Deuteronomy 8:7-9, “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills. A land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey. A land in which you shall eat food without shortage and lack nothing in it, a land whose stones are iron and of whose hills you can dig copper”.

Amazing promises. Aren’t they? But do we understand and appreciate the significance and value of ‘the land of Canaan”?

Who is the land of Canaan? CHRIST HIMSELF 

In this write up, let us study the land of Canaan.

Centre of the Old Testament is the Temple within the city. And the Temple within the city is built upon a “land”. This piece of land (with the Temple), is also the centre of God’s heart and mind.

God has always wanted to recover the land and do something upon it. Genesis chapter 1 talks about how God created the heavens and the earth. God began His good work of restoring the land, by separating and sorting out the chaos upon the earth. Once the land came out of the waters, all kinds of vegetation, life and herbs came into being. A careful study of the Scriptures would reveal, that Satan, the enemy of God has always been busy frustrating people of God, from enjoying this piece of land. We have seen that Israelites had been wandering around and around the wilderness, going through the same kind of struggles time and again, for forty years.

We face similar kinds of testing times today. We find the various kind of struggles , frustrating us everyday, and aggressively challenging our faith. If we are not careful and bold enough in our faith, chances are we will lose the mind battle against Satan and eventually our blessings will not come to fruition.

We must realize, that our primary concern should be to understand, that the promise of enjoying the ‘land flowing with milk and honey’ is Christ Himself…..an all inclusive Christ. It is a good land, to be fruitful, to prosper and to enjoy blessings. It is also the place for us to rest. Because when we have everything, we have rest. When we have CHRIST, we have everything. Because in the Old Testament, God repeatedly promised His children a ‘good land’. And when the Lord says something is good, it surely cannot be an ordinary place. It has to be remarkable and extraordinary. He is a good God and true to His promises.

2 Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift”.

John 4:10 “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘if you knew the gift of God, and Who it is Who says to you ‘give me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water”.

Jesus is the greatest gift to mankind. When we have Him, we have it ALL.

In the Old Testament, we have realized that the ‘passover lamb’ is a type of Christ, ‘Heavenly Manna’ is a type of Christ, the Tabernacle ( with all furnitures, various kinds of offerings, utensils in it) is again a type of Christ. It was a symbol of presence of God. But with the land, we have all inclusive Christ. Only the land of Canaan is the full type of Christ.

Land of Canaan is a high land, atleast 2,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level. It is a land of mountains. The land known as Canaan was situated in the territory of the Southern Levant, which today encompasses Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan and the southern portions of Syria and Lebanon(geographically) ..

Bible identifies Canaan with the ‘Promised Land’, the land promised to the Israelites by God. Canaan is surrounded by seas….on one side is the Great sea, or the Mediterranean Sea. On the other side is another sea……the Dead Sea. According to scriptures, seas represent death. So basically surrounding Christ was nothing else but death. But we see remarkable promise of God out of this dead situation. Christ was raised from the dead. So the high land, the land on the mountains, signifies the resurrected Christ, ascended Christ, exalted to the Heavens.

Interestingly, when we go through difficult periods of life, everything around us somewhow looks dead. As believers, every time we face a challenge, it seems we are surrounded by seas. Nothing seems to make sense. But our confidence lies on God. And as believers of the ‘word of God’, we can confidently say, that our Mighty God….known for His strange ways, brings every dead situation alive with His divine touch….of Christ.

Exodus 14:21 records a beautiful incident. “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided ( for His people to cross over). The sea did not disappear . But God made the way for Israelites. It looked a dead situation to the Israelites. Red Sea in front of them, Egyptians with their chariots behind them. But God ….has His amazing ways of making ways for His people, even when their seems to be no way.  Verse 22 says, “And the Israelites went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right and on their left.

Let us consider what happened before Israelites faced the sea in front of them?

Exodus 14:9 “The Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his army and overtook them encamped at the Red sea. Israelites were frightened. Lord uses Moses to strengthen them.
Verse 14, “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest. Verse 19,” And the Angel of God Who went before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of the cloud went from before them and stood behind them. Verse 20, It was a cloud and darkness to Egyptians, but it gave light by night to the Israelites and the one host did not come near the other all night”. Isn’t our God creative? Can anyone imagine that the same cloud can be darkness to Egyptians and light by night to Israelites? Only God can come up with such amazing ideas to save His children.

What happens at the end?

Verse 27-28, “Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength and normal flow when the morning appeared. The waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh and pursued them, not even one of them remained.

Verse 29-30, “ But the Israelites walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.”

Deuteronomy 15:17 “You will bring them (His people) in to the land and plant them on Your own mountain, the place, O Lord, You have made Your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which Your Hands have established.”

I do not know what challenges you might be facing today, but if you learn to APPLY CHRIST in your situations, many miracles can happen.