The way in which the manifold development of the Land promise in the OT foreshadows, pictures, and typifies the ultimate destiny of the people of God provides a rich resource for understanding the purposes of God. Its fulfillment in the New Creation through Christ prevents the “spiritualization” of the ultimate destiny of God’s people. Despite sin, Creation, through Resurrection, leads to New Creation. Thus, familiarity with the Bible’s development of this theme provides helpful insight whether one is preaching from the OT or the NT. Properly understood, the Land-promise is both motivation for our own faithful perseverance (Hebrews) and for carrying the Gospel to the nations of the world (Paul).

“The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Gen. 12:7a). With these words God brought his promises to a climax. He had already promised to bless Abraham, to make him a great nation, and to bless the world through him (Gen. 12:2–3). The land would be the place that gave concrete shape to fulfillment.

These promises to Abraham address the degenerate state of the human race depicted in Genesis 1–11. Through distrust and disobedience Adam and Eve have usurped God’s lordship over their lives and thus forfeited the divine presence, disrupted the harmony of human community derived from that presence, and suffered exile from Eden the place of blessing. They have become inhabitants of a world under God’s curse. Through faithful Abraham God begins the process of redemption. He promises to restore his presence, to establish a new community of people whose life and character reflect that presence, and through that community to offer blessing to an accursed world. He also promises to provide a blessed land as the locus for the fulfillment of these promises.

When we think of the unity of Scripture our minds turn to such concepts as divine presence, salvation history, promise, covenant, and kingdom.^[1] The Promised Land, of course, is closely related to these themes: it is the place of God’s promised presence, as the context for covenant obedience it is an integral part of salvation history, and it is the locus for the initiation of restored divine rule. With the establishing of the Davidic dynasty and the City of Jerusalem, the Temple becomes the focus of divine presence in the Land and thus together Temple and Land become the physical embodiment of God’s dwelling among his people. Recently N. T. Wright has argued for the Temple as a microcosm that anticipates “the Glory of the Lord” filling the entire cosmos. The God who dwelt in Eden as his Temple will fill a renewed heaven and earth with his presence. Thus, the Temple and the Land become an anticipation of the New Jerusalem/Temple within a renewed creation.^[2] While acknowledging this connection with city and Temple this study focuses more narrowly on the Land motif.

Perhaps the Land has received less attention in relationship to the unity of Scripture because it is more prominent in the Old Testament (OT) than in the New Testament (NT). However, the Land-theme is important because it gives substance and shape to the entire complex of Abrahamic promises. We might think of it as the basket that holds the other promises until final fulfillment. It is a bucket without which the promises leak through our fingers. And thus, without denying the importance of presence, covenant, salvation history, or kingdom, we offer this exploration of the Land’s contribution to the unity of Scripture as a stimulus for further discussion.

God begins to fulfill his promise in Exodus through Numbers by delivering Abraham’s now numerous descendants from slavery in Egypt and establishing a covenant with them at Sinai. His presence dwells in the Tabernacle at the center of their “camp.”^[3] They have become the new community of the people of God who acknowledge his lordship. But the generation delivered from Egypt fails to enter the Promised Land due to persistent unbelief and rebellion against their Sovereign. Their behavior set a pattern too often followed by succeeding generations. It is their children, however, that Moses addresses on the Plains of Moab in Deuteronomy as they are preparing to enter the Land. Arie C. Leder has suggested that the storyline of the Pentateuch sets the tone for the rest of the Bible by ending here in Deuteronomy with God’s people in the wilderness “waiting for the Land.”^[4]

“Waiting for the Land:” From Deuteronomy to Hebrews

The Letter to the Hebrews is the NT book that most self-consciously adopts this approach to the Land. In order to understand Hebrews’ Land-perspective, however, we must grasp Hebrews’ understanding of the continuity of the people of God based on the continuity of God’s self-revelation.

In the opening chapters its author lays the foundation for the entire Book of Hebrews when he asserts that the God who spoke to “the fathers in the prophets” has now “spoken to us” in the incarnate, now exalted, eternal Son seated at his right hand (Heb. 1:1–2). The author uses the term “prophets” with deliberate care for two reasons. First, it is general enough to encompass the entire OT, to include all of the “various times and various ways” God had spoken “of old.”^[5] Second, the term “prophets” implies fulfillment of what is prophesied. All of God’s ancient word finds fulfillment in “one who is Son.” We, then, who have heard God speak in his Son are the heirs of those who received his ancient word. The people of God has always been constituted by, and called to respond to, the word of God.

God’s Covenant at Sinai, however, is the heart of his ancient self-revelation. Thus, it is not surprising that the author of Hebrews focuses on the relationships (1) between the revelations mediated by the Son and at Sinai (Heb. 1:5–2:18), (2) the resulting situations of those who received these revelations (Heb. 3:1–6), and (3) their ultimate destinies (Heb. 3:7–4:13).

First, in Hebrews 1:5–2:18 the author assumes that God’s word spoken “in one who is Son” fulfills the angel-mediated Sinai revelation (Heb. 2:2) and establishes a relationship between those who have received these revelations.^[6] That is why the consequences suffered by those who neglect the fulfillment are more certain than for those who disobeyed its anticipation under which “every violation and disobedience received its just punishment” (Heb. 2:2).

Second, Hebrews 3:1–6 clarifies this assumed relationship between the recipients of the Sinai and Son-mediated revelations. Both “we” and the Sinai/wilderness generation are part of the one “household” of God. This identification of present believers as the continuation of those who stood around Sinai and then journeyed through the wilderness is fundamental not only to the author’s use of the wilderness generation as a warning in Hebrews 3:7–4:13, but also to his development of the fully-sufficient Priesthood of the eternal Son in Hebrews 4:14–10:18. Moses, the “steward” within that one household, “bore witness to the things that would be spoken” in “the Son” who rules over that household. The word that God spoke through his “steward” at Sinai established the Tabernacle with its priesthood, sacrifice, and covenant as means of approaching God. The word spoken in “one who is Son” fulfills all that those institutions anticipated.^[7] Through his “once-for-all” sacrifice the Son has become both the fully-sufficient High Priest who ushers the faithful into God’s heavenly sanctuary during the course of their pilgrimage (Heb 4:14–10:18, but especially Heb. 10:19–25), and the “Pioneer” (Heb. 2:10, 12:1–3) who, at his return (Heb. 9:28), will bring God’s people into the final “rest” that is their true promised “homeland.”^[8]

Third, the way in which the author uses the OT Promised-Land terminology of “rest” in Hebrews 3:7–4:13 confirms this unity between the present people of God with the wilderness generation by affirming that the ultimate goal of the people of God has always been the same. The “rest” that they forfeited, and that we their descendants must gain, was never simply the Promised Land that was entered under Joshua, but has always been the “Sabbath rest” into which God entered at the culmination of creation. The “my rest” of Psalm 95 is the rest forfeited by the wilderness generation through rebellion (Heb. 4:6; cf. Heb. 4:3; 3:11, 18), the rest offered in the time of David (Heb. 4:7–8), and the “rest” that “remains” for those addressed by Hebrews (Heb. 4:9–11) and thus for the people of God “today.”^[9] The Promised-Land imagery and the use of “rest” in contemporary sources indicate that this is not merely a blessed state but also a place where God’s people dwell in his presence.^[10]

By a careful study of Hebrews hortatory style and use of Deuteronomy, David Allen has suggested that Hebrews is a re-presentation of that book.^[11] There is continuity between those addressed by Deuteronomy and Hebrews. Moses addresses the children of the disobedient wilderness generation. Hebrews addresses its hearers as the children of that same generation. Both Moses and Hebrews remind their hearers of the consequences that ensued from that fateful refusal to enter the Land at Kadesh Barnea.^[12] Both urge faithful obedience. Both anticipate entrance into the Land.

However, this continuity is a continuity of fulfillment. Moses addressed Israel on the plains of Moab as the children of the wilderness generation not merely because of physical descent but because they, too, had stood before Sinai (Deut. 4:10, 15; 5:2).^[13] Hebrews addresses its hearers as the heirs of the wilderness generation because they have received the fulfillment of Sinai in the Son. The Aaronic sacrificial system through which that generation approached God while traveling to the Promised Land has been fulfilled by the all-sufficient Great High Priest through whom God’s people persevere until entrance into the eternal “rest” foreshadowed by the earthly Promised Land.

This fulfillment brings the exponentially greater privilege of “such a great salvation” and the correspondingly greater responsibility of “how shall we escape” (Heb. 2:3). It also confirms the continuity of the people of God throughout history as heirs of the same promise and bound for the same eternal “rest.”

By addressing the original children of the wilderness generation Moses addressed future generations of God’s people as those who stood before God’s revelation at Sinai in anticipation of the Promised Land.^[14] So Hebrews addresses every generation of God’s people as those who have received God’s final revelation in the eternal, incarnate, now exalted High Priest who sits perpetually at the Father’s right hand ever ready to aid those who “draw near to God” through him in route to the rest that “remains for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9).^[15] In this profound way “we” join the generation Moses addressed “waiting for the Land.”

Our understanding of the Land motif in Hebrews, however, would be incomplete if we did not examine the author’s exhortation to join the history of the faithful in Heb 11:1–40. This exhortation is the appropriate balance and counterweight to the warning against association with the unbelieving wilderness generation in Hebrews 3:7–4:13. By beginning with the wilderness generation the author is able to establish the “Promised Land” as the ultimate destiny of the people of God. However, the faithful who heard God speak “at various times and in various ways” before, and in anticipation of, Sinai are also part of God’s one “household.” The author has ordered these passages with consummate rhetorical skill. He would turn his hearers away from disobedience (Heb. 3:1–4:13) to faithfulness (Heb. 11:1–40). He would arouse their fear of sharing the loss of the disobedient (Heb. 3:1–4:13) so that they would embrace their all-sufficient High Priest (Heb. 4:14–10:18) in order to persevere with the faithful (Heb. 11:1–40).^[16] This close parallel relationship between the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:1–40 and the wilderness generation in Hebrews 3:7–4:13 confirms our interpretation of the “Sabbath rest” as the ultimate destiny of the people of God by identifying it with the “place” (τόπος) that God promised Abraham (Heb. 11:8). It is the “homeland” (Heb. 11:14) and “city with foundations whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10) pursued by the faithful of the ages. There can be no doubt that the “Promised Land” has become the ultimate destiny of the people of God throughout history, the concrete place where the faithful will dwell with God forever.^[17]

By this time it has become obvious that Hebrews has no interest in ethnic Israel inhabiting Palestine. The people of God throughout history have always been constituted by the word of God and the response of faith. Its destiny has always been “the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Hebrews knows nothing of the Pauline Jew/Gentile conflict. The author of Hebrews is not concerned with Jewish identity markers, such as circumcision, dietary laws, or Sabbath.^[18] The heroes of chapter eleven are not distinguished, as were the Maccabean martyrs, by their loyalty to such markers but by their trust in God’s promises and power.^[19] There is no replacement of one people of God with another. The whole point of Hebrews is that the all-sufficient Son of God brings the faithful of all time into their “inheritance.”^[20]

Some, however, have suggested that the “rest” lost by the unfaithful wilderness generation in Hebrews 3:1–4:13 might represent a present spiritual reality or experience rather than the ultimate destiny of the people of God.^[21] Hebrews 3:1–4:13 has an immediacy that is lacking in Hebrews 11:1–40. It urgently addresses the hearers lest they harden their hearts “today.” It envisions the people of God at Kadesh-Barnea about to enter the Promised Land. Hebrews 11:1–40, on the other hand, envisions the people of God in need of perseverance for a possibly long journey to the eternal “homeland.” And yet, in my judgment, the author does not intend for this immediacy to suggest that the “rest” was a present spiritual state. In Hebrews 3:7–4:13 the author is warning his hearers against ultimate loss. Therefore, he takes them to what should have been the end of the wilderness generations journey in order to make them face the ultimate fate to which their indifference, laxity, and drifting might lead. We might draw a parallel with the way in which the immanence of Christ’s return is meant to keep believers alert so that they will persevere until he does return. Furthermore, a sense of immediacy is characteristic of the warnings throughout Hebrews. Hebrews’ description of its hearers in the present tense as “we who have believed are entering that rest” (Heb. 4:3, my translation, emphasis added) is perfectly compatible with this interpretation. By persevering in faithful obedience “We” (inclusive of author and hearers) are in the process of entering that ultimate rest. In my judgment, when we grasp the fact that Hebrews uses the language of priesthood to describe our present approach to and experience of God through Christ and the language of Promised Land when speaking of our ultimate entrance into his dwelling place, the entire book makes sense.^[22] Every passage fits within this perspective without remainder.

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