This article is written with abounding admiration and gratitude for the life and ministry of D. A. Carson. It is no exaggeration to say that, under God, Don’s deep love for the glorious gospel of our blessed God and for Christ’s church have had an inestimable influence on countless students, pastors, and scholars, and in turn their churches. The Lord has unusually gifted him with a mind for biblical scholarship (who hasn’t devoured his commentary on The Gospel according to John, or been chastened by Exegetical Fallacies, or benefited from his articles and reviews on the trustworthiness of Scripture?) and with a heart for churches like his father pastored. Further, his ability to write to both scholarly and churchly audiences is truly remarkable. Not only has he blessed both the academy and church at large, he has also been a personal encouragement to “young” scholars like me. I am deeply grateful for his acceptance of my NSBT volume (he initially rejected it!) and his kind encouragements along the way. So I thank God for the gift of Don Carson, for in helping me read Scripture more faithfully, I see Christ more wonderfully.

1. Introduction

The land promised to Abraham recaptures and advances what was lost in Eden, and will not be fulfilled until a new and better Eden is regained. At every point throughout the OT, then, the promised land anticipates an even greater land to come. Although the promise initially related to Israel’s settlement in the land of Canaan, by divine design it also pointed to something more expansive, which is finally revealed in the NT. This article will therefore track the progression of the land promise through the biblical covenants until it reaches its fulfillment in the new creation in Christ.¹For a more comprehensive treatment of this argument, see Oren R. Martin, Bound for the Promised Land: The Land Promise in God’s Redemptive Plan, NSBT 34 (Nottingham: Apollos, 2015). Permission has been granted to use and build upon portions of Bound for the Promised Land in this chapter.

2. The Land in the Old Testament

God’s calling of, promise to, and covenant with Abraham recovers the universal purpose of Adam in terms of both the blessing of offspring and land. In other words, the universal scope of Eden narrows to the land of Canaan, thus serving as a microcosm of God’s intention for all humanity, which in time would expand with the propagation of Abraham’s offspring. For example, when Genesis 22:17–18 and 26:3–4 are taken together, the immediate context of the Abrahamic covenant already points to a larger expansion of the territorial promise (more on this point below). In Paul’s words, the proliferation of Abraham’s offspring would result in inheriting the world (cf. Rom 4:13). However, this conclusion is not reinterpreting or spiritualizing the OT promise, as some charge. Rather, it begins to establish the type or pattern that points both back to Eden and forward to the ultimate fulfillment of the promise that would, in time, encompass the entire world. Furthermore, in the Abrahamic covenant there are both national (Gen 12:2, “nation”) and international (Gen 17:4–6, “nations”) elements. For example, Genesis 15 is a covenant made between God and Abraham and his “seed,” while the covenant in Genesis 17 creates a broadening of the category of “seed.” Second, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, for God made him “the father of a multitude of nations” (17:5). An intended ambiguity exists, then, for Abraham’s “seed” both encompasses a multitude of nations (Gen 17) and relates to an individual descendant (22:17b) who will mediate blessing to all the nations of the earth.

When these texts are put together, then, the ultimate inheritors of the promises are not restricted to a national entity but reach an international community. That is, God’s programmatic agenda for humanity after Eden begins with the formation of a nation through Abraham and points forward to an international people, which the Prophets pick up and advance. It is difficult to see, then, how the initial promise could be exhausted by any political borders, whether Israelite or otherwise, for the multiplication of descendants naturally expands the territorial borders until the earth is filled.

Though there is progressive fulfillment under leaders such as Moses, Joshua, David, and Solomon, the Prophets bring back into focus the Abrahamic promises and advance the pattern of fulfillment in various ways and stages, including both a physical and spiritual return with national and international results. For example, Isaiah describes Israel’s return from exile in both near and distant ways, in language resembling the exodus (e.g., 11:1–16; 35:1–10; 51:9–11; 52:11–12). For example, the first return from exile is a physical release and return to the land accomplished by God’s servant Cyrus (42:18–43:21; 44:24–45:1; cf. Ezra 1:1–3). But though this return is a fulfillment in the multifaceted process of God’s promised restoration, it in no way compares to the prophets’ final vision. Indeed, a deeper captivity kept Israel from being fully restored. That is, though the people are taken out of idolatrous nations, idolatry needed to be taken out of the people. This restoration and return will be accomplished by God’s servant-king who will bring back Israel so that God’s salvation may reach the nations (49:1–53:12). Forgiveness will come through God’s (individual) servant who will deliver his (corporate) servant Israel (42:1–9; 49:1–6), redeem his people (9:2–7), rule over his people (11:1–5), and atone for sin by suffering, dying, and taking the punishment that they deserve upon himself (42:1–9; 49:5–6; 50:4–9; 52:13–53:12).

Furthermore, the servant’s substitutionary atonement will initiate a new covenant that will bring enjoyment of the blessings of both the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants for Israel and the nations (54:1–55:13; cf. 19:19–25). Such an international plan had been God’s plan since Abraham had received the word of promise. Moreover, a Davidic king will bless and rule the nations because God has made him leader and commander of the peoples (55:4–5), which connects to the Servant king in Isaiah 53 whose offering of himself and whose resurrection enables him to bring to fulfillment the promises of God in the Davidic covenant, as well as serve as the basis for the New or Everlasting covenant. Astonishingly, not only is the remnant called the Lord’s servants (Isa 65:13–25), so also are foreigners from the nations included as the servants of the Lord (56:6). Furthermore, in fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, the Lord will give his name and blessing to his servants in the land (65:13–16; cf. Gen 12:3; 17:5; 22:18; 26:4). The result of the Servant’s saving work, then, creates servants, and all—Israel as well as foreigners—will go to Jerusalem as God’s holy mountain in a pilgrimage of worship (Isa 2:2–4; 27:13; cf. Mic 4:1–5).²For further reading, see Matthew S. Harmon, The Servant of the Lord and His Servant People: Tracing a Biblical Theme through the Canon, NSBT 54 (London: Apollos, 2020).

But Isaiah proceeds to describe more splendidly the result of this new order. Isaiah 65:17–66:24 provides a succinct summary of the eschatological themes that occur throughout the entire book and reveals the hope of restoration to the city of Jerusalem and the land in otherworldly language that describes astounding realities (cf. 2:1–4; 4:2–6; 9:1–16; 11:1–10). When the various strands are drawn together, Isaiah’s vision of final restoration involves a new heavens and new earth (65:17; 66:22), a new Jerusalem (65:18–19; cf. 4:2–6), and a holy mountain, Zion (65:25; cf. 2:1–4; 4:2–6). Moreover, in fulfillment of the promises to and covenant with Abraham, God will give them a new name and they will receive blessing in the land by the God of truth (Isa 65:15–16). By the end of Isaiah, then, this temple-mountain-city is coextensive with the new heavens and new earth, which resounds with astonishing realities cast in terms of God’s kingdom coming to and filling the earth.

In similar order, in Jeremiah God promises to take back his people if they return, and “then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory” (4:1–2). This reference reveals that the promises to Abraham would be realized (cf. Gen 12:3) if Israel would repent and glorify God. Like Isaiah, the nations are in view in the restoration of Israel and Judah, and this cosmological and teleological goal is in fulfillment of the Abrahamic promises (Jer 12:14–17). Furthermore, Jeremiah proclaims that Israel will return from exile in terms of a new exodus (16:14–15).

Then, in Jeremiah 30–33, Jeremiah unfolds the great promises of salvation and offers hope beyond the exile that will come in the form of a new covenant and return to the land.³Though Jeremiah is the only text in the OT that specifically mentions the new covenant, other expressions can be linked with the new covenant, e.g., the everlasting covenant, a new heart or a new spirit, the covenant of peace, and a future covenant that would come in “that day.” Of particular importance is 31:38–40, which concerns the rebuilding and expansion of Jerusalem. In addition to the restoration of Davidic leadership (30:8–11), priesthood (31:14), and people (31:31–34), the restoration of the city brings to completion the glorious reversal of Jeremiah’s pronouncements of judgment. Though the city had been destroyed, the future age of redemption will see its restoration and more. Derek Kidner comments that “the promise [in 31:38–40] is ‘earthed’ not merely in this planet but in the familiar details of Israel’s capital, naming rubbish dumps and all … . But the vision outruns that exercise, in scale and in significance.”⁴Derek Kidner, The Message of Jeremiah, BST (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 111. Therefore, the new Jerusalem will be both different and expanded from the old, and the rebuilt city will become the center of God’s presence among his people (3:14–18; cf. Isa 65:17; 66:12; Rev 21:3).

Jeremiah describes the restoration of both people and place in the future and pins these hopes on a Davidic leader, a righteous branch, who, interestingly, is a combination of both king and priest (33:14–18). This king-priest will secure a new covenant for his people as certain as God’s covenant with day and night, make them dwell securely in the land, and multiply the offspring of David as numerous as the sands of the sea in fulfillment of his covenant with Abraham (33:14–26). Moreover, Jeremiah 31:35–40 hints that this new covenant would operate within the contours of a new creation.

In similar fashion Ezekiel, the last in the so-called Major Prophets, prophesies that the renewed people will be purified in heart and spirit, and they will be one flock under a new David (chs. 34–37). As a result, “the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever” (37:28). Whereas God had been a sanctuary to the exiles “for a little while” (11:16), his presence will be with them forever. He will make a new covenant (36:16–38), which will deal with their sin and finally fulfill his covenant so that he can say, “They will be my people, and I will be their God” (37:23, 27). In order for this restoration to come, however, God must create a holy people from nothing. And to be sure, he will accomplish his new creation. Indeed, Ezekiel uses the language of resurrection to illustrate the promise of Israel’s return to a new life in her own land from the deathlike existence of exile. In other words, the restoration to the land is linked with the resurrection motif. The dead shall be brought to life so that they too may participate in the restoration. But Ezekiel’s vision of restoration does not stop with Israel. Like similar passages throughout the writing Prophets, Ezekiel indicates that the restoration will have international significance (16:59–63).

Ezekiel continues with his program by envisioning a rebuilt temple with revitalized worship in chapters 40–48. That is, first a new humanity is (re)created (ch. 37) and then placed in a new Temple-Eden. The climactic vision in chapters 40–48 describes the fulfillment of the promises of chapters 1–39. In a significant passage, Ezekiel 37:25–28 pulls together various strands of the new place for God’s people and prepares the way for even more glorious promises in chapters 40–48 (cf. 37:25–28 and 43:7–9). It is significant, then, that Ezekiel ends with a vision of a purified land with boundaries situated around a new temple complex. More specifically, Ezekiel 47:1–12 contains an abundance of Edenic imagery and describes a paradisiacal temple that extends to encompass the entire land. Significantly, Ezekiel uses similar language as Jeremiah regarding a measuring line extending the boundaries outward (Ezek 47:3; Jer 31:39; cf. Zech 2). Thus, the promise concerning the renewed Israel living in the land under a new David is fulfilled in the vision of a temple, recreating an Edenic context, the boundaries of which are coterminous with the land.

3. The Land in the New Testament

The NT reveals that what was promised in the OT is fulfilled through the person and work of Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Adam, the son of God. Jesus—the obedient Israelite—inaugurates the kingdom through his death and resurrection and finally delivers his people from the exile of sin (Matt 2:15; Col 1:13–14). Matthew interprets the eschatological land promises through the lens of various typological and universalized texts in the OT (Matt 5:5; Ps 37). Christ is the true temple (John 1:14; 2:19–22), and his people are described as a new creation and a new temple (2 Cor 5:17; 6:16). This new people, the church of Jesus Christ made up of both Jew and Gentile, await their final home. In this way it can be said that Abraham would “inherit” the world (Rom 4:13) without contravening or spiritualizing OT promises. This new heaven and new earth is cast in terms of a paradisiacal garden-temple-city (Rev 21–22; cf. Isa 65–66; Ezek 40–48). In other words, the variegated realities of the OT land promises—the expansive city, temple, and land—reach their telos in the new creation won by Christ. In this sense, then, what believing Israel obtains is far greater than the land of Canaan, for they—along with the nations—will inherit the whole earth in fulfillment of God’s gracious and irrevocable promises. It is important to note, however, that the church of Jesus Christ, composed of both Jew and Gentile, does not necessarily eliminate a future salvation for ethnic Israel (Rom 9–11). However, this future salvation is obtained only through faith in Jesus Christ as a surprising display of God’s faithfulness and grace.

⁵For further reading, see G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God, NSBT 17 (Nottingham: Apollos, 2004).From a canonical perspective, then, Revelation presents this worldwide temple as the new heaven and new earth—the new Jerusalem—in light of the fulfillment of Christ, the true temple. For the NT writers this prophecy became a brilliant way of speaking of what God had now achieved in and through Jesus. Paradoxically, although Ezekiel’s vision had focused so much upon the temple, it found its ultimate fulfillment in that city where there will beno distinct physical structure known as atemple, because the true temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb (Rev 21:22).

4. Conclusion

The final picture in Revelation envisions God’s person—Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, and a slain yet standing Lamb—and a glorious return of God’s people living in his place under his personal reign, thereby tying together the creation and placement of man in Eden, the redemption of Israel, and, finally, God’s eschatological purposes to bring blessing to the world. Eden has not merely been regained and the promised land possessed, however, but radically transformed through the life, death, resurrection, and rule of the triumphant Lamb who wins a new creation for his people. Indeed, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever (11:15; cf. Pss 2, 8). God’s people in Christ will once again dwell with him in the land—forever.

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