Reading: Hebrews 3-4
Speaker: Paul McCabe
This Week’s Thoughts
The Bible tells of our rosy start, our sudden fall, and God’s plan to return us to His Promised Land. We all bear God’s image, but we are all ego-centric. Most people try and pave their own way back to Eden, but none can succeed. God alone draws the map. He alone wins us a ‘city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God’ (Hebrews 11:10).
The Promised Land sworn to Abraham and his offspring was and is a physical place. The first 5 books of Scripture end with a longing to return and inhabit God’s promise, but the New Testament reveals that the Promised Land is also more than dirt and borders.
By the time of Christ, Jews prayed for a Messiah to rid their land of Rome. God had created it with care, telling Moses it was “a good and spacious land…flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). So the same leaders who were perplexed by Jesus also loved the land and wanted Messiah to reconquer, renew, and return Israel to its rightful heirs: them. Only Jesus saw things different. He saw the truth behind the truth; the eternal kingdom behind the earthly land.
The apostles pondered this as they marked one last Passover with their Lord. The first Passover had been a prelude to Israel’s exodus out of Egypt and into Canaan; out of bondage and into God’s promise. So hopes were high that night in the upper room. Then Jesus dashed them. Once Judas left to betray Him, Christ got down to business, saying: “Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for Me, but you can’t come where I am going” (John 13:33).
What?! The apostles were shocked. Naturally, Peter spoke up first, asking: “‘Lord, where are You going?’ And Jesus replied, ‘You can’t go with Me now, but you will follow Me later’” (John 13:36). How could this be? Wasn’t Jesus – the greater Joshua – meant to claim the Promised Land for His own? Apparently not…
Now, Jesus was not breaking God’s promises. But He was giving a seismic reframing of God’s plan, so He buoyed the disciples up, saying: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? Where everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am” (John 14:1-3).
The I AM sayings in John are demarcation lines between old and new covenants. They neither destroy nor diminish God’s promises to Abraham, but they do point to eternity. What Scripture hints at, Jesus fulfils! He is the bread of life that feeds us as we journey through the wilderness and into heaven. He is the light of the world that acts as our beacon. He is the door we pass through into the new creation. He is the good shepherd that lays down His life for the flock, dying for our eternal inheritance.
Thomas gets bad press for doubting, but at least he spoke up at the Last Supper when others just trembled. Thomas sought assurance, knowing Jesus loved him enough to give it. He disagreed with Jesus that the disciples knew where He was going, saying: “‘Lord, we do not know where You are going. How do we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me’” (John 14:5-6). What a mic-drop moment!
Jesus is not one way among many to the Promised Land. Christ is and always will be the only way! As Paul says: “All of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding ‘Yes!’ And through Christ, our ‘Amen’ (which means ‘Yes’) ascends to God for His glory” (2 Corinthians 1:20). The Promised Land awaits. It truly does. You only have to trust and follow Jesus and He will meet you there.