“And I will establish My covenant between Me
and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting
covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you
and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the
land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep
My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This
is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants
after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be
circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the
covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be
circumcised . . .” (Genesis 17:7-12a)
And when eight
days were completed for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus . . . (Luke 2:21a)
Jesus
lived in the “promised land,” the land that Yahweh promised to Abraham’s descendants. Even after those descendants engaged in a
civil war, divided the land into separate kingdoms, were conquered by foreign
nations and been exiled to foreign lands – they returned and were still living in
the land Yahweh promised Abraham.
For
Jesus, the establishment of the Kingdom
of Heaven was about teaching people how to live according to Yahweh’s
highest commandments in the land He had given to Abraham and his descendants.
It was about establishing that nation as a “righteous
nation” that would become “a light to
the other nations.” The Kingdom of
Heaven wasn’t a “kingdom in Heaven.”
Heaven” was a euphemism that Jesus and his fellow Jews used to make sure they did
not “profane” the actual name of God.
Central to the ideas associated with messianic figures and the “salvation/deliverance” of the Jewish
people was driving out foreign oppressors and reestablishing it as their homeland.
The
land was very important to Jesus and the Jewish people. They expected their
descendants to continue to live there for as long as the Heavens and Earth
remained. Why? They had a covenant with Yahweh and trusted His loyalty. The thought
of Yahweh abolishing His covenant with Abraham and his descendants would have
been beyond absurd to Jesus and the members of his movement. When Jesus said – “Blessed are those who mourn, for
they shall be comforted.” – he echoed promises that were well-known and
repeated regularly in Jewish prayers:
“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with
her, all you who love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her
. . . As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you shall be
comforted in Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 66:10-13)
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