevant reality: the Coming of the Holy Spirit.

There are 2 other occasions where we may gather information about Jesus role in regards to the land promises. The first is a very interesting passage from John 11:

49Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! 50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." 51He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

Here we see, from an unlikely source, that Jesus' death, in some sense, accomplished the 'bringing together' and 're-union' of the true people of God. Clearly this wasn't true in a geographical sense so much as it was true in a spiritual sense. The death and blood of Christ do not rescue people from physical exile so much as they rescue people from spiritual exile in sin. So, under the New Covenant, we don't find righteousness by being 'in Israel' so much as we find righteousness by being 'in Christ.' It's not an issue of geography. It's an issue of unity with Christ and His people in Jesus' blood.

Finally, we have an indirect reference to the 'land' promises in Jesus' discussion with the 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus. Not knowing who they were speaking to, they expressed disappointment that their hopes had not been met. They had hoped, of course, that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel (from it's enemies, this 'redemption' would include the 'land' inheritance). Jesus, instead of declaring that those promises were still future, declared that all the Scriptures from Moses through the Prophets were truly concerning Himself!

Since Jesus didn't speak nearly as often as the prophets about the 'land' (or, at least, didn't speak of the shadow, being, Himself, the light), we must turn to a couple other relevant New Testament texts. First, we must note Paul's wording in Romans 4:13. How did Paul interpret the promises that had been made to Abraham? Paul says, "Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world." It seems Paul thought the promises, ultimately, covered much more than a narrow strip of geographical territory. God's purposes were much bigger, stretching across the globe and toward the cosmos.

Perhaps the most telling reference, though, is found in Hebrews 3-4. The author is discussing how the passing generation, in Moses' day, failed to inherit the promised land because of their disobedience. Instead of referring to it as the 'land,' though, he refers to it as God's 'rest.' Chapter 4 begins this way:

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. 3Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.' " And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." 5And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest." 6 It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." 8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

A few things are clearly stated here. First, it is confirmed that the fulfillment in Joshua's day was not a complete fulfillment (and, though silently, it is confirmed that the fulfillment in Zerubbabel's day was also incomplete). Second, it is confirmed that the promise can be truly fulfilled 'now' by 'resting' from our own work and being part of Christ's work/kingdom. Third, the offer to enter the rest/land exists 'Today'!

The New Testament is largely silent regarding the literal promised Land (and that silence speaks volumes), but it is anything but silent regarding the fulfillment of those promises in Jesus Christ. 'In Christ' (not 'in Jerusalem') we find the promised land. He is the ultimate Joshua. He is greater than Zerubbabel. Fulfillment is much greater than Palestine, but stretches across the globe and cosmos. The 'rest' is much greater than deliverance from Canaanites or Babylonians, defeating death, Satan & sin.

By focusing on the Old Testament prophecies and neglecting the New Testament fulfillments, we are living in the shadows instead of in the light. We are going backward, not forward. We are living in yesterday instead of, as the author of Hebrews puts it, today. Much of the contemporary Christian church is far too focused on 1948, Heifer's named Melody, the location of Solomon's temple (and so on) and not focused nearly enough on expanding the Kingdom of God across the globe, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the new dwelling place of God, namely, His people. The 'land' promises were far bigger than Palestine. The land promises foreshadowed the fact that the Kingdom of God will, ultimately, be the last Kingdom standing on earth.