The tribes of Israel were organized into an army so they could invade the land of Canaan and drive out the inhabitants. God told them to totally destroy the Canaanites. In some instances the Israelites destroyed the inhabitants. In other instances the Canaanites proved too strong for Israel and either kept their territory or else became slaves of the Hebrews.

Every time the Israelites sinned against God, God strengthened the Canaanites and they rose up and made the Israelites their slaves. Much of the history of Old Testament Israel is a record of the battles between the Israelites and the Canaanites. This is true of the Book of Judges, for example.

The Israelites adopted the demon worship of the Canaanites.

Can any devout believer seriously consider Canaan to be a type of Heaven? Will we have as difficult a time in Heaven as the Israelites had—and still are having—in Canaan?

What does Canaan typify? Canaan symbolizes the earth, the material creation, especially in the present hour our own personalities and bodies. It is the material creation that is our land of promise. Here is where the enemy is entrenched. Here is where we fight and sometimes conquer, and sometimes lose.

The passage from the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we quoted above (verses 13-16), which appears at first glance to teach that the goal of salvation is to pass from the earth into Heaven, must be interpreted in the context of growing up spiritually and entering the rest of abiding in Christ in God. The rest of abiding in Christ will bring us to the full apprehension of the inheritance, which includes dominion over all the works of God's hands.

For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. (Hebrews 2:5)

It is not that we are going to another place. It is that another world, a new world in which dwells righteousness, a world governed by the Lord Jesus and His saints, is coming to the earth.

In addition to the context of the Book of Hebrews, we may wish to consider the kind of "promises" that the saints of old were pursuing ("These all died in faith, not having received the promises"—Hebrews 11:13).

The Book of Hebrews, addressed to Jewish Christians, exhorted the believers to gain the promises of God by faith—that is, the promises given through the Prophets. None of these promises have to do with Heaven, the spiritual realm. Every one of them has to do with the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.

As we study the Old Testament we do not find, to the writer's knowledge, any emphasis on the value of dying and going to Heaven. In fact, physical death often is treated in the Old Testament as one of the worst tragedies that could happen to an individual. When the Israelites were slain in battle, no mention was made that they were passing on to their reward. Their death appeared to be a disaster.

For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? (Psalms 6:5)

O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. (Psalms 30:3)

To be continued.