New Testament Light on the Land of Israel

Introduction: The Thesis

From the teaching of Christ and His Apostles there were two Israels in the Old Testament. They were the Israel that was not Israel, and the true Israel; There were the supplanter and the one who prevails with God. It was the part and the whole. There was a Christ side and the Israel side. There was remnant Israel and natural Israel.

There still is a possibility that the nation of Israel will become a Christian Nation at some time in the future. But our study of the Word of God reveals that the nation, with its ownership of the land, its Ceremonial Law, its careful genealogies, its Temple, its Priests, its kings, and its Ark of the Covenant is a thing of the past. These things are shadows of the coming of Christ, the prophets’ Messiah. And our Lord fulfilled them.

Abraham knew he was going to Heaven when he died. He understood that God promised the land of Canaan to him as a token of the city above and the new earth. Also, he comprehended that nothing on earth would last forever but that God would provide an eternal heaven and earth.

Today there is a controversy among Christians. It is primarily over the method of interpretation that we employ to interpret the Scriptural prophecies about the Land of Israel.

How is it possible to destroy a prophecy? There is only one way. First, God makes a prophecy. Then, our Lord Jesus Christ comes and fulfills that prophecy. When Jesus does what God said He would do, the foretelling loses its relevance. It is like seeing the previews of a movie. They are exciting and inviting. But when we view the movie, we have something far clearer. We no longer need previews.

There are foretold events in the Old Testament that, at first glance must be about the second coming of Christ. But upon closer examination of both the Old and New Testaments we realize that we did not interpret correctly.

In this study we are showing that our Lord Jesus fulfilled most Old Testament prophecies in His first coming, in His earthly ministry, in His death for sinners, in His resurrection, in His ascension, and in His Church.

Abraham knew that the Land God promised him included Heaven (Hebrews 11:8-16).

The land was a visible token of the invisible Heaven. Abraham knew that he was going to Heaven when he died. Abraham was Heaven bound due to God’s land promises. The ultimate promised land did not include unbelieving Jews.

It is true that both saved and unsaved Jews inherited the natural land of Canaan, but they were God’s sign people. God used their possession of the land as a type of Heaven. And after Christ came there was no reason for the types and shadows of the Old Testament. Further, there was always a believing Old Testament remnant of Israel who inherited Heaven. In the New Testament God made it clear that the unbelieving descendants of Abraham did not inherit Heaven. The land was a temporary shadow of Heaven.

In the New Testament our Lord Jesus defined Israel as the believing remnant of both the Old and New Testaments. Jesus fulfilled the entire Law of Moses. And by fulfilling it, He obsoleted it as a covenant. (1)

The Serpent of Brass Was Also Temporary

Numbers chapter 21:5 records a rebellion of the children of Israel against God in the wilderness.

Numbers 21:5 says, “And [the people] spoke against God and against Moses: ‘Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!’”

God evaluated the Israelites many times in the desert. He allowed them to run out of food and sometimes water. He wanted them to humbly pray to Him. When they did, He always gave them food and water.

The food which they said they did not like was manna. God was giving them manna every day. They could have asked God for a different kind of food. He may have given it to them. But they just griped at Him all the time, saying He brought them out of Egypt to let them die in the wilderness.

So, Yahweh sent poisonous serpents into their camp. They bit many. And huge numbers of them died.

Finally, they came to Moses presenting the problem of the serpents to him. God told Moses to make a serpent out of brass and put it on a pole where all could see it. If the people would simply look at the serpent of brass, God would heal them. Some did this and God miraculously cured them of the poisonous venom.

But hundreds of years after this, Israel still had the serpent of brass on a pole. Instead of using it as God prescribed, as God’s cure for snakebite, they made it into an idol. They were burning incense to it. It had become a relic.

Finally, godly king Hezekiah destroyed that serpent of brass as one of his reforms (2 Kings 18:4).

2 Kings 18:4 says, “He [King Hezekiah] removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.

Today people do not worship serpents of brass. But many have a mystical faith in Israel and in her future.

However, God finished with His purposes in using Israel as the nation that would bring forth His Only Begotten Son.

And when we believe that God will bless us if we bless Israel, we commit idolatry. By that, we treat the unsaved nation of Israel as having a spiritual aura about it. This is because of misinterpreting the prophecy of Genesis 12:3.

Genesis 12:3 says, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you…”

This blessing is in Christ in whom God fulfills all His promises to Abraham. It is not in national Israel.

Galatians 3:14 says, “He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

So, those who are united with Jesus Christ by faith are the true sons of Abraham. They are the sons of God, since, in the allegory of Galatians 4, Abraham is a symbol of God the Father. And Isaac is a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 4:21-31). The blessing did not go to Ishmael who is a symbol of unsaved Israel. (2) God blessed and gave His blessing to Isaac and his believing seed who was Jacob. That was why Jacob believed. God blessed him with faith.

Thus, God blesses us in Christ by blessing those who bless us and cursing those who curse us. The blessing and the cursing do not center around national Israel. It comes from Jesus Christ, the ultimate seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.

In this sense, the rivalry that exists among Christians is a dispute between our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true Israel and national Israel.

The issue is: Who fulfills the prophecies about the return of Israel to the land? Is it the one generation of Israel, living when our Lord returns? Or is it Christ in His first and second comings?

Abraham was not only a Hebrew. He was a Hebrew of faith in Yahweh. That is, Abraham trusted Yahweh Jesus.

Today, national Israel consists almost completely of people who reject Christ. They elevate Israel as the blesser nation. They believe that if we bless Israel God will bless us. But that blessing of Abraham comes to the Christian in Christ. If one blesses Christ and His people, God will bless him. If one curses our Lord Jesus Christ and Christians, God will curse him (Matthew 25:40).

Matthew 25:40 says, “And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’”

Our Lord used the term “these brothers.” Literally speaking, they were His disciples. Those who trusted and obeyed our Lord were the only ones to whom He was referring. He used the term “these,” perhaps pointing to sheep-like Jews who were His disciples.

In Matthew 12:46-50 our Lord contrasted His mother and natural brothers with His disciples. He refused to replace His followers in a house with His mother and half-brothers.

He pointed to His disciples, saying, “Here are My mother and My brothers. 50For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother, sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:49-50).

Our Lord did not say that His mother, Mary, was not doing the will of God. But He said that whoever does the will of God is His [true] family. Mary was part of the family of God. She was a believer. But those of national Israel who did not believe in Jesus, were not His brothers unless they accepted Him as their personal Lord and Savior.

Today’s national Israel consists mostly of unbelievers in Christ. They are the spiritual descendants of the people who crucified Christ and persecuted the early Church. If they can politically regain power over Christians, they will curse Christians again, unless God restrains them from it.

Yours truly is in favor of Israel in the war that is now going on in the Land of Israel. But that is because Israel is now a free country. We are always for liberty when it exists anywhere in the world.

And Israel believes in one God, which belief Christians share.

But one cannot lose track of the fact that Israel is an unbelieving country. And, if our Lord tarries, they will again persecute Christians. Today it is expedient for them to curry favor with Christians who visit the Knesset. But things change (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, “What has been, will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

Below please find proof for the introduction above:

Abraham knew that the land God promised to him, and to his descendants included Heaven.

The Land is holy because God is there. But He is no longer there any more than in any other land.

The Holy Spirit says that [all] “the promises that God made to Abraham were also to our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 3:16). Brackets mine.

God already gave Abram’s natural seed the physical land of Canaan.

God promised the Land of Israel to Abraham. But when He made that promise, He included Heaven as the gift with the Land.

The proof for this is throughout the Bible, but especially in the New Testament.

Part of following Jesus as our Master is believing His interpretation of the Old Testament. His explanation of the land of Israel and its meaning, is in the entire New Testament. It is wrong to pick one part of His teaching to the exclusion of other parts.

Rather than leaning to our own understanding of the prophecies of the return of Israel to the land, we must learn, respect, and believe the New Testament.

The New Testament itself, says that Abraham believed that Heaven was the ultimate fulfillment of the Land Promise that God made to him.

Hebrews 11:8-10 says, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going. 9by faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

Notice that Abraham was expecting the city with foundations (the New Jerusalem) (Hebrews 11:10).

The architect and the builder of that city is God. It is the place that our Lord went to build (John 14:2).

That is why Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in tents as strangers on earth. They knew that nothing in this world (including the land of Canaan) was their ultimate home (Hebrews 11:9). They knew they were going to Heaven.

So, the promise God made to the Patriarchs included Heaven.

Hebrews 11:13 says, “All these people died in faith, without having received the things God promised them. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob died believing that when God promised them land, it made them strangers on the entire earth. God had promised them not only the land of Canaan but also Heaven.

According to Hebrews 11:13 above, they saw Heaven “from afar.” So, they acknowledged that they were strangers on the entire earth even though they lived in Canaan.

It was like God gave them a time telescope with which they could investigate Heaven and see the ultimate thing He promised to them when He pledged the land to them.

So, it is wrong to interpret God’s land promise to Abraham as “land only.” It includs Heaven.

Abraham Isaac and Jacob died. Their ground was in the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan was the nearest place to Heaven on earth. Burial there symbolized where they would ultimately go, which was Heaven.

According to Hebrews 11:13, they welcomed Heaven as they died.

Hebrews 11:15-17 says, “If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

They could have returned to Haran or Ur at any time. But they did not go back.

By faith they dwelt in the promised land. The promised land was a shadow of Heaven, but it was not Heaven.

This was not because of the land of Canaan, but because they were expecting Heaven, the better country.

They dwelt in the land because God promised it to them as a token of the true land.

God gave them the land by promise. That meant that He gave them the land by grace.

Abraham knew that God was going to give this land to his descendants plural (Genesis 15:16).

But he also knew that God was going to give the true land to his Descendant singular, who is Messiah/Christ.

Thus, Abraham lived there because the land was a type of Heaven.

Many literal promises of the Old Testament were only types of Christ. So, the Old Testament promised that our Lord Jesus would come and do His work of salvation.

In Scripture, God sometimes treats types as if they are the real thing. For example, John the Baptist called our Lord Jesus a lamb in John 1:29.

John 1:29 says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Had you been listening to John say this, and had you believed that you must interpret him literally, you might have thought to yourself, “I do not see a lamb.”

This is precisely the error that many godly people make when they hear that God’s promises of the land of Canaan only mean that He promised earthly land.

And, just as lambs will pass away with this world, the land of Canaan will also pass away with this world (Revelation 21:1).

Revelation 21:1 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” See also Isaiah 65:17).

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were heirs of the true land, Heaven.

TABULAR VIEW OF WHAT ABRAHAM KNEW ABOUT THE LAND PROMISES

Abraham knew God was going to give the earthly land of Canaan to his descendants (Genesis 15:16).

Abraham also knew God was going to give the Heavenly land to his Principal Descendant Jesus Christ and all His people (Galatians 3:16; Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:29).

The Land is holy because God is there. But He is no longer there any more than in any other land.

Scripture shows that God’s dwelling place in the Promised Land was in two places.

He dwelt in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle and Temple, sitting upon His throne, which was upon the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat. It was upon the golden Cherubim.

Yahweh also dwelt in the Promised Land.

If something is eternal, it has no beginning and it has no end. Thus, the land is not eternal.

Land is not capable of sinning.

The people who have the land commit the sins in the land, and by that, they defile the land. God created it and He will destroy it.

The land existed prior to Israel having it.

The land vomited the Canaanites out of it due to their sin (Leviticus 18:28).

Leviticus 18:28 says, “So if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it spewed out the nations before you.”

But it was God who dispossessed them when He gave the land to Israel. He did not give the Canaanites’ land to Israel. The Canaanites never owned the land. God did.

No nation may remain in any land once God has judged that nation unfit for His land.

God connected the promised land to Heaven. So, sin against the land was sin against Heaven and therefore it was against God.

God gave the land a ceremonial duty to perform. Sin and holiness were not in matter. Land could neither be sinful nor holy. Thorns were in material things, but sin was not in them. So, the land of Canaan was ceremonial Heaven.

When Moses was in Moab, God said to him, "Take off your sandals because you are standing on holy ground" (Exodus 3:5).

So, the holiness of the land is due to God's presence in it (Exodus 3:5). Moses must remove his shoes because God was there in the burning bush. It was not because the land was intrinsically holy.

Exodus 3:5 says, “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

The land of Israel was not holy after God cursed the land of the entire world. Adam sinned and then God cursed it (Genesis 3:17).

The land of the entire world was holy before man sinned in the Garden of Eden.

Sinning against the Holy Land therefore is not only sinning against the land, but it also is sinning against God.

When God abandons the land, He abandons the people of the land but not the righteous individuals in it (Habakkuk 2:4c).

TABULAR VIEW OF GOD SAYING HE DOES NOT DWELL IN TEMPLES MADE BY HANDS

Isaiah 66:1 says	“This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?”
Isaiah 66:2 says	“Has not My hand made all these things? And so, they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.”
John 4:21 says	"Believe Me, woman," Jesus replied, ‘a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.’” (3)
John 4:24 says	“God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (Note: God does not desire animal sacrifices (Psalm 40:6; Hebrews 10:5.)
Acts 7:48 says	“However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands.”
2 Chronicles 6:18 says	“But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.”
Hebrews 10:1 says	“For the law [that prescribes the building of the Tabernacle and the offering of animal sacrifices] is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.” Brackets mine.

God says He does not really dwell in the literal Promised Land.

God chided the Israelites because they thought that His throne was in the Tabernacle and Temple which were in the land (Isaiah 66:1-2).

Isaiah 66:1 says, “This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?”

Isaiah 66:2 says, “Has not My hand made all these things? And so, they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.”

No temple on earth can possibly contain such an immense and eternal being as God is. No land is adequate. The entire world is nothing but God’s footstool.

When the Samaritan woman questioned Jesus about the right place to worship God, our Lord answered her in John 4:21.

In John 4:21 our Lord Jesus said, "Believe Me, woman," Jesus replied, "a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”

In John 4:24 Jesus says, “God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

God will never cease being a Spirit.

So, in this context the land of Israel on this earth will never again be the place to worship. There is one exception to this.

That exception is: Perhaps in the future there will be a turning to our Lord Jesus the Messiah in repentance and faith by a vast majority of individual Israelites who live in the land. That would mean that Israel would become a Christian nation. Then the land of Israel would again become a holy land. Jesus would live in the hearts of all those Jews.

But Israel would not become a nation like the ceremonial nation of Israel in the Old Testament.

Stephen says in Acts 7:48, “However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands.”

When Solomon dedicated the Temple, the following was part of his prayer to God:

2 Chronicles 6:18 says, “But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.”

In Christ there are spiritual realities which are better than those that are in Moses.

Abraham received the Title to the Promised Land but not the literal land. Since God gave him the title, the land was his. The land belonged to Abraham but, of course God still owned it (Leviticus 25:23).

By giving the title of the land to Abraham, God was promising him Heaven. Abraham knew this.

Why did God not destroy the Amorite inhabitants of the land during Abraham’s lifetime? Answer: Because the Canaanite inhabitants were not yet sinful enough to merit God’s termination of them (Genesis 15:16).

God, the just judge, must treat all nations the same.

So, the Canaanites sinned against God but not enough for Him to dispossess them from the land in Abraham’s day. Later, when they rotted in sin, God gave the land to Israel.

When judging individuals, God requires perfection for them to go to Heaven. That is why individuals need Christ to impute and impart His perfect righteousness to us.

But when judging nations, God does not require perfection for them to still be in the land that He gives to them. He is patient with nations.

He insists that nations obey Him in principle, but not that every inhabitant be perfect.

Genesis 15:16 says, “In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

The Holy Spirit says in Galatians 3:16 “that [all] the promised that God made to Abraham were also to our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Brackets mine.

Galatians 3:16 says, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “and to your seed,” meaning One, who is Christ.”

Examination of Galatians 3:16:

In Galatians 3:16 Paul is speaking of all God’s promises.

God promised to bless all nations in Christ (Genesis 22:18).

Genesis 22:18 says, “And through your offspring [Christ] all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

He would fulfill this promise by saving believers in each nation.

As there was a godly remnant in the nation of Israel, God foretold that all nations would have a believing remnant of justified people.

For the remnant of Israel please follow this link : https://www.williamrandolphpublishing.com/prophecy/the-new-testament-teaches-two-kinds-of-israels-seed

“The promises” – Notice that the Apostle lumps all the promises that God made to Abraham together in Galatians 3:16. So, that includes God’s promise of land. God is not speaking primarily of Genesis 22:18 in which He foretells Gentile salvation. The plural use of the word “promises” includes every promise that God made to Abraham.

When God promised the land to Abraham, He was primarily speaking of the eternal land which is Heaven.

So, in Galatians 3:16 the Holy Spirit is speaking of the land promise among all the other promises that He made to Abraham.

But, as we previously explained, when God promised the land to Abraham, Abraham knew that the promise of natural land included Heaven. (Please see above.) So, God’s ultimate promised land was Heaven.

God connected Heaven to the Natural Land.

According to Galatians 3:16, God spoke all the promises to Abraham and to his seed, who is Christ.

This means that we must interpret all the land promises as to Christ.

Galatians 3:16 is a blanket statement from God’s Apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 3:16 teaches a method of interpretation for all the promises that God made to Abraham.

In all those promises, He primarily referred to His Only Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

To interpret the land promises as only to natural Israel is dishonoring to Jesus Christ and inaccurate. It is against the New Testament.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was the Principal Seed to whom God made those promises.

Genesis 12:7 says, “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring. So, Abram built an altar there to the LORD [Yahweh], who had appeared to him.”

“Offspring” in Genesis 12:7 is singular. It is Christ.

But even when we interpret the word “offspring” in Genesis as a plural word, there must be a principal seed to sponsor the many seeds. We learn from Genesis 3:15 that the Champion seed, Christ, guarantees that the plural seeds of the woman would prosper spiritually.

Jesus did this crushing of the devil at His cross.

And the Holy Spirit definitively speaks in Galatians 3:16: [All] the promises to Abraham were to Christ. [Brackets mine]

Our Lord’s perfect human nature was in Abraham. He was the sponsoring seed of all the remnant seed.

The land promise is one of the promises of Galatians 3:16.

And Abraham knew that the land promise included the promise of Heaven. So, there is no question that God promised both the land of Canaan and the ultimate land [Heaven] to Christ.

Our Lord Messiah interpreted the land of Canaan as Heaven. The land of Canaan merely foreshadowed Heaven.

If we say that there is a difference between Christ and Israel, we omit the facts that Christ is the true Israel, and that God eternally connected Him to the true Israelites.

Remember that true Israelites are Hebrews who have saving faith in Yahweh Jesus, whether born Jews or Gentiles (Galatians 3:29).

And the natural Israelites can have no quarrel with God because He kept His end of the bargain, giving them the entire Promised Land (1 Kings 4:21).

1 Kings 4:21 says, “And Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.”

They, through crucifying His Son, lost the land.

In His Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Matthew 21:33-44) our Lord predicted that the Jewish tenants of His Kingdom would kill Him (Matthew 21:38). He foretold that God would then take the Kingdom from the Jews and give it to those who would produce its fruit (Matthew 21:43).

Matthew 21:43 says, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”

For more proof of this please click our posts below and study them:

     https://www.williamrandolphpublishing.com/prophecy/the-new-testament-teaches-two-kinds-of-israels-seed

     https://www.williamrandolphpublishing.com/prophecy/the-fullness-of-israel-and-the-gentiles

God did give Abraham’s natural seed the physical land of Canaan.

He gave Solomon a huge kingdom, which had the same dimensions as God promised in Genesis 15:18. The fulfillment was in 1 Kings 4:21.

TABULAR VIEW SHOWING THE FULFILLMENT OF GOD’’S PROMISE OF THE LAND OF CANAAN TO ABRAHAM

The prophecy	The fulfillment of the prophecy
Genesis 15:18 says, ““To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—"	1 Kings 4:21 says, “And Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt.”

“Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. (1 Kings 4:21) NIV

Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms that God promised to natural Israel.

So, God fulfilled the natural part of the promise.

The natural people were only a symbol of Christ and His eternal people.

When God promises the land forever, it is a signal that it is a promise to Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only descendant of Abraham who is eternal. He has no beginning and no ending.

When God used the prophetic word “forever,” it was a sign that God was promising the land to Christ and to all the people who join themselves to Him by faith.

This was true of all people of faith both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament times.

The physical land, however, was only a symbol of the spiritual land of promise (Hebrews 3:18-19; 4:8- 11; 11:10, 13-15). God called the spiritual land His “rest” (Psalm 95:11; Hebrews 3:18-19; 4:1-3; 4:8-11; 11:10; 11:13-15).

In Psalm 95:7d-11 God comments on Exodus 17:1-7.

Psalm 95:7d-11 says, “Today, if you hear His voice, 8do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9where your fathers tested and tried Me, though they had seen My work. 10For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known My ways.” 11So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”

Never entering God’s rest means never going to Heaven.

And in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 the Holy Spirit explains the meanings of both Exodus 17:1-7 and Psalm 95:7d-11.

In the above Chapters we learn that the ultimate rest, that is, the spiritual rest is Heaven. Please see the tabular view below:

TABULAR VIEW OF THE SPIRITUAL LAND OF CANAAN WHICH GOD PROMISED TO CHRIST AND HIS SEED            

Psalm 95:10-11 says,	“For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,  and they have not known My ways.” 11So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”  Note that the wilderness generation not only died in the wilderness but also did not go to Heaven.
Hebrews 3:18-19 says,	“And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest? Was it not to those who disobeyed? 19So we see that it was because of their unbelief that they were unable to enter.”
Hebrews 4:1-2 says,	“Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us (4) be careful that none of you be deemed to have fallen short of it. 2For we also received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, since they did not share the faith of those who understood it.”
Hebrews 4:3 says,	“Now we who have believed enter that rest. As for the others, it is just as God has said: “So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’” Note that God’s rest is Heaven.
Hebrews 4:8-11 says,	“For 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 whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort (5) to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.”
Hebrews 11:10 says,	“For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Hebrews 11:13-15 says,	“All these people died in faith, without having received the things God promised them. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14Now those who say such things show that they are seeking a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

When Moses died, he went to rest (Deuteronomy 31:16).

Deuteronomy 31:16 says, “And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers…”

But God did not allow Moses to enter the Land of Canaan. So, the land of Canaan was not God’s rest.

Hebrews 4:1-3 tells us that the rest was Heaven. It was and is the place where people of faith in our Lord go when we die. For this please see Hebrews 4:1-2 and Hebrews 4:3 in the Tabular View above.

God warns us that we will not enter His rest [Heaven] if we become apostates. It is not that a person whom God has saved will not go to Heaven. But perseverance in the faith to the end proves that our initial salvation was actual salvation, and not a fake salvation (Hebrews 6:9).

Hebrews 6:9 says, “Even though we speak like this, beloved, we are convinced of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation.” The Apostle believes that the recipients of the Episttle to the Hebrews are genuinely saved.

God swore in His wrath that the rebellious generation of Exodus 17:6 would never enter His rest [Heaven]. He illustrated that by not letting them enter the Promised Land. This proved that the Promised Land symbolized Heaven.

Joshua did not give rest [Heaven] to the generation that conquered Canaan (Hebrews 4:8). Notice that God gave the land of Canaan to them but did not give them His rest.

Hebrews 4:8 says, “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later [In Psalm 95:7d] about another day.”

The other day of which God spoke was the Davidic and New Testament Day of opportunity for all to believe in Messiah (Hebrews 4:7). The Holy Spirit called it “Today.”

Hebrews 4:7 says, “God again designated a certain day as “Today,” when a long time later He spoke through David as was just stated: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Therefore, the spiritual Canaan was Heaven (Psalm 95:7d-11).

God gave the spiritual land of Canaan [Heaven] to Abraham’s spiritual seed, whether they were Jews or Gentiles (Galatians 3:29).

Galatians 3:29 says, “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”

The “Sabbath Rest” of which Hebrews 4:9 speaks is resting in Christ for eternal salvation (Matthew 11:28-29).

Matthew 11:28-29 says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 11For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

Coming to Christ by faith and trusting Him and His promise of eternal life allows our soul to rest in Him.

We cannot physically come to Christ since He is in Heaven. However, we can move our faith to Him, believing that He is the Lord whom God raised from the dead.

Becoming His disciple is part of coming to Christ. We must submit to His Lordship to become a Christian.

Though the way may be difficult, He is not a taskmaster. He justifies us when we first bow to Him, believe Him, and begin to follow Him. He promises us that He is gentle and humble in heart.

We must learn from Him. He tells us the truth. We must subjugate our other knowledge to Him and to His teaching.

Not only do we initially rest in Christ, but we continuously find rest for our souls as well. There is a rest of justification. And there is a rest of sanctification.” Finding rest in Christ is removing the burden of salvation from our shoulders and loading it onto Christ. It is trusting Him for the total work of salvation.

There is a contrast in Matthew 11:28-29 between being “weary and burdened” and “resting in Christ.” It is the difference between personal responsibility and divine responsibility.

If we want Jesus to save us, we must yield to Him the total responsibility for our salvation. He will justify, regenerate, sanctify, and glorify us. He will see to it that we overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil as we trust Him to do it.

In the true resting in Christ, we move the burden of saving ourselves to the able shoulders of Christ.

We initially find rest in Christ when we first believe. And from that moment we continue to find rest for our souls.

We rest in Christ for our obedience. But, when resting in Him, we must obey, love, and learn from Him. If we do not obey Him, love Him, and learn from Him, it proves that He is not saving us.

We must trust Him to keep us obeying, loving and learning His will. But He does that through our meager efforts to do these things.

When God rested on the seventh day after creating the world in six days, He was giving us a pattern to follow.

Before salvation we are constantly trying to work to be better persons and thus to please God by our efforts.

But during and after salvation we cease from our own work of trying to do good works to please God.

Rather, we rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

After we rest in our Lord Jesus’ hands, we work for Him and we try to please Him. But our work then is not the burden of trying to get Him to like us and ignore our sin. It is serving Him out of gratitude, awe of God, and proving that our faith in Him is genuine.

We trust our Lord Jesus Christ, His finished work on the cross in our place, and His resurrection from the dead to save us.

Conclusion 

The two Israels of the Old Testament are the same two Israels as our Lord and His Apostles taught us. They are born-again Israelites, which we call “true” Israel. And they are those Israelites who never believed in our Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah.

And there are two lands of Israel. One is the natural land which God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There is also the Heavenly land which the Patriarchs knew God was promising to them when He pledged the land to them.

So, the idea that God only promised the natural land to natural Israel is not correct. That is the Jewish interpretation of the Land of Israel. But it is not the interpretation that our Lord and His Apostles taught.

And we must abandon the teaching that Israel is God’s blesser nation. And we must turn to our Lord Jesus Christ as the One to whom all Scripture points. He and His people are the blesser nation. He is God’s only and ultimate Blesser.

NOTES:

(1) As a covenant the law said that we must obey everything the law said to inherit eternal life. But we are responsible to obey everything that the Law says as our Lord interpreted it. Thus, for our interpretation of the Law, we look to the New Testament.

(2) Galatians 4:25 says, “Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.” So, God did not bless or curse people who blessed or cursed Ishmael and his seed. But God did bless or curse those who blessed or cursed Isaac and his believing seed.

(3) Our Lord is speaking of the days after 70 A.D. when God allowed the Romans to destroy the city of Jerusalem.

(4) Professing Jewish and Gentile Christians

(5) The Hebrew Christians were in danger of falling away. It was a struggle for them to remain Christian due to the persecution they were receiving. So, “the making of every effort” is continuing to live as Christians instead of returning to Judaism.