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Lesson 6: Geography Study Concerning the Scriptures: Description of the Promised Land In creating the Promised land God has prepared a certain kind of land, positioned at a particular spot, designed to elicit a specific and appropriate response. God prepared the Promised Land with the same degree of care that He prepared His chosen people for the Promised land. The land that God prepared for a people of faith was not the land of Ur of the Chaldees, nor was it the land of Egypt for out of both lands to a new land did he call his people. We read last week of Moses’ exhortation to Israel as the nation was about to embark on its mission of conquering the Promised land.
It includes one of the most complete descriptions of the land’s physical properties and its comparison with the land of Egypt.
Deut. 11:10-17, For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot
[referring either to a kind of water-lifting device operated by foot power or to irrigation sluice gates that could be raised by foot to permit water to flow into secondary channels],
as a garden of herbs: 11But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: 12A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. 15And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. 16Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; 17And then the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
So in effect, that if the Israelites obeyed God’s command, he would send both the former and the later rains so that they could gather in grain, wine, and oil.
But should their hearts prove faithless, in anger God would shut up the heavens and there would be no rain.
It is clear that fertility of the land was a function of faith.
Faith was simple, if the land proved fertile because God sent the rain, then one could conclude that the people of the land were people of faith.
As faith dimmed and other gods were placed before Him then the land would reveal the little faith.
It all had to do with faith in God and His word.
(Growing is a function of faith in the Christian also)
2 Peter 3:18, But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
References to area of the land promised to Abraham
Gen. 15:18, Deut. 1:7, Josh. 1:4, Ex. 23:31, Deut. 11:24
Gen 15:18-21, In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: 19The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, 20And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, 21And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
Deuteronomy 1:5-8, 5On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, 6The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: 7Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. 8Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.
Joshua 1:1-4, Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, 2Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. 3Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. 4From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.
Exodus 23:31, And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. |