Read Exodus 3:8; Leviticus 20:22; Leviticus 25:23; Numbers 13:27; Deuteronomy 4:1, 25, 26; Deuteronomy 6:3; and Psalm 24:1. What was the special relationship between God, Israel, and the Promised Land?
At a very basic level, land offers physical identity to a nation. By locating the nation, it also determines the occupation and lifestyle of the nation. Slaves were rootless and belonged nowhere; someone else enjoyed the results of their work. Having land meant freedom. The identity of the chosen people was linked strongly to their dwelling in the land.
There was a special relationship among God, Israel, and the land. Israel received the land from God as a gift, not as an inalienable right. The chosen people could own the land as long as they were in a covenantal relationship with Yahweh and respected the precepts of the covenant. In other words, they could not have the land and its blessings without the blessing of God.
At the same time, it is true that the land provided a lens through which the Israelites could better understand God. Living in the land would always remind them of a faithful, promise-keeping, and trustworthy God. Neither the land nor Israel would have existed without the initiative of God, who was the Source and foundation of their existence. While the Israelites were in Egypt, the Nile and the irrigation system, coupled with hard work, provided the crops that they needed for subsistence. Canaan was different. They depended on rain for the abundance of their harvests, and it was only God who could control the weather. Thus, the land reminded the people of their constant dependence on God.
Even if Israel received the land as a gift from Yahweh, in the ultimate sense, God Himself remained the owner. As the true owner of the whole earth (Ps. 24:1), Yahweh has the right to assign the land to Israel or to take it away. If God is the owner of the land, the Israelites and, by extension, all humans are strangers and sojourners, or in modern terminology, we are all God’s long-term guests on His land/earth.
In the light of 1 Peter 2:11 and Hebrews 11:9–13, what does it mean to you personally to live as a stranger and sojourner looking forward to the city whose designer and builder is God Himself?
Supplemental EGW Notes
Our Lord is cognizant of the conflict of His people in these last days with the satanic agencies combined with evil people who neglect and refuse this great salvation. With the greatest simplicity and candor, our Saviour, the mighty General of the armies of heaven, does not conceal the stern conflict that they will experience. He points out the dangers, He shows us the plan of the battle and the hard and hazardous work to be done, and then lifts His voice before entering the conflict, [telling us] to count the cost while at the same time [encouraging] all to take up the weapons of their warfare and expect the heavenly host to compose the armies to war in defense of truth and righteousness.
Human weakness shall find supernatural strength and help in every stern conflict to do the deeds of Omnipotence, and perseverance in faith and perfect trust in God will ensure success. While the vast confederacy of evil is arrayed against His people He bids them to be brave and strong and fight valiantly, for they have a heaven to win, and they have more than an angel in their ranks—the mighty General of armies leads on the armies of heaven. As on the occasion of the taking of Jericho, not one of the armies of Israel could boast of exercising their finite strength to overthrow the walls of this city, but the Captain of the Lord’s host planned that battle in the greatest simplicity, that the Lord God alone should receive the glory and mortals should not be exalted. God has promised us all power.
It is not great talent that we want now, it is humble hearts and direct, consecrated, personal effort, watching, praying, working with all perseverance. . . . Christ has sent His representative, the Holy Spirit, surrounding His living agents who are employed to pierce the ignorance with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. His voice will give assurance, “Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” The fact is to be ever kept before us that we are carrying forward the warfare in the presence of an invisible world.
We are all to calmly depend upon God as we look upon the obstacles and stubborn unbelief and consider all the risks that must be ventured, and then listen to the voice of Jesus: “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Yes, Christ is conqueror. He is our Leader, our Captain, and we can advance to the victory. Because He lives, we shall live also.—Christ Triumphant, p. 136.
The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.