The Land in Hebrews

Now coming to the book of Hebrews:

For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that has entered into His rest, he has also ceased from his own works, as God did from His. (Heb 4:8-10).

(The KJV uses “Jesus”, derived from the Greek for Joshua.) This passage is about Joshua bringing Israel into the Promised Land. The text says that when Joshua brought them into the Promised Land he did not succeed in giving the people rest. That is, this land was only a type, it was not the fulfilment. The fulfilment is Christ and this is the point of Hebrews.

Hebrews here is referring to Psalm 95, where the rest is still promised a long time after Israel had occupied the Promised Land. This shows that the land itself was not the rest and was not thus the promise. This is why Zionism completely misses the gospel intention of the scripture. The Jews looked to the land and not to Jesus. We are to “look unto Jesus.” (Heb 12:2).

Hebrews said the same thing about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, when they dwelt in the Promised Land:

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. For he looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. (Heb 11:9-10).

If Abraham had arrived in the land of promise, why did he sojourn there by faith? Because that was not the fulfilment of the promise! He counted the land as a strange country. This shows the mistake of Israel. They did not look beyond their land and see Christ, so they fell short of God’s promise. Abraham had faith that he would yet see the fulfilment. What was the fulfilment that he was expecting? It was that he would come to the city whose builder and maker was God.

The same is said of Abraham’s descendents who dwelt in the land:

For these all died in faith, not having seen the promises. But having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country…But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He has prepared for them a city. (Heb 11:13-16).

So all of Abraham’s descendants who lived in the Promised Land confessed that they were pilgrims, meaning that they had not yet arrived in the land that God promised. This means that the land called the Promised Land today is not the land that God promised. He promised certain boundaries under the Old Covenant, but Hebrews explains that this was a type of our redemption, security and safety in Christ.

Joshua brought Israel into the shadow of the true land. The whole Covenant under Joshua was a shadow of the fulfilment in Christ. This is the whole meaning of Hebrews.