Promised Land

Biblical Text

The promise begins in Genesis 12:7, where God tells Abram, "Unto thy seed will I give this land." Genesis 15:18 describes its extent as "from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates," and Genesis 17:8 promises "all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession." The promise is confirmed again to Isaac and Jacob.

Exodus 3:8 calls it "a land flowing with milk and honey." Moses views the land from Mount Nebo but does not enter it (Deuteronomy 34:1-4). Israel follows Joshua across the Jordan River and enters the land. Joshua 21:43-45 records that God gave all the land he had sworn to give to their fathers. The exact phrase "land of promise" appears in Hebrews 11:9 in the New Korean Revised Version; the KJV likewise reads, "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise."

Background

The Old Testament usually refers to this land as "the land which I sware unto your fathers." The Greek of Hebrews 11:9 reads "the land of the promise (epangelia)." The extent of the promised territory is described differently from passage to passage, and scholars also differ on where its actual boundaries lay.

The Law teaches that the true owner of the land is God. Leviticus 25:23 declares, "The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine," and on that basis prohibits the permanent sale of land. The institutions of the Jubilee and the kinsman-redeemer rest on the same principle. The land was divided among the twelve tribes of Israel by lot.

Significance Across Scripture

Deuteronomy warns that Israel's continued possession of the land is bound up with obedience to the covenant (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). The prophets explain the Babylonian exile as the consequence of disobedience, while also proclaiming the promise of a return to the land.

The New Testament reads this theme more broadly. Matthew 5:5 says that the meek "shall inherit the earth." Romans 4:13 describes the promise given to Abraham as the promise "that he should be the heir of the world." Hebrews states that the rest Joshua gave was not the final rest (Hebrews 4:8-9) and says that the patriarchs desired "a better country, that is, an heavenly" (Hebrews 11:13-16). This line of thought continues into the new heaven and new earth and the New Jerusalem of Revelation.

Interpretation and Debate

Traditions differ on to whom, and in what way, the land promise remains in force today.

• Covenant theology and the Reformed tradition: These tend to see the land promise as fulfilled in Christ, through the church and the new creation.
• Dispensationalism: This view holds that the land promise remains literally in effect for ethnic Israel.
• Relationship to the modern State of Israel: These differences also lead to differing views of the modern State of Israel.

Separately, there is a long-standing allegorical reading that takes the Jordan River as death and Canaan as heaven. This reading has been widely used in hymns and sermons, but it is a later application rather than something the text states directly.

Regarding the "honey" in "milk and honey," some scholars hold that it refers not to bee honey but to the syrup of fruit such as dates.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, "Canaan" and "the Promised Land" are commonly used in preaching and worship songs to refer to heaven or to the goal toward which believers look. Immigrant churches and church plants sometimes also compare a new beginning to this story.

The term "Canaan believers" also exists, but it is a coinage formed by reversing the syllables of the Korean phrase an naga ("not going [to church]") to read ga-na-an, and it has nothing to do with the meaning of the Promised Land.