They lived in the land and had not received the promise. What was it that they looked for? The text says the promise they looked for was the heavenly promise in Christ, the land in Christ that God had prepared for them. Hebrews 11 goes through all the heroes of faith who dwelt in the Promised Land and concludes:
And all these, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (Heb 11:39-40).
Hebrews12 tells us what this city is:
But you are come to mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling…(Heb 12:22-24).
Zion and Jerusalem are the church of Jesus Christ, the elect of God in Christ. Hebrews was written to show this very thing, to stop earthly Zionism and direct all to Christ as the fulfilment of the whole law and prophets. Galatians 4, Hebrews and the book of Revelation tell us that Jerusalem is the church.
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