In my daily Bible reading a few days ago I noticed something as I was reading Exo 6:3-4 that I had never noticed before which provides additional proof that the promise of the land of Canaan to Abraham was always intended to be fulfilled in the next life on the new earth, and not rather during Abraham’s lifetime on this earth.
In Exodus chapter six, the LORD was reassuring Moses that He would deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt into the land of Canaan which He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exo 6:1, 5-8). In the middle of His message to Moses, the LORD made reference to how He had previously appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and promised to give them the land of Canaan.
Exo 6:3-4 – And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. 4 And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.
Consider the verb tenses in verse four. God said that “I have also established my covenant with them.” Notice that God said, “I have“, not “I had established my covenant with them.” Also, take note that the LORD said that His covenant was established, “to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.” Observe that God didn’t say that He “gave them the land of Canaan.”
A careful examination of Exo 6:3-4 will reveal that the LORD said to Moses, long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead, that He established (to fix, settle, institute or ordain permanently, by enactment or agreement) His covenant that He made with them during their sojourn in the land of Canaan to give them that land at some point in the future.
When God told Moses that He had established His covenant to give them the land where they had been strangers and pilgrims, He was not talking about the Israelites who were currently in Egypt because they had never been in Canaan. The LORD was instead referring to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who were yet to inherit the promised land.
The promise of the land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was always intended to be fulfilled in the next life on the new earth. While they were strangers dwelling in tents in Canaan, they looked for a city with everlasting foundations that God Himself would build for them.
Heb 11:9-10 – By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Heb 13:14 – For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
While presently dwelling in heaven, thousands of years after their deaths, even “now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city” (Heb 11:16). Abraham knew when God promised Him the land of Canaan that it was not intended to be possessed in this life, but rather in the next one, for during his lifetime God “gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child” (Act 7:5).
The promised land was to be an everlasting possession, not a temporal, earthly one, as the LORD said unto Abraham, “I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Gen 17:8). The earthly land of Canaan was always but a foretaste of the heavenly land on the new earth which Abraham and His seed which are in Christ will inherit.
Gal 3:16 – Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Gal 3:29 – And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
