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The Promised Land
● Gen 15:18-21 . . In 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-- the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the
Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the
Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
The Euphrates is Iraq's eastern border. The "river of Egypt" is likely the Nile seemg
as how there was no Suez Canal in that Day; though it's been suggested (with
some merit) this water might be a small stream south of Gaza known as Wadi el
Arish.
If there's a map handy, it's readily apparent just how huge a piece of real estate
that God assigned to Abram and his offspring. It's very difficult to precisely outline
the whole area but it seems to encompass a chunk of Africa east of the Nile,
(including the delta), the Sinai Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Onan, UAE, Iraq,
Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
We're talking about some serious square mileage-- roughly 1,538,370 of them;
which is more than Ireland, United Kingdom, Scotland, Spain, France, Germany,
Sweden, Norway, and Finland combined!
God has yet to give Abram's posterity complete control over all of his covenanted
land. In point of fact, the boundaries were very early on temporarily reduced for the
time being. (Num 34:1-12)
Currently, Israel, at its widest east to west dimension, across the Negev, is less
than 70 miles; and south to north from the Gulf Of Aqaba to Shemona, about 260;
comprising a square mileage of only 8,473: a mere half of 1% of the original land
covenanted to Abram.
The temporary boundaries run from the Mediterranean Sea eastward to the Jordan
River; and from the southern tip of the Dead Sea northward to a geographic
location which has not yet really been quite accurately identified. Ezek 47:15 says
the northern border passes along "the way of Hethlon" which some feel is very
likely the valley of the Nahr al Kubbir river which roughly parallels the northern
border of modern day Lebanon, and through which a railroad track lies between An
Naqib on the Mediterranean coast to Hims Syria.
* Abraham's ownership of the promised land is unconditional. In other words: no
matter how badly his posterity misbehaves they will never lose deed and title to the
land due to conduct unbecoming. This is possible due to the fact that the
retributions listed in the covenant that Moses' people entered into with God per
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy aren't retroactive. (Deut 5:2-4 & Gal
3:17) Had God given the land to Abraham and his posterity after establishing
Moses' covenant instead of before it, the Jews' would've likely been exterminated
by now because they have disappointed God enough in the past to easily deserve
it.
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