PROMISED LAND
Because they interpret the Bible literally, Jews and Christians believe that the promised land is a physical place called Israel. Those who do not find living in Israel a real possibility think of the promised land as heaven where they will go after they die. As appealing as these images might be, they are not what God has in mind for the promised land.
Consistent with the rest of the Bible, the promised land is a spiritual place that can be accessed here and now by anyone who quits being religious and begins listening to hear God’s spoken voice.
If the promised land was only accessible to people who can physically live in Israel, it is a deceptive promise. Only a few Jews and Christians with money would enter the promised land. Where does that leave everyone else? They would be denied entrance to the promised land for lack of money. If that is the case, then none of God’s promises about entering the promised land would apply to people who lack the money or inclination to live in Israel.
Many people think that the promised land is heaven and that is where they will go after they physically die. This belief is inconsistent with God’s emphasis on today. Furthermore, if the promised land is only accessed after death, scriptures about it would be inconsistent with another promise which is that all scripture is useful for training, righteousness and equipping for good works. These are all promises that are fulfilled here and now — not after we die.
STUDY TIP: See Time: Hours, Days, Weeks and Ages and Tabernacles, Temples, Altars, High Places and Pilgrimages for understanding of how God uses time and location to represent spiritual truth.
People who believe that the promised land is the place they will go after they die also think that they qualify themselves to enter the promised land through obedience to religious laws. If this is what it takes to enter the promised land, the land that they possess would not be a gift. It would be payment received for labor.
These misconceptions about the promised land all deny the truth that possession of the promised land is a reward for hearing God’s spoken voice.
We have several clues to the symbolism of the promised land:
First, we know that the promised land is a gift to be possessed.
Since all of God’s gifts are spiritual, the promised land must also be spiritual gift. It cannot, therefore, be a physical gift.
STUDY TIP: See this link for a list of more of God’s gifts.
If the literal, physical nation of Israel was the promised land as many people believe, possession would be impossible for anyone other than Jews. Christians who live anywhere other than Israel would not be able to actually possess the land. Therefore, for the promise to be fulfilled, the land must be a spiritual place.
All Biblical references to spiritual places are to the heart as we see in THE HEART IS THE PLACE. Therefore, we conclude that the promised land is a heart that is clean and pure because it hears God’s spoken voice.
Second, we know that the promised land is holy.
See this link for understanding of holiness. Physical things cannot be holy. Only spiritual things are holy. Here is a list of other things that are holy:
Third, we know that the promised land is already occupied by enemies and that they must be driven out before the land can be possessed.
The only way to make sense of this fact is to think of land as the heart. Evil impure hearts are kingdoms ruled by kings, queens and princes who are in competition with each other for the hearts, minds and money of religious people who want a king to fight their spiritual battles for them. When these kings control the hearts and minds of their religious followers through religious teaching, they also influence how they spend their money.
The way God sees it, religious people treat their religious leaders like they are Gods (i.e. idols). He also symbolically represents the condition of hearts being controlled by religious leaders as possession by demon spirits. Because religious leaders have such control over the hearts of God’s people, he symbolically says that their land (i.e. their hearts) are occupied by enemies.
STUDY TIP: See Religion is Injustice, Slavery, Oppression and Affliction and Religion is the Enemy for understanding of enemies.
The control that these enemies have over the hearts and minds of God’s people must be overcome. God does this by creating new hearts in his people. When he does this, they symbolically enter and possess the promised land of a clean, pure heart.
Fourth, we know that there are rules for continued occupation of the land.
STUDY TIP: See this link, this link, this link, and this link, for understanding of some of the conditions for continued occupation of the land.
Fifth, we know that the promised land is an inheritance.
Because God himself is the inheritance of New Covenant disciples, and because God and his spoken word are one in the same thing, it must be said that God himself (i.e. his spoken word) is also the promised land.
This interpretation is fully consistent with the interpretation that a clean, pure heart is the promised land because the distinctive feature of a clean, pure heart is that God’s laws are written there and that his words are treasures found in clean, pure hearts.
Sixth, the land can be polluted, but it can also be cleansed.
Just as hearts can be either clean and pure, or evil and impure, the land can be polluted or clean. Foreign gods (i.e. enemies, idols) pollute the land (i.e. heart). God cleanses the land of these enemies by sending warriors/messiahs/prophets to speak his words to religious people. People who learn how to hear God’s spoken voice have their hearts/land cleansed. People who do not listen to God’s spoken voice continue to practice the sin of religion. Their hearts/land remains polluted.
New Covenant disciples who hear God’s spoken voice understand that the promised land is the same thing as God’s kingdom/heaven and that it exists in hearts that have been born again. In Biblical language, hearts that have not been transformed are called the wilderness.
STUDY TIP: See GOD DOES ONLY ONE KIND OF MIRACLE and THE MIRACLE OF CREATION: BORN AGAIN for understanding of transformed hearts.
To fully appreciate the symbolism of the clean, pure heart as the promised land, it is necessary to consider another promise God has made about writing his laws on the hearts of his people. Fulfillment of these two promises should be the aspiration of everyone who believes that God exists and rewards those who diligently seek him. Everything else is religion.
STUDY TIP: See HOPE FOR A BIG REWARD for understanding of the reward for seeking God.