WHOSE PROMISED LAND IS IT? – Part 1 Ancient Borders

Our faith must always be firmly rooted in our Creator and His Word. He knows the beginning from the end. When He first left us with His instruction regarding the borders of Israel, His covenant promises were not spoken in vain. He meant what He said…

“Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.’… Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land…’”—Genesis 12.1, 7

Today, many people, including Christians and Jews, do not always understand this promise. Archaeological finds are unearthed daily in Israel and the Middle East that place a stamp of authenticity upon much of the Word of God. Yet we still question what God has to say about His chosen people, the Jews, living within the boundaries of a nation promised to them millennia ago.

The Promised Land, known in Hebrew as Ha’aretz Hamuvtacht, is the land promised and given by God to Abraham and his descendants through Isaac.

“…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…’” —Genesis 15.18

Within Genesis 15.18 we find the Lord had defined the northern and southern borders of Israel through a covenant promise—long before a Jewish nation ever existed. The area from the Nile River in the south, to the great river, Euphrates in the north, includes all of modern-day Lebanon and three-fourths of modern-day Syria.

The Lord goes on in Genesis 15.19-21 to ensure that we completely understand the exact boundaries by knowing them as being occupied by “…the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” These people lived in portions of what are now modern-day Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and all of modern-day Israel (including Gaza, the West Bank, and all of Jerusalem).

This land was first promised to Abraham, confirmed through his son, Isaac, and then confirmed again through the descendants of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. It was after God changed Jacob’s name to Israel in Genesis 32.28, when The Promised Land became officially known as the Land of Israel, or Eretz Yisrael in Hebrew.

We find reference in Numbers 34.1-15, that the Lord had spoken to Moses specifically defining the north, south, east and west boundaries of the Eretz Yisrael. In this passage, the promised borders of Israel run from the wilderness on the east side of the Jordan River to the Red Sea on the west side of the Sinai; and from the Euphrates River in the north, to the Nile River in the South.

In fact, the Lord promised that He would give the Land of Israel to the Jewish people as an inheritance and eternal possession 170 times in the Bible? He confirms His promise at least 55 times with an oath, and mentions the land as an everlasting covenant with the Jewish people at least 12 times!

These facts add unfathomable dimensions to the land promised by God to Abram’s descendants—a land currently occupied by other nations! 

Further, in Ezekiel 47.13-20 we read that the Lord defines the exact borders of the inherited land given to each of the Twelve Tribes within the boundaries of the Land of Israel. During the final redemption, at the end of days, each tribe will reside inside these predefined borders.

The boundaries of the land promised to Abram’s descendants are clearly marked in the Bible—yet the Jewish people have never occupied the full extent of her boundaries.

God is not a man that He should lie. His promises are yes and amen—even though sometimes it takes thousands of years to fulfill them. Many of His promises have been fulfilled so far, and in the end, all of His promises will be fulfilled—including extending the boundaries of the Jewish people to encompass Eretz Yisrael as promised to Abram’s descendants.

In the end, it’s not a matter of IF the Jewish people will occupy the full extent of the boundaries of “The Promised Land,” but WHEN!