| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
Pressing Toward the Mark
For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. (Deuteronomy 8:7-9)
Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. (Hebrews 4:1)
Do you know what the Christian land of promise is? Is Heaven the goal of the Christian warfare? Or is Heaven a station along the way while God's conquerors are being prepared to invade the land of promise?
Did Christ come to earth in order to bring us to Heaven so we may live there forever? Is this what the Scriptures teach?
The land of promise of the Hebrews was Canaan, an area filled with demon-worshiping tribes. The children of Israel were directed by the Lord God to enter Canaan and take possession of it. They were to slay without mercy the inhabitants of the cities. The purged Canaan was the "rest of God," the permanent abiding place of the Lord's people.
Is the conquest of Canaan a type of our entering and taking possession of Heaven?
The present essay explains the goal of the Christian warfare and sets forth the steps that lead to the fullness of victory in Christ.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. (Philippians 3:14)
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9)
The objective of Israel in the desert was to enter and occupy Canaan. Canaan was the "land flowing with milk and honey."
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (Exodus 3:8)
The Sinai wilderness through which Israel wandered for forty years is a hot, forbidding desert. There are wells and springs, a short rainy season in winter, and some vegetation. But on the whole, the Sinai wilderness is a place of mountains, boulders, and sandstone hills, relieved by several oases.
By contrast, the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is a productive and delightful place in which to live. The geographical features permit extensive farming of grains, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. The abundance of pasturelands makes the raising of livestock a profitable undertaking.
The mineral resources include iron, copper, and petroleum. With hard work the Israelites were able to live in abundance. During the reign of King Solomon the nation of Israel achieved a prosperity equaled by few other world cultures.
Even today the land of Israel is viewed by the large nations as having strategic importance when viewed from the standpoint of world politics.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews suggests that the wilderness wandering (Chapter Three of Hebrews), and Canaan itself (Chapter Four—the promised land "rest") are symbolic of the nature of our Christian discipleship and the goal of that discipleship. The "rest" of Hebrews is typified by the land of Canaan as well as by the resting of God on the seventh day of creation (Hebrews 4:4-8).
To be continued.