Daily Lesson for Thursday 27th of November 2025

During the Babylonian exile, the Israelites experienced not only the sad reality of being rootless but also the promise that their relationship with God, though made concrete through the promise of the land, was not conditioned on, and limited to, possessing the land. When the Israelites confessed their sins, repented, and looked for the Lord with all their hearts, God fulfilled His promise again, and He brought them back to their land as a sign of their restoration. That is, He was still their God, even while they were not in the land.

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However, as the promise that Israel would possess the land forever was conditional (Deuteronomy 28:63-64; Joshua 23:13,15; 1 Kings 9:7; 2 Kings 17:23; Jeremiah 12:10-12), so was the promise to resettle and make Israel prosper in the land after the exile. At the same time, prophets of the Old Testament pointed to a restoration that a future Davidic king would bring (Isaiah 9:6-7; Zechariah 9:9,16). This promise was fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in whom all the promises to ancient Israel would have their fulfillment.

In the New Testament, the Promised Land is not mentioned directly, but we are told that the promises of God have been fulfilled in and through Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20, Romans 15:8). Thus, in the light of Christ, the land is reinterpreted, and it becomes the symbol of the spiritual blessings that God plans to give to His faithful people here and now (Ephesians 2:6) and in the hereafter.

The ultimate fulfillment of the divine promise of rest, abundance, and well-being in the land will take place on the new earth, liberated from sin and its consequences. In that sense, as Christians, our hope is based on Christ’s promise that He will return and, after a 1,000-year period in heaven, establish His eternal kingdom on the earth made new. This will be the ultimate fulfillment of all the promises about the land.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25d-09-the-land-restored/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=25d-09-the-land-restored

Daily Lesson for Wednesday 26th of November 2025

The land was so central to the existence of Israel as God’s people that it could not be apportioned as a whole. It had to be divided by tribes, clans, and families (Numbers 34:13-18) in order to prevent it from becoming the possession of a few leading elites.

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By contrast with Egypt, where citizens regularly lost their land and became Pharaoh’s serfs, the purpose of God for the Israelites was that they would never become indefinitely disenfranchised. Nobody, outside the clan and family to whom it had been originally allotted, could own the land. In fact, according to God’s plan, the land could literally never be sold; it could only be leased according to its value established by the number of years left until the next jubilee. Therefore, the relatives of a person who was obliged to “sell” his ancestral land had the duty to redeem it even before the jubilee (Leviticus 25:25).

The allotment of the land becomes a window into God’s heart. As our heavenly Father, He wants His children to be generous with those who are less fortunate and to allow their lands to feed them every seventh year. The sabbatical year applied the principle of the Sabbath commandment on a larger scale. Besides valuing and encouraging hard work, ownership of the land also calls for respect and kindness to those facing financial challenges.

Land ownership legislation provided every Israelite with the opportunity to be freed from inherited or self-induced oppressive circumstances and to have a fresh start in life.

In essence, this is the main purpose of the gospel: to erase the distinction between rich and poor, employer and employee, privileged and underprivileged, putting us all on equal footing by recognizing our complete need of God’s grace.

Unfortunately, Israel neglected to keep the standard set by God and, after centuries, the warnings of dispossession were fulfilled (2 Chronicles 36:20-21).

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25d-09-the-jubilee/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=25d-09-the-jubilee

Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and this quarter’s author, Dr. Barna Magyarosi, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson.”

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/9-heirs-of-promises-prisoners-of-hope-it-is-written-discussions-with-the-author/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=9-heirs-of-promises-prisoners-of-hope-it-is-written-discussions-with-the-author

View an in-depth discussion of 9: Heirs of Promises: Prisoners of Hope in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris.
Click on the image below to view the video:

With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

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Daily Lesson for Tuesday 25th of November 2025

Given that for centuries the Israelites had been living as slaves, their military skills were inadequate to conquer the land. Not even their slave masters, the Egyptians, with their skilled and well-equipped armies, were able to occupy it permanently. The Egyptians never conquered Canaan completely because of the impregnability of the walled cities. Now a nation of former slaves is told to conquer a land that their former masters were unable to subdue. If they are ever to possess the land, it will be through God’s grace alone, not through their own effort.

Image © Steve Creitz from GoodSalt.com

Joshua 13:1-33 through 21 deals with the division of the land to the various tribes of Israel. This allotment tells the Israelites not only what has been apportioned to them but also what still must be occupied within that territory. The Israelites can securely live in the land that God has given to them as an inheritance. They are the rightful and legitimate tenants of the land under God’s ownership. Yet, God’s initiative must be matched by human response. The first half of the book shows how God gave the land by dispossessing the Canaanites; the second half reports on how Israel took the land by settling it.

This complexity of the conquest illustrates the dynamics of our salvation. Similar to Israel, we cannot do anything to earn our salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is a gift, just as the land was God’s gift to the Israelites based on their covenantal relationship with Him. It certainly wasn’t based on their merits (see Deuteronomy 9:5).

However, for the Israelites to enjoy God’s gift, they had to assume all the responsibilities that came with living in the land, just as we have to go through the process of our sanctification in loving obedience to the requirements of being citizens of God’s kingdom. Though not the same thing, the parallel between their being given the land by grace and our being given salvation by grace are close enough. We have been given a wonderful gift, but it is something that we can forfeit if we are not careful.

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/25d-09-the-challenge-of-the-land/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=25d-09-the-challenge-of-the-land