Is Israel still the promised land?

Well, hello, and thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. This last week, um, we took a look at um God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that they would have descendants or offspring that would eventually come back to the land. And as we know, throughout the Old Testament, the land carried um much significance for the Israelites. When they were exiled, to return home, um, was a central theme in their hearts.

And so, um, in the course of the sermon, though, we talked about that the real promise for the land was not for this acreage on the east of the Mediterranean, but it’s for our it’s for our final homecoming, new heavens and new earth. That is that is the real land that we will occupy forever because as the biblical story unfolds, uh, we find that the promise for the land is forever.

The descendants of Abraham or the ones who are in the seed of Abraham, uh, will enter into the land, um, and occupy it not for a while, not for a million years, not for 10 million years, forever and ever and ever. And so we know that that is not this earth is what it what God’s talking about.

So, so the question comes in this week is, um, well, does current Israel, um, still carry importance? Is that part of God’s plan for how history will unfold? That there is this nation state over there right now called Israel? Is that is that still critical to, um, the biblical storyline? Um, and so I in one way, everything is critical to the biblical storyline.

God has a plan for absolutely everything um in this world, absolutely every square inch of this world, there is a plan for it. And so in that sense, yes, there’s still a plan for Israel. Um, and there certainly seem to be or could, depending on, um, how you parse out, um, the, you know, the events leading up to Christ’s return, it seems like Israel could play a role in that.

Some people believe that a temple would need to be rebuilt before Christ comes back. If it is, that would take place in Israel. If that takes place in Israel, Israel has to exist for that to happen. Um, and so it’s certainly possible that um a nation state plays a certain role, um, in the events that lead up to the end.

But again, in an ultimate sense, that is not the promised land. That is not the forever home. That is not the homecoming to which we are promised when God says, you know, I will give your descendants the land forever and ever and ever. It’s not that. It’s the new heavens and new earth. And so like, really, everything else in this world, um, is it’s temporary.

It is part of a temporary, um, story arc that’s leading to an ultimate destination. And that ultimate destination is again, new heavens and new earth. So I certainly wouldn’t say unimportant, but I wouldn’t say anything is unimportant. We’re all going to play a role in in how God completes history. Um, and so we pray for people in Israel, same as we pray for people all over the world.

They would come to a saving knowledge of Christ, put their faith in him so that they can be part of that ultimate final homecoming, um, at the end of the story. So thanks for the question. We’ll see you next time.