12 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
Abraham took a long and arduous journey from Ur in what is today's Iraq to the promised land which is in today's Israel. In this passage, we read of God not only taking him to a new land but promised to make of Abraham a great nation that through him, the world will be blessed by God.
Not only did God take Abraham to a new land, God made a covenant with Abraham to define the land that was given to him and his descendants.
Gen 15:18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates:
We may not be quite certain if the river of Egypt actually refers to the River Nile but it is definitely in Egypt. For now, we assume it to be the River Nile.
We are clear that the River Euphrates remain to be the same until today and it is the river that flows from Turkey through Iraq.
Ex 23:31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
We also know that the reference to the Red Sea includes what we now call the Gulf of Aqaba which the Red Sea crossing is now determined.
The Sea of the Philistines refers to the Mediterranean Sea which is clear to us as well.
Hence, we now can formulate the approximate boundaries of the Promised Land that was covenanted by God to Abraham and his descendants.
This is definitely way bigger than the present day Israel. It was said that this could have been the rule of King David at the height of his throne.
For now, we can safely say that God had a big plan for Abraham and his descendents - Isaac, Jacob who was also called Israel, and his 12 sons who makes up the 12 tribes of Israel.
Many people may deny or object to such a concept of a Promised Land given to Israel but the bible is clear that the land is truly Israel's from the very beginning. It has never been taken back or revoked and is perpetual regardless of what man says.
Another common question is that some claimed for Ishmael to inherit this Promised Land instead of Isaac. This will be covered in a separate article. We will then see if this is a biblical view.
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