Looking Again at Canaan

The Everlasting Covenant

We should be quite familiar with the account of Moses and the children of Israel as they would have crossed over into Canaan’s land to possess their inheritance. Perhaps they might well be referred to on this occasion as the children of Jacob! Twelve men were sent in to search the land. Two brought back a glowing report; ten brought back a gloomy report. Two came back bearing grapes; ten came back bearing gripes. Is there an optometrist in the house? Someone’s vision is impaired!

In order to get the impact of that situation we must needs look back at things preceding it. An understanding of the Everlasting Covenant is a necessary beginning.

THE COVENANT WITH NOAH

“And I will establish my covenant with you. . .for perpetual generations. . .everlasting covenant.” “And I will remember my covenant. . .”Gen. 9. This is not the actual beginning of the covenant teaching, but it is the first time the word covenant is mentioned.

THE PROPHETIC CONCLUSION TO THE COVENANT

Because of the sin of Ham an addendum was added to the covenant concerning his first born: “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem: and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japeth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant”

Gen.9:25-27. The “addendum” is God’s governmental dealing with man. (In Jeremiah 18:7-10 our Lord plainly makes known these governmental dealings.)

“And Canaan begat Sidon his first born, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Senite, and the Arvadite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad” Gen. 10:15-18.

Remember “Heth.” We will momentarily observe the hand of God shown forth in fulfilling what we just read in Genesis chapter nine.

THE COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM

“And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant. . .And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” Gen.17:7,8.

An everlasting covenant established with Noah; an everlasting covenant confirmed to Abraham. The same identical covenant through which the God of peace brought from the dead our Lord Jesus through his own blood - the blood of the everlasting covenant. May we understand: God is not issuing new or different covenants; neither making changes in His “policy.” Nothing is revoked or deleted. He isexpanding the everlasting covenant; giving greater detail to that which was previously given.

THE COVENANT IN ACTION - Abraham the Mighty Prince.

Sarah had died. Abraham approached the children of Heth: “I am a stranger and sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying place with you. . .” “And the children of Heth [the son of Caanan] answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, O my Lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury the dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury the dead” Gen. 23:4,5. Here is a token, a proof given Abraham, that God would do according as He promised: the sons of Canaan as servants; all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. . .” Has God not put it in to the hearts of the children of Heth [the son of Canaan] to be servants; to give Abraham all he desired, without reservation? (The entire account would be of benefit if one would desire to read it.) Remember this also. It will play an important role in that which is to follow.

RE-AFFIRMING THE COVENANT

And God spake onto Moses, and said unto him, I AM the Lord: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob. . .And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan. . .And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I AM the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for an heritage; I AM the Lord.” And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses. . .” Exodus 6:2-4,7-9.

Those children of Israel certainly cannot say that the Lord was unclear in his declaration: of who He is, of his relation to them, of His intentions toward them, nor of the promised inheritance. In the gospel of John chapter 20 verse 25 we find Thomas as picturing the Jew. It is not “doubting Thomas” as is commonly assumed. “Except I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I WILL NOT BELIEVE!” The issue here is not that they couldnot, but that they would not believe.

WHERE WERE THEY GOING? INTO CANAAN’S LAND!

Who are these people who inhabit this land anyway? They are the descendants of Canaan: “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren” Gen. 9:25.

BUT THEY HEARKENED NOT UNTO MOSES

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. . .” Numbers 13:1,2.

( It should be of no surprise that Joshua and Caleb were of the tribe of Judah!) Do we not find Judah receiving the inheritance?

The testimony of Joshua and Caleb: “Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able.” Who is “we?” And we would answer, The people of God, following the God of the people! The “testimony” of the ten: “We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers.” Actually, their testimony was accurate. To attempt to do the will of God without the person of God, without His strength, without His guidance - No! they certainly were not able! If “the devil is a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour,” we best not enter his territory alone. “Whom resist stedfast in the faith.” Had the people decided to go anyway and had followed these ten into Canaan with the same unbelief as they, it would have been like leading sheep to the slaughter. Even Samson was no match for the enemy as he “went out as at other times before. . .and he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. The Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down. . .” Judges 16.

“We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” Where exactly then, did God tell them: “It’s your possession, your inheritance - but you must fight tooth and nail for every square foot of it!” Really? The same God who “bringeth them out” of the bondage of Egypt would “bring them in” to the promised land! Did they engage the Egyptians in battle upon leaving that land? Then who told them that they must fight to possess Canaan’s land? If one appears before a lawyer, and the lawyer read unto him a legal document declaring him to be the recipient of a large inheritance - is he to expect to enter into battle to receive that which has been given him? Well, sometimes it may happen if the will is contested! And I suppose that is exactly what has been happening in the Middle East for a very, very long time!

Let’s recall Abraham’s encounter with the children of Heth, the son of Canaan. “Hear us, O my Lord: thou art a mighty prince among us. . .none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre. . .” What if, just what if, Israel had entered the land; what if they had entered in with the same faith as their father, Abraham. Could it be that they might have encountered the same reception as he? “Hear us, O my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us. . .” A far cry from being a “grasshopper,” huh!

“When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” Pro. 16:7.

THE EVERLASTING COVENANT

The charge is far more serious than we might think. Over and over God had confirmed the Everlasting Covenant that he had made known unto Noah. Again and again Jehovah would assure the people that the land of Canaan was given to them; their inheritance, for an Everlasting Possession: the Canaanites, their servants.

Said the ten: “and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” What assumption, what presumption! These fellows are as a blind man trying to describe what another is seeing! And just how do you know how you appeared in their sight: did you ask them; or did they even see you at all? Besides all that, aren’t you forgetting somebody? “ How about the One in charge? “And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I AM the Lord your God. . .I AM the Lord.”

O.K. MR. GRASSHOPPER!

I must assume that you do not believe God; that you are not acknowledging Him as the Mighty God. You disallow the Everlasting Covenant that your fathers embraced. You do not believe that the Lord God will be there for you when facing those whom you contend to be your enemies. “If God be for us, who can be against us!” If you don’t believe He will deliver you from the enemy, then you must certainly not believe that He will deliver you from your sin! The Everlasting Covenant which you refuse to “see, be persuaded of, embrace, and confess” as your fathers [Heb. 11:13] has as its foundation and structure non less than the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ! [Heb. 13:20.] We speak of its foundation for it was established by the Lord God after Adam and Eve had failed in the first covenant, the Covenant of Works (as some choose to call it.) Of course we are familiar with it: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” Gen. 3:15. Were Adam and Eve saved? The proof generally offered is that “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” Gen. 3:21. The greater proof must be: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman.” Eve, who had turned from God unto Satan willturn again in repentance, from the deception of Satan back to God. Why does the child of

God have a hatred for the devil? Because God said, “I will put enmity between thee. . .”

And so, the children of Israel would wander in the wilderness - without the promised inheritance - because of unbelief. And their children’s children would follow in their steps: “He came unto his own, and his own received Him not!”