227. Possess the Land
Jeremiah 30:3 For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
God promises the Jews in Exile in Babylon that He will bring them out of captivity and return them to the land. This prophecy came true. The promise in Scripture is also spiritually true for all of God’s people who believe in Jesus. He will bring us out of captivity and return us to the Land where we belong. We belong in the Eternal Promised Land, the Kingdom of God, brought to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And the added promise given here is that “they shall possess it.” We believers will possess the Land, that is, the Kingdom is ours; it belongs to us. It is so close to us that it is in us, within our very hearts and lives. We have it, we own it, we possess it, and no one can take it away from us. Sin, Death, and Satan cannot snatch it away from us, for we possess it, for Jesus possesses us.
The spiritual uplift of this promise is powerful: we possess it! Faith takes hold of this promise and makes it our own. Every time we hear the Gospel we have eternal life in us. Grace gives it to us, earned by Jesus Christ, gifted by the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom is within; Jesus is in you as the hope of glory; the Spirit of God dwells within our spirit. The Enemy no longer holds us captive. We are free to live with God in His Kingdom.
In our busy world with its many distractions we are prone to forget, and even ignore, the fact that God belongs to us and we belong to Him. We need constant reminders of whose we are and where we live. The Gospel tells us so, often if we go to church weekly and read the Bible daily. The evil enemies (Sin, Death, Satan) tell us the lie that we are captive and we belong to them. But Truth overcomes the Lie every time. We live in the Truth of the Gospel; we live in the Life of God. We actually possess the Land, the Truth, and the Life.