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The Gift of Land, The Old Testament · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  Today we're going to get into a topic that really you can't
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  understand the Old Testament without it.
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  We're talking about the land. And it's so much more than just
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  a piece of real estate, right? It's it's the entire theological
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  stage. The sources we're looking at
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  today track it from divine ownership all the way to how
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  prophecy redefined the whole thing.
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  Yeah, and if you think you can just bypass this topic, well,
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  you're missing a huge piece of the puzzle.
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  The sheer frequency of the word in Hebrew is, well, it's pretty
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  staggering. It really is.
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  I mean, Moshe Weinfeld's observation is a great starting
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  point. The Hebrew word eria, which
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  means both land and earth, is the fourth most common word in
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  the entire Old Testament. The 4th, The 4th.
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  That's not an accident. It tells you right away that
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  this is absolutely central to how the Bible thinks and tells
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  its story. It's the stage where redemption
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  happens. OK, so let's start with the
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  Bible. Starts right at the top.
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  The absolute sovereignty of God or I am over the earth over
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  over. Right, so the sources layout
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  that I am is the one and only owner of the Earth.
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  And he makes this claim in two distinct ways.
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  It's a dual claim, and it's not just a philosophical idea, it's
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  what drives the history. So the first claim is the most
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  obvious one, I suppose. Owner by creation.
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  Exactly. He made it so he owns it.
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  Simple as that. But there's a nuance here that
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  the source of point out, which I think is fascinating.
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  As the Creator, he owns everything, but he keeps a kind
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  of transcendence over it. He reserves the heavens for
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  himself, and he gives the earth to humankind.
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  An act of grace. A total act of grace.
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  We're placed here on area, as you could say, God's appointed
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  managers or Regents. Our job is to cultivate it, to
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  build culture, to reflect his own image back onto his own
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  property. But we can never forget who
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  holds the actual title deed. Never.
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  The earth is not ours, the psalmist says it plainly.
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  The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, so our entire
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  existence here is 1 of borrowed stewardship.
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  And that stewardship has conditions, which I think leads
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  us straight into the second claim, owner by conquest.
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  This is where God's ownership gets demonstrated in history.
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  Yes, this is so critical. He doesn't just own the land
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  because he made it in the distant past, he actively takes
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  possession of it as the Divine Warrior.
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  This is key to understanding how Israel got there.
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  It wasn't their own military strength.
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  Not at all. The land is given to them
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  through Joshua's sword. Yes, but I am M is the one
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  wielding it. He is the victor who goes before
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  them, fighting this holy war against the Canaanites.
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  And you can see this tying together the creative right and
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  the historical action. I'm thinking of the song of the
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  sea in Exodus. After Egypt is defeated, Moses
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  sings that God will plant his people on his holy mountain.
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  Which is reference to Zion and by extension the whole land CC
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  the creation claim and the conquest claim are locked
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  together. The land is doubly his by right
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  of creation and by right of redemptive conquest.
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  So as the absolute owner, he's also the one who distributes the
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  property. He's the ultimate distributor.
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  You see this hinted out of the table of nations in Genesis 10.
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  The idea is that God is the one who parcels out the earth,
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  setting the boundaries for all the nations deciding where they
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  should live. So a nation's possession of a
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  territory is never based on their own strength or their own
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  inherent right. Never.
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  It's always a divine assignment. And if God is the one who
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  assigns well, he also has the right to reassign.
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  Which brings us to this idea of sovereign replacement and
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  judgement. This is so important for
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  understanding God's justice. He has the sovereign right to
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  well to evict old owners and bring in new ones.
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  And this wasn't some special rule just for Israel.
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  The sources cite a pattern right even before Israel showed up.
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  Exactly. Before Israel ever got to
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  Canaan, God had already replaced the Emites with the Moabites and
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  the Horites with the Edomites. So this principle of
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  displacement was already an established divine policy.
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  It showed everyone that ownership is conditional.
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  So when it comes to the Canaanites being replaced by
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  Israel, there's a very specific reason given.
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  An absolutely clear reason God replaced them because of the
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  wickedness of those nations. It was a moral judgement.
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  In fact, the grant to Abraham was actually put on hold delayed
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  because, as Genesis says, the iniquity of the Amorites was not
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  yet full. So God waited.
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  He waited until their corruption was, you might say, ripe for
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  judgement. Yes, and that frames the whole
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  conquest in a different light. It's not primarily a political
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  act to favor Israel. It's an act of God's holiness
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  against deep, systemic sin. Israel just happens to be the
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  instrument he uses to carry out the judgement.
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  That makes so much sense. It means the land itself has a
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  kind of moral framework. It does.
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  It can't tolerate certain levels of idolatry and corruption, as
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  the text says, eventually vomit out its inhabitants.
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  The whole thing moves from just being about ancient warfare to
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  being about divine order. And that idea of order is a
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  perfect pivot to the next point, the meaning of the land that
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  goes beyond just territory. It's existential and
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  sociological symbolism. Right, because the reason land
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  is such a powerful theme is that it taps into this really deep
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  yearning. We all have the need for a home,
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  the need to be in a safe, settled, predictable place.
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  It's a basic human psychological need for stability.
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  Absolutely. And Brueggemann makes the point
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  that Hiri is way more than just geographical space.
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  It's a place of memory, a place for a meaningful life.
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  It's what gives you roots, identity, a story that continues
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  through generations. Without the land, a people are
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  adrift. And this need for a home, for a
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  place, connects to the bigger theological idea of order versus
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  chaos. Yes, that's the core contrast.
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  The land symbolizes the move from a disordered, wandering
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  life to one with ordered, governed structures.
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  It stands for a world benevolently ordered by God for
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  human security and flourishing. To really get the value of that
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  order, though, you have to understand its opposite, which
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  is what Israel experienced first, the wilderness.
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  The wilderness is the complete antithesis of a normal human
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  society. It's described as formless,
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  lifeless. It has none of the supports or
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  resources that give life meaning and structure.
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  And that's why it's such a potent place for testing faith.
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  Exactly because in the wilderness you have nothing
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  else. You are thrown to a state of
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  pure, moment by moment dependence on God.
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  It's where you either remember his promises about the land, or
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  you forget them and start wishing you were back in Egypt.
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  So the land is the foundation for human flourishing.
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  It's a Cultural Center, right? It provides the stability you
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  need to produce food, to raise animals, to create wealth and to
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  multiply. It allows people to actually be
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  culture makers. To fulfill that original mandate
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  to be God's regions. You can't really do that from a
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  tent in the desert. You need stability, Law, art,
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  established worship, all of that requires A settled place.
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  The land is the prerequisite, the stage where a righteous
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  society is meant to live out its calling in God's presence.
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  It's a mirror of the garden. OK.
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  So we've established who the owner is and we've talked about
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  what the property means. Now we get to the the terms of
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  the agreement, so to speak, the dual covenant structure.
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  And this duality is maybe the single most helpful concept for
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  making sense of Israel's story. As Gerhard Monrad pointed out,
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  God's call to Abraham to go to Canaan with a promise of that
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  land. That one event basically sets
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  the course for the entire Old Testament.
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  That's the foundation, the unconditional grant.
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  Yes, the Abrahamic covenant. This establishes an eternal
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  right to the land given purely by God's election.
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  It guarantees Israel's existence and their eventual possession of
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  the land forever. So this is a promise that can't
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  be broken. It can't.
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  Even when Israel fails in the most sectacular ways, even when
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  they're judged and exiled, that original promise remains the
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  unshakeable basis for their future redemption.
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  God's faithfulness to his own promise is what guarantees their
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  future, not their own faithfulness.
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  And Abraham's role here is just foundational.
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  His journey out of his homeland is one of the two big events
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  that forms Israel, right? You have Abraham's Exodus which
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  sets the goal Canon, and then you have Moses exodus from Egypt
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  which accomplishes the liberation needed to get to that
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  goal. But this unconditional grant has
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  a partner, doesn't it? And that's the conditional
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  tenure under the Mosaic covenant.
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  Exactly. This is the other side of the
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  coin. The Abrahamic promise ensures
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  they will possess the land, but the Mosaic law defines how they
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  must live in the land. And this is where that legal
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  term comes in, Usefruct. It's a bit technical, but it's
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  essential here. It is, but the concept is pretty
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  straightforward. Use of fruits basically means
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  you have the right to use and enjoy the profits of a property
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  that you don't own. So Israel gets the uses, the use
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  of the land and the fructus, the fruits or profits.
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  They get all. The benefits, all the benefits,
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  but God retains what's called the abuses, the right to dispose
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  of the property He holds the title deed.
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  So their enjoyment of the land is completely conditional on
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  their faithfulness to the covenant, their obedience to the
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  Torah. And if they break that covenant?
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  He reserves the right to withdraw the gift, not
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  permanently. The Abrahamic promise holds, but
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  temporarily, which is exactly what exile.
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  Is you can see this usefruk status playing out in Israel's
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  daily life, like with the sabbatical and Jubilee years.
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  Oh, absolutely. Every seven years the land has
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  to rest. Every 50 years, all land goes
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  back to its original family owners.
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  These cycles were constant, built in reminders that they
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  were not the ultimate owners. They're just managers living
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  under God's rules. And God even defines their
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  status using this kind of language.
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  He calls them aliens and tenants living with.
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  Right. The Hebrew words Gare and tuja,
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  they point to a temporary dependent status.
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  They are guests on God's property.
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  They are under His protection, but they are accountable to Him
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  for how they use His land. This all creates a really
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  interesting tension in Israel's identity because they aren't
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  just tenants, they're also called God sons.
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  And that's the core tension. It mirrors the covenant
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  structure perfectly. On one hand, you have what you
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  could call the indicative mood. It's unconditional.
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  The fact that Israel is God's Son is a fixed reality rooted in
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  his choice. They don't earn that status.
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  But then there's the other side. Then there's the imperative
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  mood, which is conditional. Each generation has to actively
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  obey God to enjoy the rights and blessings of being faithful
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  sons. A son who rebels doesn't stop
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  being a son. But he loses his privileges.
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  Exactly. He loses the benefits, he faces
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  discipline. And this tension explains pretty
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  much all of Israel's history. God never gives up on the
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  indicative. He never revokes their election.
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  But he absolutely enforces the imperative through judgement and
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  discipline. It's a key idea and Reformed
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  thought too, isn't it? The relationship between our
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  unchangeable status and justification and the required
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  obedience of sanctification. It's the exact same pattern.
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  We are forever his children, but we can still be grounded, so to
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  speak, if we violate the household rules.
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  OK, let's move from the legal structure to the actual place
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  itself, the specific land grant, Canaan and Zion.
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  Right. So the heartland promise to
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  Israel is Canaan. God swears an oath to give to
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  Abraham and his descendants as a royal land grant forever.
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  This promise is repeated over and over again.
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  And the sources are pretty clear about the geographic boundaries.
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  This wasn't some vague mythical place.
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  No, not at all. It was a real territory with
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  defined borders, the desert in the South, the Mediterranean Sea
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  in the West, specific mountains in the north and the Jordan
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  River and Dead Sea on the east. A tangible, physical piece of
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  land. And the descriptions of it are
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  just incredible. A land flowing with milk and
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  honey. And that's not just poetry, it's
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  theology. The sources note that the
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  inheritance included houses that Israel did not build, wells they
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  did not dig and orchards they did not plant.
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  Which again reinforces the idea that it's all a gift.
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  It's grace. It's meant to stop them from
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  thinking they earned it themselves.
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  Right. And then within this special
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  land, there's one spot that becomes even more distinct Zion,
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  God's unique earthly residence, which becomes Jerusalem.
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  Yes, it's called the City of God because the great King lives
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  there. The holiness of the entire land
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  sort of flows outward from this one central point of God's
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  presence. And the history of that spot is
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  just layered with meaning. It's identified as the same
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  mountain where Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac.
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  Which is just incredible. It connects the central promise
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  of the Abrahamic Covenant, the oath God swore to Abraham there,
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  directly to the central place of worship for the entire nation.
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  And then David brings the ark there and establishes it as the
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  place for the temple. And at the temple's dedication,
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  God takes up residence. He declares it his resting place
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  forever. The entire glory and security of
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  that city comes from one fact. God chooses to live there among
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  His people. The holiness of the land comes
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  from the presence of the landowner.
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  So the gift is given, the conditions are set, the location
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  is identified, but as we know, Israel continuously failed to
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  meet the requirements of their tenancy, which brings us to the
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  tests of fidelity in their history.
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  Right. The sources really frame
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  Israel's failures as a series of three distinct tests, starting
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  with the first one in the wilderness, the testing by want.
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  The wilderness, being the opposite of the land, was the
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  perfect training ground, or at least it was supposed to be.
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  It was designed to force total dependence on God and His Word,
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  not on bread alone. But that first generation failed
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  comprehensively. You see it in the constant
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  murmuring, the quarreling, the fear, always wanting to go back
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  to the slavery of Egypt because at least there was food.
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  And the ultimate failure at Kadesh Barnea, a failure of
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  courage, which was really a failure of faith in the one who
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  promised to give them the land. And that failure led to 40 years
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  of wandering. So if that first Test was about
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  having nothing, the second test was the opposite.
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  The land test, the testing by prosperity.
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  Once they're in Canaan, the gift itself becomes the source of
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  temptation. They start to forget the giver.
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  Moses warned them this would happen.
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  In Deuteronomy, he lays out the specific temptation that Privile
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  thought, my power and the strength of my hands have
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  produced this wealth for me. It's a complete denial of their
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  Yusufric status. It's them trying to claim the
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  title deed for themselves. Precisely.
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  And their faithfulness in the land was tested by their
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  obedience to the Torah. That meant giving the tithes,
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  offering the sacrifices, observing the feasts, all of
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  which were constant reminders that the fruit of the land
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  wasn't really theirs, they were just giving a portion back to
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  the true owner. It also required them to finish
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  the job of dispossessing the Canaanites.
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  Yes, and that wasn't about random violence, it was about
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  spiritual hygiene to prevent contamination.
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  God knew that if they coexisted with Canaanite idolatry, it
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  would corrupt them and the land would eventually eject them,
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  just as the covenant curses warned.
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  And since they failed both the test of scarcity and the test of
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  prosperity, the inevitable result was the 3rd test, the
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  test of exile and judgment. Right.
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  The judgment itself becomes another phase of testing.
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  The Exiles are tested in the furnace of affliction.
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  The land literally throws them out for breaking the terms of
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  the covenant. And the sources point to a
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  critical internal reason for this failure, the false prophets
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  of Zion. They played a huge role in the
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  nation's downfall. They kept giving the people
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  lying visions of peace and security.
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  They refused to expose the depth of the people's sin.
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  So they prevented any real repentance that might have
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  changed the outcome. Exactly.
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  They offered cheap grace and it led to ruin.
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  And this collective failure, this refusal to repent, meant
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  that the judgment had to be intensified.
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  And it brings us to a really interesting part of the sources,
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  the sacred numbers and how they relate to prophecy.
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  The sacred semiotics of seven. Right.
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  The number 7 in Scripture is a symbol of divine perfection, of
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  completion. You see it everywhere, the seven
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  days of creation, the Sabbath cycle.
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  When you see seven, you should think a complete finished work.
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  And that extends to the number 70, yes. 70 is the product of 2
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  sacred numbers, 7 for perfection and 10 for fullness.
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  So 70 represents a kind of complete, divinely administered
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  period of time, especially when it comes to judgement.
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  Which is why Jeremiah prophecies a 70 year exile in Babylon.
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  It's presented as a standard sentence for rebellion, a
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  complete period of time for penitence, to let the land have
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  its Sabbaths that Israel had denied it.
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  But then Daniel takes that number and multiplies it.
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  This is where it gets really layered.
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  Daniel's vision in Chapter 9 takes that 70 year period and
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  multiplies it by 770 * 7 or 490 years.
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  And why that multiplication? What does that signify?
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  Well, it ties directly back to the covenant curses.
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  In Leviticus 26, God warns that if Israel keeps disobeying, He
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  will punish them seven times more for their sins.
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  So this multiplication means that this new era of judgment is
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  going to be the ultimate, complete and final one, all
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  leading up to a climactic event in the fullness of time.
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  And this period of 70 sevens was set to accomplish some very
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  specific. Things.
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  Six specific things, yes, including to anoint the most
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  holy, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to put a
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  final end to sin. It's a divinely decreed
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  timetable for the climax of redemption and judgement.
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  And the prophecy gives a very specific signpost.
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  It says after the 62 sevens, the anointed one will be cut off and
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  will have nothing. Which finds it's clear
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  fulfilment in the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus Christ by
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  his own people. The entire system, land, law,
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  prophecy was pointing to him. He was meant to be the one who
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  would finally bring everlasting righteousness to the land.
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  Instead, he was executed in the land.
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  That signals a major shift in how all these promises are going
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  to be fulfilled. A radical shift.
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  You know Daniel, even while he was in exile in Babylon, he
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  would pray three times a day, facing toward Jerusalem.
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  That act was a statement of faith, a loyalty not just to a
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  city, but to the entire divine destiny tied to that sacred
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  place. The hope persisted even when
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  they were cut off from the land itself.
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  And that persistence of hope even outside the physical
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  borders, that's a perfect transition to our final section,
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  looking beyond the historical reality to the eschatological
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  land. Right, because we have to
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  acknowledge that while the land promises were fulfilled in part
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  under Joshua and then later under David and Solomon, they
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  were never fully consummated. The ideal permanent, unending
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  rest never really happened. Which suggests the historical
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  land was always pointing to something more.
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  Exactly. It suggests there is still a
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  future consummation of that sworn land for the people of
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  God, a final, unending rest. So the ideal isn't just Canaan.
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  The ideal is the regenerated earth, the new heavens and new
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  earth where God's people enjoy his presence without any
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  barriers. The promise extends beyond the
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  original borders of Canaan to become a promise of a new world
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  of security and blessing. And even in the periods after
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  the temple was destroyed, you see this passionate focus on a
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  future glorious restoration of Zion.
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  It led to a rethinking of what Zion even.
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  Was it did. Later literature starts to talk
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  about a heavenly Jerusalem, one that existed before creation and
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  served as the pattern for the earthly city.
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  It shows that the ultimate reality of the land is not bound
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  to our current historical order. So eventually the whole concept
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  of the land was spiritualized. Yes, to refer to the life to
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  come, the world to come after the resurrection.
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  It came to represent the ultimate inheritance, which is
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  intimate fellowship with God Himself.
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  And you can see that idea foreshadowed with the Levites,
• 19:20
  can't you? They received no land
• 19:21
  inheritance in Canaan. An amazing foreshadowing.
• 19:25
  Their inheritance was I am himself.
• 19:27
  There were perpetual tenants and sojourners in the land living
• 19:31
  off the offerings given to God. It demonstrates that fellowship
• 19:34
  with the owner is a far greater inheritance than a deed to the
• 19:38
  property. It creates this beautiful
• 19:40
  theological path. The physical land was the
• 19:42
  preparatory stage, always pointing toward the eternal
• 19:45
  reality of dwelling with the. Owner.
• 19:47
  That's it exactly so. After all this, what does it all
• 19:50
  mean for us today? We've traced this huge
• 19:53
  structure, this tension between the certainty of the Abrahamic
• 19:56
  gift and the accountability of the Mosaic enjoyment.
• 20:00
  Well, it means that our relationship with God as
• 20:02
  Christians still contains that same tension.
• 20:05
  Our standing, our election as God's children is absolutely
• 20:09
  secure. It's unconditional, rooted in
• 20:11
  his saving work. That's the indicative mood.
• 20:14
  We're justified. But our enjoyment of the
• 20:16
  blessings of that status is conditional on our faithfulness,
• 20:18
  our obedience. That's the imperative.
• 20:20
  Right. We have to obey, to experience
• 20:22
  the fullness of what it means to be a child of the King and to
• 20:25
  avoid the discipline of a Holy Father.
• 20:27
  The Old Testament story of the land is the grand stage where
• 20:30
  God demonstrated this reality for all time.
• 20:33
  He is faithful to His promise, but He is just as faithful to
• 20:36
  His justice when we corrupt the gift He's given us.
• 20:39
  It's a reminder that everything we have, our homes, our
• 20:42
  resources, our security, it's all part of God's here.
• 20:45
  We're living in a state of use of work.
• 20:46
  We're tenants. And that leads to the final
• 20:48
  question, the one for you to think about.
• 20:51
  How do these Old Testament teachings about the land shape
• 20:54
  your spiritual life? How do they guide your obedience
• 20:57
  while you live as an alien and a tenant in this present world?
• 21:01
  If the physical land required total dependence and
• 21:03
  faithfulness from Israel, how much more does the spiritual
• 21:06
  life require our constant faith filled accountability to the
• 21:09
  Divine Owner of all things?