I feel strongly that we need to have a message on the good land for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. This matter of the good land has been a great puzzle to most Bible readers and Bible teachers. Many Christian books speak about the good land. If you read these books, you will realize that all the readers and teachers of the Bible have the feeling that the good land is not merely a tract of land in Palestine. In the Bible, the good land is a symbol, a figure, of something further. Even the lowest interpretation of the good land as a symbol — that it is the region Christians enter after crossing the Jordan River of death — follows the principle that the good land is not merely a tract of land in Palestine but rather signifies something spiritual, holy, and heavenly. It is very difficult for anyone to understand thoroughly the spiritual significance of the good land. I have been studying this matter for years. Ever since my youth, I have been interested in the true significance of this good land. I am sorry to say that as a young Christian I did not receive much help in this regard. But now in this message I shall try my best to present to you what the Lord has shown us concerning the real significance of this good land.
In the Bible, the land or earth always signifies the proper people of God. The sea, on the contrary, signifies the world that has been corrupted, polluted, and ruined by Satan. In other words, the land always signifies the people of God, and the sea signifies the worldly people, the people who have been polluted, corrupted, ruined, and usurped by Satan.
Secondly, in the Bible the land is a figure, a symbol, of Christ. Christ is the good land. When we studied Gen. 1:9 in our Life-study of Genesis, we pointed out that the land which came out of the death water on the third day was a type of the resurrected Christ who came out of death on the third day. As we saw in that study, all of the life, including the vegetable, animal, and human life, came out of the land. Even man was made from the dust of that resurrected land. Medically speaking, our physical body contains the same elements as the earth. In both the earth and our bodies we have such elements as copper, iron, and sulfur. So mankind came from the land, and the land is a figure of Christ. This signifies that Christ is the source of all kinds of life. Christ as the good land, the land that came out of death water, the land that was elevated above and surrounded by the death water, was depicted by the land of Canaan. As we shall see, the land of Canaan is an elevated land surrounded by water. This land is a picture of Christ.
In the Bible, the soil of the earth typifies us, the chosen ones of God. God has chosen us to be the soil into which He sows Himself in order that He Himself may grow in us (Matt. 13:3, 23). We are God’s soil. Eventually, we become His field and His farm to grow Christ (1 Cor. 3:9). This matter is quite weighty and meaningful.
God took some dust from the land that was resurrected out of the death water and used it to make man (Gen. 2:7). Thus man was made out of the land and was destined to express God. Man’s body was made with the dust of the resurrected land, but man himself was made in the image of God for the purpose of expressing God (Gen. 2:7; 1:26-28). Not only was the dusty man made in God’s image to express God, but he was also committed with God’s authority to exercise God’s dominion and to form God’s kingdom on earth. So God’s expression and kingdom are fully related to the earth. Man came from the resurrected land, the resurrected earth, and lived on this earth to express God and to represent Him, to form an expression of God and a kingdom of God. This expression with the kingdom is God’s goal, and we must enter into it.
This short word combines the land, Christ, and humanity. The land, Christ, and humanity combined together are the expression of God and the kingdom of God where God’s glory and authority are. This is the sphere into which we all must enter. It is the realm that we all must reach. Here is our rest and satisfaction. Here God is fully expressed and has a dwelling place, His habitation.
Revelation 21:1 says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” Here we see that the old heaven and the old earth will pass away and that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. In this new heaven and new earth will be the New Jerusalem, and within the New Jerusalem God in Christ flows as the living water which symbolizes the flowing Spirit. If you look at Revelation 21, you will see a picture of the land, Christ, and all of God’s chosen, regenerated, sanctified, and glorified people. This combination of the land, Christ, and us will be God’s expression with God’s kingdom. This is our good land, the land that we all must strive to enter into. It is here that we have rest and satisfaction.
From the whole revelation of God’s divine Word, we can see that in eternity past God planned to express Himself. This is God’s eternal purpose: to express Himself in a practical and real way through a corporate entity composed of many human beings. This is God’s eternal purpose. In order to accomplish this purpose, God created the heavens and the earth.
Satan, God’s enemy, intervened and damaged God’s creation, especially the earth. So the earth was judged with water by God (Gen. 1:2). The whole earth was under the judging water, which was a kind of death covering the land. Then God came in and raised up the land that had been covered by the death water, raising it out of the death water on the third day. A good number of Bible teachers agree that this is a picture of the resurrected Christ. The land that was raised out of the water on the third day was a type of the resurrected Christ from whom all life has come into being. Out of this land God made man in His own image to express and represent Him. In Adam at that time we could see the land because Adam was made with the dust of the ground. We could also see Christ because Adam was made in the image of Christ. Genesis 1:26 says that man was made in the image of God, and Colossians 1:15 says that Christ is the image of the invisible God. Therefore, man was made in the image of Christ and bore the image of Christ. If you could have seen Adam, you would have seen the image of Christ. So with Adam, a man, there were the dust of the land and the image of Christ. Hence, in Adam we see three things: the land, Christ, and man. These three things are combined to be God’s expression and God’s kingdom. That was a miniature of what God intended to obtain.
Satan, knowing God’s central thought, came in to damage man. When the Lord Jesus became flesh (John 1:14), He came to become dust. When He came to join with man, it meant that He came to join with the earth. After Adam had been damaged, man eventually became flesh (Gen. 6:3), and God came in to judge that flesh. When God judged the flesh, He also judged the earth, for the flesh, that is, mankind, cannot be separated from the earth (Gen. 6:12-13). In God’s sight and according to God’s concept, man is always related to the earth. When man is judged, the earth is judged, and when the earth is judged, man is judged. God always treats these two things together. By the flood, God judged the flesh and the earth.
After the flood, the ark landed on Mt. Ararat on exactly the same day of the month as the Lord Jesus was resurrected from the dead — the seventeenth day. The Lord was crucified on the fourteenth day of the month, the day of the Passover, and three days later He was resurrected. The ark was resurrected from the death water on the seventeenth day of the month. According to the record of Genesis, this was on the seventh month of the year, which was changed at the time of the Passover to be the first month of the year, according to the Jewish sacred calendar. In other words, the Lord Jesus was resurrected on the same day and in the same month as the ark was resurrected from the death water.
When Noah and the seven others came out of the ark, they lived on the new earth. The resurrected people lived on the new earth, and, once again, that new earth typified the resurrected Christ. That Noah and the other seven resurrected people lived on the new earth signified that they lived in Christ. Now we all are living in Christ today.
This pleasant situation did not last very long, for Satan came in to corrupt and pollute mankind again. As Genesis 10 reveals, Satan utilized Nimrod’s father, Cush, to build Babel. Satan’s corrupting and polluting of Cush and Nimrod meant that Satan had once again corrupted mankind. In the eyes of God, that polluted mankind became one with the land of Chaldea. In the eyes of God, mankind is always related to the land. If you read the history of Israel according to the record of the Bible, you will see that God always put Israel and the land together as one. Some verses refer to both the land and the people because God always reckons the two as one (Isa. 1:7-9, 27). If the people in the U.S.A. are corrupt, it means that the U.S.A. is corrupt. When the people on the land are polluted, it means that, in the eyes of God, the land also is polluted. We cannot separate the people from the land.
At the time of Babel, man became one with the land of Chaldea. God came in and called Abraham out of that corrupted Chaldea, meaning that He called him out of the corrupted mankind. God brought Abraham out of that land into an elevated land, the good land of Canaan. The land of Canaan is an elevated land. According to geography, the land of Canaan is surrounded by water, by the Mediterranean Sea, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan River. This signifies that it is a land that comes out of the death water and is elevated above it. This is the land that signifies Christ with God’s proper people. In God’s eyes, He always considers the good land, Christ, and His proper people as one.
Abraham entered into the good land of Canaan. When his descendants fell away from that good land, God brought them out of their fallen place and restored them to the good land. What was the ultimate consummation of the entering into the good land by the children of Israel? It was the temple. On the one hand, the temple was God’s expression, and, on the other hand, it was God’s kingdom, government, and administration. There, with the temple, we can see God’s expression and God’s kingdom. There, with the temple, God and all His people were able to rest and be satisfied. The good land is a combination of the proper earth and the proper people with God’s dwelling place built up to express God and to exercise His authority in the universe. This is the good land.
In the Old Testament we see a miniature of the good land: an elevated land surrounded by death water and filled with God’s dwelling place. There in that land were God’s expression and administration. This is the miniature in the Old Testament. The fulfillment of this figure is found in the New Testament. Ultimately, in the New Testament, God will have a new earth. He will not just have a tract of land but a whole new earth, an earth resurrected and elevated above all death. In this new earth there will be no more sea, no more death, and no more night (Rev. 21:1, 4, 25). All sea, death, and night will be gone forever, and there will be a clean, clear, dry land with a pure river flowing through it. The New Jerusalem will be there. That will be God’s eternal habitation, expression, and administration. There God will be fully expressed and His authority will be completely exercised. That will be the fulfillment of the good land. Where is our good land? It is there on the new earth.
Praise the Lord that the church life today is a foretaste of the new land with the New Jerusalem. The church life today is on the new land. Anaheim may be old, but we are on new, elevated land. This is a foretaste of the coming New Jerusalem. Are we not in the New Jerusalem today? We are. We are not in the full taste New Jerusalem, but we are in the foretaste New Jerusalem, the church life. This is our good land today. What the Jewish people had was only a type, a prefigure, of the good land. In the New Jerusalem there will be the fulfillment and the full taste of the good land. What we have in the church life today is real, but it is not yet full. We are in the reality, not in the type, but this reality is just the foretaste. In nature, the foretaste is exactly the same as the full taste. So, in foretaste, we are in the New Jerusalem and we are on the new earth.
Many of us were in the region of old religion. Some were in Catholicism and others were in Judaism. When you were in that old region, in your Chaldea, did you have the sensation that you were in the New Jerusalem? Did you have the feeling that you were tasting the New Jerusalem? The taste in the New Jerusalem is mainly the living water and the tree of life. In the New Jerusalem our taste will mainly be that of the living water for us to drink and that of the tree of life for us to feed upon. What drinking we have enjoyed since coming into the church life! The water we drink in the church life is much better than any earthly beverage. No drink on earth can compare with what we are drinking in the church life. Moreover, day by day we are enjoying the Lord Jesus as our tree of life. Who can be as pleasant and joyful as we are? We are truly in the foretaste of the New Jerusalem. Did you enjoy this taste when you were in Judaism? Did you have the taste of the New Jerusalem when you were in Catholicism burning candles and making confession to the priests? Did you have it when you were sitting in the pews in the so-called Protestant denominations? Did you have it when you were in the free groups where you found it so easy to be dissenting? Where can you have the taste of the New Jerusalem? Only in the proper church life. To us, the church life is the good land. In this good land we have God’s dwelling place, rest, expression, authority, kingdom, and dominion. The church life is where we all can rest. Day by day I am resting, not working. While I am working, I am enjoying the rest. This is why it is difficult for me to be worn out, to be tired out, because I am resting, not working. Every cell in my body and every drop of my blood is resting. Oh, what an enjoyment this is!
The church life is our real rest and enjoyment. We are surely in the good land, in the land flowing with milk and honey. The milk and honey are the produce of two kinds of lives — the animal life and the plant life. This signifies the rich life of Christ. Christ’s life is the animal life for redemption and the plant life for regeneration. We are now enjoying the milk and honey life flowing in the good land.
