God’s Covenant With Abraham
(by  Bob Pulliam)

What if God had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants, but it had never been fulfilled? We know that God always keeps His promises. Certainly it would still have to be fulfilled for God to keep His covenant. The nation of Israel would have to rise again to possess the promised land.

This is the purpose of some of the reasoning of Premillennialism. The 1,000 year reign is to make a future fulfillment of some Old Testament prophecies. We know that God promised the land to Abraham’s descendants; but was that promise fulfilled, or yet future? This is one of the pivotal aspects of Premillennialism. The above reasoning would make this doctrine’s tenets necessary. This lesson will examine this pivotal aspect of the theory of Premillennialism.

The Covenant God Made With Abram...

God promised the land to Abram (Abraham) and His descendants. Note the following passages:

"And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: "Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are; northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever." (Gen 13:14f)

"Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him." (Gen 12:7)

The extent of the land promised can also be found in scripture:

"On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates;’" (Gen 15:18)

The "river of Egypt" has been thought by many to be the Nile River. While the Nile River is in Egypt, and is a big river, it is not necessarily the "river of Egypt" referred to in scripture. Some have suggested the Wadi el ‘Arish to identify the "river of Egypt; but this is also uncertain. One thing generally agreed upon is that these are general boundary references. To demand that possession actually extend to the banks of one of the rivers is to read too much into the text (missing the point).

We also find that this covenant to Abraham was passed down, first to Isaac and his descendants (Gen 26:1ff); and then to Jacob and his descendants (Gen 28:3f). No one can doubt that there was a promise to possess the land of Canaan. But a misunderstanding of terms and a failure to note some scriptures has led some to believe that the land was not possessed as promised.

Possessed, or Not?...

Let’s begin with the question of whether Abraham ever really received the full extend of the land that was promised. An argument commonly raised for Israel regaining the land in Jesus’ return is that they never really received the full extent of the land to begin with. The Premillennialist desperately needs to get Israel back into their land and Jesus on a throne in the city of Jerusalem to validate their doctrinal theory. To do this, they tell us that God must still fulfill the promise to Abraham because it was never fulfilled to begin with.

But the scriptures tell us that God gave them all of the land. Note the following passages:

"So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass." (Josh 21:43ff - and Joshua did know what the promise involved... Dt 1:8)

"Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed." (Josh 23:14)

Before the Israelites entered the land, Moses commanded them to set aside six cities of refuge. Three were to be on the east side of the Jordan river, and then three more on the west side, "... if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you the land which He promised to give to your fathers" (Dt 19:8). The Israelites appointed six cities when all was said and done (Josh 20:7ff - in Canaan: Kedesh; Shechem; Hebron. In Trans-Jordan: Golan; Ramoth; Bezer). Since six were given, what god swore to their fathers was fulfilled.

And then we have the testimony of later writers:

"So Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life." (I Kgs 4:21)

"You are the Lord God, Who chose Abram, And brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, And gave him the name Abraham; You found his heart faithful before You, And made a covenant with him To give the land of the Canaanites, The Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, And the Girgashites; To give it to his descendants. You have performed Your words, For You are righteous." (Neh 9:7f)

If we are to believe the Bible, there can be no doubt as to whether Abraham’s descendants received all of the promised land. They did. Just as God said they would.

Terms Sometimes Misused...

When God made the promise to Abraham, He told him that it would be an everlasting covenant (Gen 17:7f). Of course, most fail to realize that the covenant made here involves circumcision, but be that as it may, the covenant was to be everlasting. Since the Israelites were unable to keep the land as an everlasting covenant, we are told that they must still possess it.

In the Hebrew word for everlasting we have a little difference between what the word actually indicated and what our English word means. Rather than waxing technical here on the details, let’s look at a few other places where this word is used. The Old Testament priesthood was to be everlasting (Ex 40:15). But we know from the book of Hebrews that the OT priesthood could not be everlasting and Jesus still redeem us (Heb 7:11-28). Everlasting must not refer to something as endless, then. We also learn that the Passover was to be an everlasting ordinance (Ex 12:14, 17). The annual day of atonement was to be an everlasting statute. But if it were never to end, then where does Jesus’ sacrifice enter the picture? (Heb 10:1-4; 9:15). The Sabbath was also to be an everlasting covenant (Lev 24:8). The Sabbatarians rely heavily on this word everlasting here. The truth is, the word "everlasting" in Hebrew referred to an indefinite period of time. Some have suggested that it might best be translated "age lasting". (Incidentally, the word forever in the New Testament is from different words which do refer to eternal duration.)

Another term that is thrown about is unconditional. Since God never set conditions on this promise, then it must have been their’s to keep unconditionally. Conditions were never attached to obtaining the Land. God never told Abram, "If your descendants serve me faithfully, then I will give them the land. God simply told them that He would give the land to them. However, conditions were attached to keeping the Land. Deuteronomy 29 lays out curses for the Israelites if they disobey God (Dt 29:9 & 18-21). These curses included the loss of their land. God was never obligated to let the people keep the land throughout all eternity (after all the earth would come to an end someday, and the land would be burned up along with the rest of the elements of creation).

Conclusion...

The doctrine of premillennialism needs to get the Israelites back into the promised land. To do this, it becomes necessary to deny that the promise to Abraham was ever fulfilled. But the promise that Premillennialists try to pass off into the future has clearly been fulfilled in the past. The Israelites possessed the full extent of the land as promised by God, leaving no reason for a future fulfillment of such.