Land as a divine gift

Land as part of God’s creation

Genesis 1:9–10 NRSV

And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

The land (Canaan) promised to Abraham

Genesis 12:7 NRSV

Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

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The boundaries of the promised land

Genesis 15:18–21 NRSV

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

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God’s promise and its gradual fulfilment

The promise made to the patriarchs

Genesis 26:3–4 NRSV

Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands; and all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for themselves through your offspring,

See also ; ; ; ; The patriarchs maintained only a very small part of the land. But Genesis closes with the prospect of much more.

The promise confirmed during the wilderness wanderings

Exodus 3:7–8 NRSV

Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

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Jerusalem captured by David

2 Samuel 5:6–7 NRSV

The king and his men marched to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, even the blind and the lame will turn you back”—thinking, “David cannot come in here.” Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion, which is now the city of David.

Exploration of the promised land

Numbers 13:1–2 NRSV

The Lord said to Moses, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”

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Entry delayed because of unbelief and rebellion

Numbers 13:27–33 NRSV

And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the Jordan.” But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we.” So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

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Criticial importance of obedience in the promised land

Moses, at the end of his life, urges all the Israelites always to remember the Lord and his commands; enjoyment of the land is dependent upon the people’s obedience.

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Invasion of the land

The theme of the book of Joshua is the land: chapters 1-12 its invasion and conquest, chapters 13-21 its division among the Israelite tribes.

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Gradual conquest of the land

Joshua 13:1 NRSV

Now Joshua was old and advanced in years; and the Lord said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and very much of the land still remains to be possessed.

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The promise fulfilled

Joshua 21:43–45 NRSV

Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to their ancestors that he would give them; and having taken possession of it, they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their ancestors; not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

Division of the land

Joshua 23:4–5 NRSV

I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. The Lord your God will push them back before you, and drive them out of your sight; and you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you.

Conflict with the Philistines over the land

Philistine aggression had imperilled the prospect of a full possession of the land until David overpowered them.

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The land at rest and prosperous

Under David

2 Samuel 7:1 NRSV

Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him,

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Under Solomon

1 Kings 5:4 NRSV

But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor misfortune.

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The exile and subsequent return to the land

Losing the land

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Return to the land

Jeremiah 23:7–8 NRSV

Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, “As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,” but “As the Lord lives who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.” Then they shall live in their own land.

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