317. Dwell in the Land
Ezekiel 36:28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
The promise of Land runs through the Scriptures from the Garden of Eden to the New Jerusalem come down from heaven. The Lord promised Abraham a Land; God promised Moses a Nation; God promised David a Kingdom. The Land, the Nation, and the Kingdom came true in the Person of Jesus Christ and then in His Followers. This Promised Land and the People of God is the spiritual Kingdom of God, proclaimed and given to us by Jesus, implanted in our hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and ruled over by the Father. From the moment we are baptized, converted by faith, and born from above we are “in the land.” “Dwelling in the Land” = “Eternal Life.” The Kingdom of God is within you: this is dwelling in the land. Even though we physically live in a foreign and strange country (the world), spiritually we dwell in the Kingdom of God by faith in Christ and by the indwelling of the Spirit.
It is true that we live in two different worlds, two worlds opposed to one another, two worlds at war with each other, with no truce hoped for until Final Victory. We see and feel the one world all the time by being physically alive. But we do not see and feel the other world very often, but faith is the evidence of things not seen (which things are eternal). And because of the Word of God we can walk by faith and not by sight. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
The Bible was written to reveal to us what cannot be seen with the eyes or even grasped with the brain. These things are written that ye might believe, that is, see. There is another world than the one we see. Faith dwells in that world. For this reason we need the Bible. Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ. We need the constant reminders of God’s Word to tell us what land we are dwelling in. In that world of spiritual joy there are pleasures forevermore.