Most dispensational premillennialists believe the promise of the land to Israel is yet to be fulfilled. Some say that it was never fulfilled.
Others say it was fulfilled, but that the land was to be Israel's: a. "forever" Genesis 13:15.. "as an everlasting possession" Genesis 17:8. This promise that refers to the land of Canaan, are later known as Palestine.
Was the land of Palestine. indeed a promised "forever" "as an everlasting possession?" The Hebrew word translated 'forever' and 'everlasting' is olam "meaning a very long time." "The term 'forever,' for a perpetual possession, means as long as the order of things to which it belongs lasts."
If 'everlasting' always meant lasting forever in the Bible then we should still be observing: The Passover Exodus 12:14. The Feast of Unleavened Bread - Exodus 12:17. The priesthood of Aaron. (Exodus 40:13-15)
God remembered His promise to Abraham and he kept his world. We read in Psalm 105:42 He remembered His holy promise, And Abraham His servant.
God gave Abraham descendants the land as promised. Joshua 21:43–45: "So the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass." Some would cite this as showing that nothing was left that needed to be done.
"Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed. (Joshua 23:14)
Jeremiah 32:21–23: "You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror; and gave them this land, which You swore to their forefathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. (They came in and took possession of it), but they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law; they have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have made all this calamity come upon them."The Israelites had been promised a land flowing with milk and honey. ( emphasis mine)
So Joshua, Jeremiah, and the Psalmist all say Israel possessed the land promised. He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with gladness. He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, And they inherited the labor of the nations, That they might observe His statutes And keep His laws. Praise the LORD! (Psalm 105:43-45)
In context, the term "whole land" refers to that land which Joshua had done battle against. This is evident since Joshua 21:11 says none of the Anakim were left in the land of the children of Israel; they remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod. Since these were not yet conquered, it follows that the "whole land" included only those lands promised and conquered to this point, which according to Joshua 12:7 stretched from Lebanon to Edom. At this time, they rested from war and divided the land. The point is however not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass." (Joshua 21:45)
Now what our dispensational premillennialists brothers well not tell you is retain the land was conditional. A conditional promise is based on the "if-you" principle. This means that God will do or give something if the Israelites meet certain requirements.
The promise to receive the land was unconditional.. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Deuteronomy 9:5)
But the promise to retain the land was conditional. And Moses and Joshua warned Israel that the land was conditional. There is a whole section in Deuteronomy where God promises all types of promises if they keep His commandments and obey His Law. In Deuteronomy 28:1-2 says that "If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God…" This is followed by a long list of blessings. The principle of the "if-you" was started very early in scri pture and is clearly seen here.
Starting in same chapter the Lord warns Israel of the consequences of disobedience; "However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out…" (Deuteronomy 28:15)
As there is an unconditional promise of ownership, there are conditional promise were Israel will live in the land if she is faithful to God’s commandments and statutes. Moses’s warning to Israel before entered the land for the first time, are more accurate than one can imagine.
"Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be (uprooted from the land you are entering to possess). Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods--gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life." (Deuteronomy 28:63-66 emphasis mine)
So the land promise was conditional, not only for taking the land, but for occupying.. Moses wrote.
"When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that (you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed). And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. (Deuteronomy 4:25-27 emphasis mine) The Assyrian and Babylonian captivity illustrates how Israel lost the land
Joshua also warned Israel that the land promise was conditional. Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all the good things have come upon you which the LORD your God promised you, so the LORD will bring upon you all harmful things, (until He has destroyed you from this good land which the LORD your God has given you). When you have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them, then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and (you shall perish quickly from the good land) which He has given you." (Joshua 23:15-16 emphasis mine)
Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the LORD your God. Or else, if indeed you do go back, and cling to the remnant of these nations these that remain among you and make marriages with them, and go in to them and they to you, 1know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. (But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land) which the LORD your God has given you. (Joshua 23:11-13 emphasis mine)
The charge given by David to Solomon his son demonstrates that the land promise was conditional.
And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he wanted to do, that the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the LORD said to him: "I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, ( then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples). (1 Kings 9:1-7 emphasis mine)
Another point the is wilfully over looked. The land belonged to Yahweh and was never Abraham’s descendants to own. ‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. (Leviticus 25:23). They were aliens and tenants.
So the land was part of the contract between God and the people. It belongs not to Israel – but to God who gives it to them – on loan as it were - so that they may fulfil their part of the bargain. This verse presents a challenge to the theological claim God gave this land to the Jews and thus the Jews have the sole right and authority. One could argue that those who resist sharing the Holy Land with the Palestinians are denying them a place. But who determines whose place is whose in a land where, in the biblical world view, the sole owner is God?
Is God’s covenant with Abraham unbroken? Not at all. Paul writes. For the promise that he would be the heir of the world (was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law), but through the righteousness of faith. (Romans 4:13) Those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth.(Psalm 37:9).
The meek will inherit the land (Psalm 37:11, Matt 5:5). The inheritance of the blameless will endure forever. The LORD knows the days of the upright, And their inheritance shall be forever. (Psalm 37:18). The righteous give generously and will inherit the land. The wicked borrows and does not repay, But the righteous shows mercy and gives. For those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth, But those cursed by Him shall be cut off. (Psalm 37:21-22) The righteous will inherit the land forever (Psalm 37:29).
So as we have seen in this study God is a covenant making and covenant keeping God. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass." (Joshua 23:14)
