Thoughts From Proverbs 28

Joshua 21:43-45

⁴³ So the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. ⁴⁴ And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. ⁴⁵ Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.

I Kings 8:56

⁵⁶ “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.

I have decided to take the rest of 2018 to look at some statements that misunderstand the Scriptures. The texts listed seem plain to me so I have chosen them first.

There is a very popular Biblical millennial doctrine that represents Israel as the continuing entity of God. This teaching understands Israel as that national entity with its geographic boundaries that we know today.

One of the most important truths claimed by these teachers is that God has an unfulfilled promise to Israel.  He has promised them a certain measurable geographic tract of land for their nation. They have not received this land so God’s relationship with them must remain ongoing to have this promise fulfilled.  I don’t know if this rationale can be defended, but even if it can it must deal with our texts above that must be given serious consideration.  Note:

A.    What is said; all the promise fulfilled.

B.     To whom the promises were spoken:  To the Fathers.

C.    When this was spoken:  In both Joshua to Israel after the land had been divided, to Israel in Solomon’s prayer, after the Kingship of David.

These texts are very plainly spoken with no conditions placed on them.

The commentaries I have read by these Pro-Israel writers neither deny nor explain these texts.  They simply ignore them.

Any simple, honest reading of these texts in context can do nothing else than take them at face value.

1.       By the time the land division was finished God’s promises to the Fathers were fulfilled.  They had received the full extent of the lands promised to them.

2.      Solomon in his great prayer confirms this.  And holds so commonly known at this time that he names it as an illustration of God’s power, verity and covenant with Israel.

I see no reason to doubt Solomon.