NO DOUBT many of my young readers know what the promised land is. It is the land of Canaan. God said to Moses, “I am come down to deliver them (Israelites) out of the hand of the Egyptians; and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites; and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and Jebusites.” Ex. 3:88And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (Exodus 3:8).
Why, we may ask, did God see fit to drive all those different people out of the land of Canaan, in order to put His people, the Israelites, into that land? Ah, God had not only the right to do as He pleased, but He was just in doing it, as He ever was in all things.
Those people had not made that land. It was God who made all things, and they did not take that land, as something, God had given to them, and then thank Him for it; but they had idols which were made with their own hands, and they worshipped and prayed to them instead of to God; and as a result, they did all kind of wicked things; so God would not allow them to dwell there in a land that He had given so much blessing to but He would bring His people into it and give it to them. But they too turned away from God after they were in that grand and richly blessed land, so He allowed them to be taken captive by a wicked king; and the temple, that Solomon had built for Him, He allowed wicked men to destroy, and the city of Jerusalem, too. If they had gone on with God, and walked according to His statutes, this would not have happened to them, for that was the reason God judged them in that way.
Their last terrible sin as a nation was crucifying their Messiah—the Lord Jesus Christ, and for that God has caused the Jews to be scattered among all the nations of the world, and has laid that once beautiful land waste, so it is not any longer the land flowing with milk and honey. What a solemn thing it is to go on without God!
Let us remember it is more solemn for us, in this day, to turn away from God, or not pay attention to what He says to us, for He has now spoken from heaven. Jesus, who was taken by wicked, hands and slain, was also given by God as a Saviour for us poor sinners. He is risen from the dead and is in heaven and God is now telling us of that Saviour that He has provided and has accepted at His own right hand. So if we will turn away from Him now, or will not have Him as our Saviour, there is nothing but judgment left for us.
May you take Jesus now, dear children, if you have not before, and be ready to confess Him before others.
ML 11/20/1904