Abraham for his own people Israel, is to extend far beyond the boun daries ever as yet possessed by Is rael. The southwest boundary is the river of Egypt, the Nile Jtiver. On the southeast boundary is the river Euphrates where it empties itself in to the Persian Gulf. This is a dis tance of 1100 to 1300 miles. The western boundary is the Mediter ranean Sea; the river Euphrates is the eastern boundary. We are told that the length of the land from north to south is about 600 miles. This makes the promised land about 300,000 square miles of area. It could be compared with the fact that it is 12% times as large as Great Britain and Ireland put together. You see, the promised land is not merely a lit tle strip of territory bordering on the Mediterranean Sea which is now occupied by Israel. That portion of land is only about 12,000 square miles. This area, promised to Abra ham, however, is about 25 times the size of the present State of Israel. This great area, from the Nile to the river Euphrates, has been given by God to the Jewish people as an inalienable possession for His own earthly people. Israel has not yet completely possessed the land so this fulfillment must still be in a future day. Some may ask, “Do we really know that this great land was given to the Jewish people?” This ques tion may be answered by referring to the covenant which God made with Abraham and with the nation of which he was to be the father. “And Abraham fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many na tions. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between
of Egypt, not by the Lord, but by the idolaters of the land of Egypt. What humiliation for Abraham! He needed this, however, in his own dis cipline of life. Abraham gave his nephew the choice of the land. Lot’s decision was a very selfish one; it brought to him and to the members of his family nothing but disaster. Then the Lord spoke to Abraham, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and south ward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever” (Genesis 13:14, 15). Many people have criticized and ridiculed the idea of a land given by God to the Jewish people. They have said that it would never be large enough to hold the number in the world today. The criticism has no value, however, for God confirmed the covenant with Abraham saying, “Un to thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18). Some Bible teach ers have stated that the river of Egypt referred to here is not the river Nile, but rather a little river below Gaza called “the brook of Egypt.” In the face of all the evi dence of the Word of God, such an argument is not valid. The phrase used 19 times in the Bible, “From Dan to Beersheba” de scribes the extent of the land; it was really used as a synonym for these dimensions. David and Solomon pushed their conquest up to the bor der of the great Asian river, but they held these territories for only a short while. In Ezekiel 48:18-21 we see that the promised land, given to 30 When the world is at its worst, it needs the Christian to be at his best.
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