The Promised Land

Introduction

Sound system. And so we beg your patience. Have you ever been lost? I mean, really lost, not the lost that you’re thinking of, not recalculating, recalculating. Not that you’re at the wrong Longhorn Steakhouse. Everybody else is on Cemaron and you’re in Waterford Lakes. Not that kind of loss, but have you ever really been lost? Like I may never see home again. I may die out here in the wilderness lost. I have. And let me tell you what it’s like to be lost. My experience of being that devastatingly, I’m going to die lost. Happened when I was in the first grade. From the first grade until I got to be 16 and had my own driver’s license and saved up enough money to buy a junker car.

First grade to 12th grade. We’re all on the same buses. And so after school, in the first grade, I saw who I thought was Byron Connell. Byron Connell was a neighbor much older than me. And I saw him getting on the bus. And so I followed him onto the wrong bus. A first grader on the wrong bus.

And so we rode and we rode, and nothing looked familiar, including the bus driver. And so we made the stops to everybody else’s house. And everybody else got off. Somewhere along the way, I realized that’s not Byron. And this ain’t my bus. But I was too scared to say anything. And so I rode that whole bus route, knowing it wasn’t going to go to my house. So the last two people on this bus were me and the bus driver. And we stopped in what to my memory was in the middle of the wilderness. I know I heard an old lady cackling. And there was a wolf howling in the distance.

Because this bus driver didn’t know where I lived. And my parents didn’t know where I was. It’s a horrible feeling to be lost, to be away from home, to not have that place of comfort, that place of familiarity and family and home. Home means so much, doesn’t it? It just evokes those feelings of belongingness, of comfort, of peace. This morning I want to talk to you about home. I want to talk to you about the promised land. We’re going to see that in the scriptures there were at least three places that God has prepared for his people. Three places that they could call home. And felt like they belonged there and enjoyed the peace and comfort, and as we’re going to see most importantly, they felt like they belonged there with God.

1. It All Started in a Garden

And if this morning you’re feeling lost, I want you to know that God has a place. That He knows where you are. And He has a place prepared for you that you can call home. And so let’s talk about these places that man has called home. It starts, will you turn with me to the book of Genesis, chapter one? It all started in a garden. God created man and woman in his own image, the crowning act of his creation. He not only breathed into them a life-giving spirit, he put within them a part of himself. They were made in his own image. And he put them in a place.

Look what it says, beginning in Genesis chapter 1 and in verse 26. God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the earth, and over the creeping things that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created them, male and female. He created them. Then God said, or bless them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, See, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed.

To you it shall be for food. Also to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food, and it was so.

And so God makes this grand creation, and the pinnacle of that creation are those made in his own image, man and woman, and now he gives them a place to call home. Look in chapter 2. Pick up the reading now in verse 8. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. The Garden of Eden. Our minds are inadequate to picture the beauty and the bliss of this place called home. This paradise that God made for his people.

And he gave them a home. And he was there with them. That’s what made it paradise. He gave them earlier in chapter 2, he gave them the tree of life. This tree that somehow, again unknown to us in our imagination, gave them and sustained them life in that garden. But we know the rest of the story, don’t we? Man sinned and transgressed against the law of God. And so, as God had promised and threatened, they were to die. They died in at least two senses when they sinned against God and brought shame on this beautiful place called home and the God who dwelt there with them. They were excluded from that garden and from that tree of life. And as bad as that is, what followed was even worse.

They were excluded from that personal presence and fellowship with God.

That place that they called home. And they dwelt with God.

2. God Chose a People and Gave Them a Home

That’s the picture of Genesis 3 through 12, really, is the lost condition of man wandering around on his own. And so we see the story of Cain and Abel. We see the story even of the generations of man, each generation ending the same way, and he died. Because he’s not home anymore. He’s not there with the tree of life and where God is, and so he must die. We see the story of the Tower of Babel. We see the story of the flood, all of these things reminding us that these people were lost. But then there’s a glimmer of hope in Genesis chapter 12. Because just as God had created man and gave them a place to live where he could dwell with them, God chose a people.

Chosen a people. And he says, I’m going to give you a home. Look over in chapter 13 of the book of Genesis. Begin in verse 14. Genesis 14 and in verse 13. Or excuse me, Genesis 13 and in verse 14. He says, The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift your eyes now and look from this place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward. For all the land which you see, I will give to you and to your descendants forever. And I’ll make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants could be numbered. Arise and walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.

Then Abram moved his tent and went and dwelt in the terabot trees of Mamreh, which are in Hebron, and built an altar to the Lord there. Do you start to see the connection of God blessing a people with a home? And that was so intricately and inseparably related to their fellowship and their relationship to God that later on, when they had so sinned and gotten far away from what God wanted them to be, how did he ultimately punish them? He made them lost again. He removed them from their home. So God created man and gave him a home, and he dwelt with them there. Then God chose a people and gave them a home. And he dwelt with them there. Look over in Exodus chapter 25.

God had chosen this people. He had created a nation. He had given them a land, and kind of like the Garden of Eden, God is going to be there in that land with them. In the tabernacle and later the temple. Notice what it says in Exodus chapter 25. Look at two verses there, verses 8 and 9, speaking of that tabernacle that would be the model for that later, more permanent dwelling of the temple. Exodus chapter 25, verse 8, let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of the furnishings, just so you shall make it. Why? Why this building, this temporary, movable building, and then now why later that permanent structure?

We usually would answer that by saying, so they’d have a place to worship God. Well, that’s true. But when God states the purpose, the primary purpose, he says, build me a tabernacle, build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among you. So God created a people, a nation.

And he was there with them.

To what it was like before. We could notice some of the furnishings in that temple that kind of make us think of the Garden of Eden, the tapestries of blue, with the birds and other images of nature. The menorah, the candlestick itself was a tree. The entrance to the tabernacle, and later the temple would be on the east, the same as the entrance to the Garden of Eden. And just as the Garden of Eden, that was the presence of God was guarded by angels, the Ark of the Covenant in the most holy place was overshadowed and guarded by angels. And so, in a lot of ways, that tabernacle and that temple point back to that home where God had full fellowship and relationship with this people in their home.

So it all started in a garden and then kind of continued in that land of milk and honey.

3. A Home That We Called Heaven

A home that we called heaven. And in many ways, heaven points us back to that promised land, that land flowing with milk and honey. Or maybe the better way of saying it in a lot of ways, that promised land flowing with milk and honey, pointed forward to heaven. Look in the book of Hebrews in your New Testament, in Hebrews chapter 4. To these Hebrew Christians who would have been very familiar with that tabernacle and that temple and that land that flowed with milk and honey, that promised land. The Hebrew writer is trying to get them to see that yes, you had a promised land. You had a homeland, and it flowed with milk and honey, and in it was a dwelling place for God. But there’s a better.

Kind of like that place, but better. In Hebrews chapter 4, read with me, beginning in verse 7. Again, he designates a certain day, saying in David, today, after such a long time, as it has been said, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, let’s pause there. You remember Joshua? Who was Joshua? Joshua, the successor to Moses was the conqueror, the one who led them across that river into their promised land, into their home. For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his.

Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. Did Joshua lead them into a promised land? Yes. Did it flow with milk and honey? Yes. Did they set up the tabernacle and later the temple there where God would dwell among them? Yes. Was it a land of rest? Kinda. But not in the full sense. They didn’t use up that rest. They didn’t fully receive that home. And so the Hebrew writer argues, there remains a place of rest for us. And so that promised land is pointing forward to another place, another home. Turn over a few pages in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Let’s look at a few verses in the 11th chapter.

Verse 8, beginning. Hebrews 11, verse 8. By faith Abraham obeyed. We remember Abraham there in Genesis 12. I’m going to give your descendants this land. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of him, of him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. So Abraham was told about a land, a home, but Abraham was really looking for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Is that the land flows with milk and honey?

Is that Palestine? Well, read on. Hebrews 11, verse 13 now. These all, including Abraham, these all, Hebrews 11, verse 13, died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

But now they desire a better.

Understood that yes, there was going to be a home prepared for his descendants for that nation, and that God would dwell among them, but that there was something greater, another home. Look at the last two verses of Hebrews 11, 39 and 40, and all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. And so that promised land pointed forward shadowly, faintly, not perfectly, but pointed forward to a heavenly country. And that tabernacle that was there in that country, that was built so that God could dwell among them. It points to heaven. Go back to Hebrews chapter 8 now. Hebrews the eighth chapter and the fifth verse.

Hebrews 8, verse 4, for if he were on earth, that’s Jesus, he would not be a priest, since they’re priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve as the copy and the shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you in the mountain. Those priests, the offerings, and the place they made those offerings, the tabernacle, pointed to heaven. God said, Build me a tabernacle in your home, so that I may dwell among you. And that all pointed to heaven. And so the promised land, the land that flows with milk and honey, was pointing us to heaven. And the Garden of Eden, the first home for God’s people where he would dwell among them, points us to heaven.

Look over in the Revelation letter, Revelation 21. God has a place prepared for his children. God created man and gave them a home. God chose a nation and gave them a home. God has chosen a people and has prepared for us a home. Revelation 21 began in verse 1, where he says, Stephen read this for us, or read chapter 22. Let’s back up to chapter 21, verse 1. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea. A new heaven and a new earth. What does that mean? I don’t know that I fully understand all of it, but it means a new dwelling place, a new home, a place for us to live, a new and better, the Hebrew writer would argue, promised land.

And a new garden of Eden. Chapter 21, verse 3, and I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. Just like the Garden of Eden. The best part of that paradise is that God was with them. It wasn’t the beautiful garden. And it wasn’t the perfect weather. It was that God was walking among them in that garden in the cool of the day. And the best part about the promised land was not that it flowed with milk and honey, not that these wandering people finally had a place to call home. It was that in that tabernacle in that temple that God dwelt with them, though in that restricted sense, God was with them.

And the best part of heaven, make no mistake, is not the street of gold. It’s not the gate of pearl. It’s not all of the saved and loved ones that will be with. The best part of heaven is that God will be there among his people. Chapter 22, verses 1 and 2. He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God in the Lamb, and in the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. The tree of life.

The revelation writer tells us that there’s no temple there. There’s no walls or veils, or symbols, or shadows of God’s presence. There’s no temple there because God is there among his people. And that’s home. And so no matter what happens in this life, no matter how dark, how bleak, or how painful it is, we need to remember that we’ve read the last chapter of this book, and we know how it ends. And it ends with God’s people at home. With the tree of life, and with God the giver of life.

Conclusion

Are you lost? Spiritually, do you relate to what I felt like that day on the school bus? That that driver didn’t know where I lived and my parents didn’t know where I were. Do you feel that way spiritually? Do you wish you had some kind of direction? Some kind of goal, purpose. Do you wish you had a place to call home? God’s always wanted that for his people. He’s always tried to give them a place where he could dwell among them and they could feel at home. And he has that prepared for you. Would you come to him in trusting, obedient faith, confessing that faith, repenting of your sins and be baptized this morning for the remission of your sins so that you can have a place to call home?

Would you come right now as together we stand and as we sing?