LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Promised Land
The Old Testament is a rich mine of gold for the specialists of the New Testament. The main spiritual realities and facts are represented symbolically and typologically there, with a great variety of meanings.
Of all the symbols and types, the Land of Canaan is one of the most recurrent. What does it represent? The Promised Land is Christ, to be received as a possession and to be enjoyed. Every square meter of that Good Land awaits us so that we might place the sole of our foot on it and we make it ours (Deut. 11:24).
The riches of Canaan are ineffable, and well deserves a detailed description, just like that of Deuteronomy 8:7-10. Each slope, each flower, each tree. Each furrow is an object of the attentive gaze of God (Deut. 11:12). Oh, Christ is truly beautiful! With good reason the psalmist could say: "Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; Yea I have a goodly inheritance" (Psalm 16:5-6).
Paul said: "In whom (in Christ) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and the knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). Christ is the Good Land in whom are hidden all treasures. Israel didn't conquer the whole Land that God gave them, because of their laziness or cowardice. That mustn't happen to us regarding Christ. Each horizon, each blade of grass hides some treasure that awaits us. They are not visible, so that the sows don't trample upon them. They are hidden, but not so as that they cannot be found, if we ask the Father! Christ is the supreme Beauty, He is the Gift of God, beautiful and perfect.
More so than Adam's Eden, more so than the Canaan of Israel (which is only a figure and a shadow) is the Christ of God for those to whom He has been revealed. So, onward, Christian! To take possession of the Land!
Each Christian is given a portion of Christ. No individual Christian can know Him and enjoy Him entirely. Nor can he/she express Him completely. A portion is enough for the rejoicing of each one. But when joining together in love and when sharing what we have received from Christ, we see Christ in His fullness, expressing all His ineffable grace in the body that is the church. Then, the whole inheritance becomes ours!
In Canaan, in Christ, the Christian has rest. Rest from their enemies, and from Amalek who is, finally, destroyed (Deut. 25:19). It is also rest from the works of the Law. The flesh and its works are left behind. Now we enter into the realm of the Spirit.
The fullness and the supreme riches are in Christ. Perfection is in Christ, and only in Him- everything in Him is delightful. In Christ we are found perfect. God has prepared nothing less for those that love Him!