“I looked over Jordan, and what did I see, comin’ for to carry me home? A band of angels, comin’ after me, comin’ for to carry me home.” (From the spiritual song, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”)
The desire to escape from the bondage of slavery into the Promised Land was the longing of slaves in the USA until the Civil War and President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Lincoln’s Executive Order was that all enslaved people in Confederate territory were from that day free and that they would remain so thereafter.
Lincoln’s words transformed the battle from one aimed at preserving the Union to one aimed at abolishing slavery completely. A century passed before this became a reality, due to the efforts of Dr Martin Luther King and other freedom lovers, along with the support of the majority of US citizens who were united in the conviction that all people, whatever their skin colour, ought to be accepted as equal under US Law.
Until then, those working as slaves had no prospects of living free, of doing as they wished, of going wherever they desired. Their sole hope was to die in their Christian faith and to pass over into the peace denied them in the present life. Instead of the biblical concept of crossing over the River Jordan and possessing God’s Promises, they saw themselves crossing over the Jordan River as a spiritual, after-death release in the way that Egyptians saw themselves being ferried by shadowy boatmen over the mystical River Styx to a better life beyond.
Sadly, many Christians today think of The Promised Land as their future life in Heaven. In so doing, they see Death as a welcome release from the troubles of this present life, a welcome into the presence of the Lord Jesus, a forever-after life with him, and their very own Mansion in Glory Land.
Little do these “saints” (as all believers are) realise that in seeing the Promised Land as a Future Hope, they see it much the same as did Moses, who viewed it from Pisgah, on the summit of Mt. Nebo, before he died. Moses epitomised the Law but was prevented from crossing over the Jordan River into the Promised Land due to an act of petulance by which, symbolically, he ‘crucified’ Jesus a second time by striking a rock to draw water from it, instead of simply speaking to it.
The Promised Land is not a Future Hope but a Present Reality. It is God’s promises to us in Christ Jesus. The crossing of the Jordan by the children of Israel (descendants of Jacob) ended their 40-plus years of wandering aimlessly in the wilderness, due to their disobedience, their refusal to “enter into” what God had promised them. In our time, it can be seen in the number of Christians who ‘wander’ from church to church in a ‘wilderness’ of self-will, mistaking movement as direction.
A heritage is merely a deed until it is inherited. Jesus lived to proclaim God’s will, died to execute God’s will, and arose to become the executor of God’s will. We ‘cross Jordan’ and stop following signs. Thereafter, “signs follow” us! The first battle after crossing over the River Jordan was the Battle of Jericho. It was amazing in that it was won by strict obedience to the Lord’s commands. Not by their weapons but by God’s words and their walk around the city’s wall in total silence — until God ordered them to shout, and “the wall came tumbling down”!
Many challenges await in your personal Promised Land, not least that of dispossessing those enemies that have possessed it. Long-time bad habits, chronic illnesses, and the like. These are now squatters that you need to dispossess — forcibly if necessary! Cast out in the Name of Jesus! Some of the tribes of Israel found it easier to themselves ‘squat’ on the inheritance of other tribes whose inheritance was easier to possess. The Lord ordered them to move out and move on into their own inheritance (Joshua, chapter 13).
What if what we enter into and fully possess now will determine what Jesus will have us do in the Millennium? What if possession results in position? Matthew, Chapter 25 indicates that this will be so. If you have left your self-will behind and have ‘crossed over’ into the Promises of God, maybe it’s time for you to seek God’s direction to your own, personal part of God’s promise. Don’t live in a mystical Promised Land in the hereafter but enter into the reality of it today!