Canaan - Promised Land of Blessing

Alright, if you're visiting with us and you're wondering, what are we doing with the crucifix tree and putting ornaments on a tree on Sunday morning? Well, it's because we are doing something together as a church, and we're studying some of the prophecies and promises of the coming of the Messiah. We're using a book called the Advent Jesse Tree. It's a devotional book centered around Isaiah 11, verses 1 and 2, where it talks about how a branch will stem from the root of Jesse. Jesse, of course, was the father of David.

David was the king of Israel. The Messiah will sit on the throne of David. And so what we're doing is going from the beginning, Genesis chapter 1, through the end, or the beginning of the New Testament, which is the coming of the Messiah, and talking about some of those promises about what would entail His coming. And today, of course, we are on day number 9, and that centers around the land of blessing, the land of Canaan. I love how Sharon Davis has put these together. I don't know if you had a chance to look at these or not, but she's done a marvelous job of making these things very appealing to the eye and very easy to hang on the tree, which is good because the kid's got to do it.

And so I just praise the Lord for Sharon and the way she has put these together. And this morning we're going to talk about Canaan, the promised land of blessing. I love this opportunity we're doing. Someone has asked, you know, are you going to do this every year? I don't know. We could because each day, each Sunday, falls on a different day. And so I would preach on something different each year. So we could do it for, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10 years in a row. Then there's others who think, well, this is kind of cheesy.

You know, you're having the kids up there, and you've got the ornament kind of thing going on, and we're all doing the same thing. It's a little cheesy, don't you think? Well, no, I don't think so, but maybe you do. I don't know. But, you know, I've had a good time doing it, and I trust that you will too. I'm not sure how it's all going to unfold by the end, but hopefully by the end of this month we'll see how it all came together and how it is you've learned more about the coming of the Messiah and the promise the Senate rendered surrounding that coming.

And so I trust that this has been a blessing for you. I hope that throughout each and every week as you spend time in the Word of God it becomes a special blessing to you. I know it is for me and my family, and I know it is an opportunity, a great blessing for me to be able to preach to you each and every Sunday morning concerning these prophecies. And I don't really have an outline. If you noticed last week I didn't really have an outline. I don't necessarily have one this week either, but I just want to talk to you about it so that you can talk to your children about it.

So you can talk to those of your friends about this great promise, the land of Canaan, and the blessings that God gave to His people. Why is this so paramount in the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah? Why do we cover this aspect of it? Well, you need to understand something about the land. You need to understand something about the leader that took them into the land. Maybe I do have an outline this morning. And then I want to give you some lessons that you can learn about that leader in the land.

How's that for an outline? That works. Just flows right off my lips. But it's just something that will help us understand what is going on here. You know, remember back in Genesis chapter 50? Joseph is going to die. And they're in Egypt. And Joseph gets all his brothers together and says, I want to give you something. They're thinking, wow, he's going to give us a mansion on the Nile. You know, he's going to give us some of his great horses, man, some of his Arabian horses. This is going to be a great gift from Joseph.

And Joseph says, I want to gather you guys around because this is what I want you to do. I'm going to give you my bones because I'm going to die. And what I want you to do is when you go up from here, from Egypt, when God leaves you, God's going to take care of you, he says, Genesis 50. God's going to take care of you. He's going to watch over you. He's going to bring you back to the land of promise. And when he does, I want you to take my bones with you because my bones are a symbol that God is faithful to keep his word.

Now, they were in Egypt. Things were well for them. There was a famine in the land. And Joseph had brought his family to Egypt to take care of them, to provide for them, to watch over them. But Joseph believed in the literal promise that God gave to his father Abraham. He believed in the land of blessing. He believed in the land of Canaan. He believed it so much that he said, look, here is the best thing I can give you, my body, my bones. And when you leave this place, take them with you. Well, we studied Genesis.

We studied Exodus. And we know that in Exodus chapter 1 there arose a new king. We didn't know Joseph. And he became a little leery of the Hebrew people. So he made them into slaves. And they were in bondage for years. But come Passover time, through the ten plagues, when Israel was finally let go to leave Egypt and go to the land that God had decided for them years earlier, that Moses, on that Passover evening, when people were gathering up some of their belongings, Moses was gathering up the bones of Joseph.

You can read about it in the book of Exodus. Gathers the bones of Joseph because he remembers the promise to his father Abraham. He remembers the words of Joseph to his brothers. Take my bones because there is going to be a day when God is going to take you back. So Moses gets the bones and off they go. And God leads them to the brink of the land. And Moses says, OK, I want to get some spies together. I want you guys to go into the land, spy it out, bring back the report. Of course, they bring back a great report.

Two of them do. And they all agree that the land was flowing with milk and honey. You can read about it in Numbers 13, Numbers 14. That's the text for this symbol this morning, Numbers 13, 14. And so they come back and they say, this is a great land that flows with milk and honey, but, but, but, but, but, we just can't make it because people there are giants. They're like grasshoppers in their sight. We can't make it in. Joshua and Caleb say, no, no, God has given us this land. It's ours for the taking.

All we've got to do is go in and possess the land. It's ours. And the people were afraid. They were afraid. They said, we're going to raise up a new leader. We don't like the leadership that we have. So we're going to raise up a new leader. We don't like Moses. We don't like Aaron. We don't like Joshua and Caleb. We're going to raise up a new leader. And God became angry with the people. And Moses had to plead on behalf of the people. And God says, I tell you what I'm going to do.

I'm going to let you go in, but not until those who are 20 and over die in the wilderness. 20 and over. If you're 20 and over, stand up today. 20 and over, stand up today. The whole church is old. Okay, if you're 20 and over, you're going to die in the wilderness. Sit down, sit down. That's a lot of people. Now think about this. You calculate that out. 70 people a day died for the next 40 years. 1.2 million Jews died in unbelief in the wilderness. 70 a day. Moses had to do, I guess, 70 funerals a day.

Maybe he just put them all into one lump sum and did just one a day for 40 years. I don't know. A lot of funerals. I don't have that many funeral messages. Moses must have had a whole bunch of them. Or maybe he repeated some things every single day. But they all died, those 20 and over, except for Joshua and Caleb in the wilderness. And Joshua would be that one who would lead them into the land, right? Go to the end of Joshua. What does Joshua do? He buries the bones of Joseph in the land. It's a great story about how the bones of Joseph finally were buried in the land.

The promise was realized. The bones of Joseph is a great story. And yet, in that story, we learn some lessons. Let me talk to you for a few minutes about the land.

The land of Canaan. The land of Israel. Remember, Abraham was promised a land. God called him. We talked about this in our devotional time throughout the week. The call of Abraham. Brought him to the land of Canaan. And God says, this is it.

This is the place. I'm giving it to you. I'm giving it to your descendants. This is the place, Abraham. This is the place. What's so great about that land? You've got to know about the land. Why? The land of Canaan. Phrase used 66 times in the Bible. The word land is used over 1700 times. But 66 times the land of Canaan is used. And that land, specifically the land of Canaan, refers to the land given to the children of Israel. Numbers chapter 13. That's our text. At least I don't refer to it, so I can at least say I covered it.

Numbers 13, verse number 1. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Send out for yourself men, so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel. The land was a gift. The land was a gift from God to the sons of Israel. Same thing is mentioned over in the book of Deuteronomy. When Moses was unable to enter the land, verse 48, the Lord spoke to Moses that very same day, saying, Go up to this mountain of the Abiram, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for possession.

Says it again in verse number 52. For you shall see the land in a distance, but you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the sons of Israel. God decided to give this land to the sons of Israel. What land? Turn to Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15 and Genesis 12, God made a promise to Abraham that he would have land, and now he gives us the dimensions of that land. The dimensions of the land. Verse number 18, Genesis 15. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, To your descendants I have given this land.

Which land is that? From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. Hmm. Hmm. People always talk about the West Bank. Who should have the West Bank? I'm not so concerned about the West Bank. I'm more concerned about the East Bank. So the East Bank, yeah. I'm more concerned about Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, half of Iraq, Saudi Arabia. That's what I'm concerned about because that's Israel's land. If you go today to the UN and say, you know, Israel needs to have Lebanon. Israel needs to have Syria.

Israel needs to have half of Iraq. They'd shoot you. But that's their land. From the great river Euphrates to the river in Egypt. It's all Israel's land. God made the dimensions. I didn't make the dimensions. You know something very unique about the book of Joel? Joel says, whoever seeks to divide the land will be judged. You better be careful, Mr. Bush, about your desire to divide Jerusalem. Because the Bible says in Joel 3, you will be judged if you seek to divide the land of Israel.

You can't do that. Because the Bible speaks against it. Mr. Bush needs to get some real true biblical advisors in the White House. Somebody who will show him the direction of the Bible. Because that land has a dimension that God gave to Abraham. We think of that little strip of land next to the Mediterranean Sea as Israel's land. And we're trying to parcel it up to different groups of people. Say, well, what about the Muslims? Don't they have a right to the land? No, they don't. No. That's just not right.

Really? Why should the Muslims have a right to the land? God never gave it to them. He gave it to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He never gave it to the descendants of Ishmael. Who are we kidding? So when the Muslims get all up in arms about, well, we should be here. No, you shouldn't. I shouldn't be there either. It's not my land. It's the children of Israel's land. That's who it is. God gave it to them. He didn't give it to me. He didn't give it to you. He gave it to them. He didn't give it to any other people group, but to the Jewish nation.

The land of Israel. The Hebrew people. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's who He gave the land to. Why should we give it to a group of people who have a false religion, based on a false prophet and a false god? Why should we give it to them? Shouldn't. It's not theirs. It's the land of Israel. And God gave the dimensions of that land. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq. You need to take note. Because God will judge them. God will destroy them. Read the book of Revelation. It's all right there.

You can't take, listen, what is God's. Leviticus 25 says, The land is mine. The Lord says. Leviticus 25, 23. This is my land. And what is God's, He gives to whomever He chooses. He didn't give it to you and me. He gave it to the Hebrew people. And He gave us the dimensions of the land. Very clearly spelled out in the book of Genesis. I go today and I talk to our guide in Israel. He's not sure that he agrees with the dimensions of the land. So I read to him Genesis 15, verse number 18. You believe in the book of the law, don't you?

Well, yeah, I'm a Jew. Well, then you need to believe in Genesis 15, 18. This is your land. He kind of shakes his hand and kind of hems and haws around it. This is your land. All of it is. Not because I decided to give it to you, but because God decided to give it to you. It's a choice. But there's something unique about the land because God has a desire for that land. Turn with me in your Bible, if you would, to Deuteronomy 11.

Listen to this. Deuteronomy chapter 11. Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse number 11. The land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God... What's the next word? Hmm. God cares about the land. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it. From the beginning even to the end of the year. You know, the Bible never says that God's eyes on America. It never says that God cares about America. Now, we like to think He does.

The Bible doesn't say that. The Bible does say He cares about this land. This land. And that God has His eye on that land all year long. See, that's why I love going... It's the safest place to be in all the world. It's real. God's always looking at it. You know what I'm saying? If God's always looking at it, I want to be there, so I'm looking at me. See? Because that's where He's always looking. His eyes are always upon it. Why does God desire this land? You know, God wrote His name on the land.

I got a picture that I received in Israel. I want to show it to you. God had written His name on the land. A place in Israel called Bethel. It's called the house of God. It's a little north of Jerusalem. And in there, if you take an aerial view of the land of Israel, there is that name of God in Exodus chapter 3, the name I am that I am, the tetragrammaton, those four consonants that make up the name of God. They're circled in the yellow here. See that? And it's the yod, the vav, the hei, and the vav.

The yod, the hei, the vav. The yod, the hei, the vav, and the hei. Okay? The four Hebrew consonants that make up the name of God are written on the land of Israel. And God says, this is My name.

The place of My name. Isaiah chapter 8, 18, I think it is, verse number 7, says it's called the place of the name. The place of the name. We told you before about the three valleys that surround the city of Jerusalem. The three valleys that surround the city of Jerusalem make up the Hebrew letter shin, which stands for Shaddai, the Almighty God. And God's name is written on that city. See, God goes to a great extent to show you how much He desires and cares for this land. This is important to Him.

Why is that? Because this land, this nation, helps us understand God. Without a proper understanding of the nation and the land, you have an improper understanding of God. You can say anything you want, that's the truth. You need to understand it because God is concerned about the land. He desires the land. He cares for the land. His eye is always on the land. Why? Because He has a plan for the land. He has a plan for the people who will inhabit the land because He made a promise. He made a promise to Abraham, and God is faithful.

He will always keep His promises. Always. And if God made a promise to Abraham, and God made that same promise to Isaac, and God made that same promise to Jacob, and Joseph understood it, and Moses understood it, and Joshua understood it. Let me tell you something, folks.

It wasn't some kind of symbol that God was giving. It was a reality. And the land of Canaan is a land designed by God to give to the children of Israel only. No one else. It's their land. And God's desire for that land is clearly spelled out in Scripture. In Deuteronomy chapter 11, because it says He cares for it, His eyes are always upon it. Isaiah chapter 8 says that His name, or 18, excuse me, His name is the place of the name. Israel is called the place of the name. It's the place that characterizes God more than any other place in the world.

It's His land. That's why it was so rebellious for Israel not to want to go there. Think about it. Here's the land. It's God's gift to you, which reminds me of one of the lessons we need to learn about the land. It was a gift. Do you know what? Salvation is a gift, isn't it? It's a gift given by God to man. But people refuse that gift, don't they? The children of Israel refused to go into the land because there were giants that were there. They feared for their lives. People refused to give their lives to Christ and to accept that free gift of salvation for the sake of the cost.

Take up your cross daily and following Him. Giving your life to Him and serving only Him is a great cost involved. But it's a gift given by God to man. And yet so many people will die, like Israel did, in unbelief. Because they refuse to believe that what God said about the land is true. They refuse to believe that what God says about His gift of eternal life is absolutely true.

And the only way to get there is through the gate of heaven that Jacob saw in his ladder in Genesis 28. That stairway that leads to glory. That stairway that came down out of heaven to earth. So man would have access to God's kingdom. And Israel would die in the wilderness in unbelief. Why? Because they refused to believe what God had said. Here was Moses hanging on to the bones of Joseph. I can just see Moses now thinking, I got these bones here that Joseph wanted me to take and wanted to make sure that he was buried in the land and now that people don't want to go into the land, what's wrong with these people?

What's wrong with these people? Joseph believed it. I believe it. Joshua and Caleb believe it. But these others don't. Because of the giants in the land. They feared what they saw instead of believe in what God said. So the land is important. So important that God says, if you refuse to believe, you will die in the wilderness.

And so God, as He had His eye on the land, would watch His children wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Watching them die off. Can you imagine as a child, 10, 11, 12, knowing that you won't get into the land until your parents are dead. And then one day your parents die. And you know you won't get into the land until your friend's parents are dead. Maybe some people are thinking, Boy, I wish they'd hurry up and all die so we can get into the land. To collect our inheritance. Sometimes people think that today, right?

Wish my mom and dad would die so I can collect their inheritance. Imagine the children of Israel. Mom and dad finally die.

The inheritance will be ours. We got to wait. All that will be a lesson for them to learn. You got to believe what God says.

You got to believe. The land. It's dimensions are given in Genesis chapter 15 verse number 8. The desire of God is spoken very clearly in Deuteronomy 11 about what He thinks about that land. And the land is given only to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And yet, listen carefully, the disobedience of Israel did not forfeit their right to that land. Yes, the disobedience of those at Kadesh Barnea, they were the ones who forfeited their right to the land. But as a nation, that land was given to them.

And you can read about it in Leviticus 26, 40 to 45, in Deuteronomy 30, verses 3 to 5, in Jeremiah chapter 31, verse number 10, in Jeremiah 31, 35 to 37, it talks about the new covenant that God promises to put a new spirit in His people. And they will take them to that land. It's a promise that God gave that He will fulfill. Because that decision was based on an everlasting covenant. That God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And God always keeps His word. See, that's another lesson we need to learn.

Not only do we learn the lesson about the free gift of salvation, but we learn the lesson about the faithfulness of God. Don't we? If you learn anything about the land of Canaan, learn about the faithfulness of God. God is always true to His word. God will make it happen. Because God made a promise. And throughout the Old Testament, God always promises the land of blessing to His people. Because in that Abrahamic covenant was the promise of a seed, which would be the Messiah. A substitute, that that Messiah would be the substitute for the sins of the people.

And for a soil. A soil, a land that they would have. And that would all come to be with the coming to be of the Davidic covenant. Which was the promise of a sovereign ruler over the nation of Israel. And all that would come to be because of the new covenant. The new covenant, the Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant all have salvific issues. Because when the new covenant happens, there will be a new spirit placed in Israel. They will look upon Him in whom they pierced. They will mourn for Him as an only son.

And they will be saved from their sin. They will go into that promised land. And they will rule in that land with their king on the throne of David. It's a promise that God gave. But 80 to 90% of evangelical Christians today do not believe that. 80 to 90% of evangelical Christians today do not believe that this land is still going to be occupied by Israel. So if you come to this church, you are in the minority. And I don't mind being in the minority. I mean after all, either you believe what the Bible says or you don't believe what the Bible says.

But God gave an eternal covenant to Abraham. He gave it to him, to his descendants. And I believe what God said. And you know what? It's interesting to note that the dwelling of Israel, in the land of Israel, the dwelling of the Israel nation, in that land of Canaan today, is the fulfillment of biblical promise. Ezekiel 37, turn there with me if you would for a second please.

Ezekiel chapter 37. Go to the land of Israel, we go to a place called Masada. It's a great place to be. It's the most frequented, visited place in the land of Israel. In all of the land of Israel, the place that is visited by the most people is Masada. Well, if you go on top of Masada, and you go to the synagogue on top of Masada, you can understand why. Why? In 1974, when Yigal Yadin was doing the excavations there on top of Masada, they found something in that synagogue. They found a partial scroll from Ezekiel chapter 37.

And while they were doing the excavations, if you go there today, and you look and view the video that talks about what took place when the Romans had barricaded those 967 Jewish people on top of Masada, and made their way up there to kill them all, if you listen to the video that they have, it describes it, they say the most important discovery on top of Masada were the ten stones, with the names of the ten men that led those 967 Jews in 70 A.D. out of Jerusalem when they fled Jerusalem and went to Masada.

The names of those ten men on ten stones, because you see, they weren't going to let the nation of Rome take them captive.