Replies to post #7742 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[mlsoft]

Zeev...

I view the promises of God to Abraham (the Abrahamic Covenant) as one of the most important parts of Scripture. It contained personal promises ("I will make you a great nation", "I will bless you", "I will make your name great"), universal promises (promises of blessing or cursing people based on their treatment of Abraham and his descendants, the promise that all nations would be blessed through his seed), and national promises (Abraham would be the Father of a great nation - both a personal and a national promise, and the promise of a specific land as an inheritance for his seed)

My take on the promises of God to give the land to Israel is that the promise itself was unconditional (Gen 15:9-17) and thus at some point will be completely fulfilled. The land was also to be an everlasting possession (Gen 17:1-8), however the ability to possess and occupy the land at any given time during Israel's history was made conditional upon its obedience to God, as made clear in many passages filled with promises of both blessings and curses based on their behavior. But there were also other promises, including those of captivity and dispersion due to Israel's disobedience and lack of faith, and most importantly the promise of an eventual restoration and ingathering of His people back into the land where they will be given a pure heart and love for their God (Deut 30:1-10, Ezekiel 16:53-63 and many other passages).

I believe that it will be at the time of the restoration of the nation Israel that the promise of God will be completely fulfilled, making the promised land in its entirety the everlasting possession of His people. The passage you cite in Deut 19:8ff is indeed conditional and essentially says that had Israel obeyed God in its heart as well as deed at that time, God would have given them the land. God of course knew that was not going to happen at that time, but the promise was still there. Deut 1-10, Ezekiel 16, and many other passages tell us that Israel will not turn to God until God Himself changes their hearts, and only then will they take permanent possession of the promised land.

Just the way I read it.

mlsoft