Bible Synapse
Did Abraham and his descendants receive the promised land?
Hard question · Prophecy and its fulfilment · raised by 2 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
God promises Abram all the land he can see: “to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever”.
And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
God promises Abraham and his seed all the land of Canaan “for an everlasting possession”.
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
God gave Abraham no inheritance in the land, yet promised to give it to him and to his seed after him.
And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
The patriarchs “died in faith, not having received the promises”, but saw them from afar.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
The Lord gave Israel all the land he swore to give their fathers; not one of his promises failed.
And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.
The objection
God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his offspring “for an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8). Stephen says God gave Abraham none of it, “no, not so much as to set his foot on” (Acts 7:5), and Hebrews says the patriarchs died “not having received the promises” (Hebrews 11:13).
The answer
Stephen and Hebrews are not denying the promise; they are quoting it. Acts 7:5 goes on: “yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.” From the start the promise looked ahead: God told Abram that his offspring would be strangers in another land for four hundred years and only then return (Genesis 15:13–16), and in his own lifetime Abraham owned only the field where he buried Sarah (Genesis 23). The descendants did receive it: under Joshua “the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers” (Joshua 21:43).
Hebrews explains why Abraham was content to die before seeing it. The patriarchs “desire a better country, that is, an heavenly” (11:16), and they will receive what was promised together with all believers (11:39–40). Jesus speaks of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom (Matthew 8:11), and Paul calls the promise to Abraham a promise that he should be “heir of the world” (Romans 4:13). The promise was given to Abraham, kept for his descendants in the land, and is kept for Abraham himself in the life to come.
Still open
Christians differ on how the land promise is finally fulfilled. Some expect a future restoration of the land to Israel; others see the promise taken up into the new earth promised to all Abraham’s children by faith. Both views agree with the answer above.
From the classic commentators
How Canaan is called the land of promise, because yet only promised, not possessed. [2.] How Abraham lived in Canaan, not as heir and proprietor, but as a sojourner only.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Hebrews 11:9