I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. (Joshua 1:3)

God’s promise is something that God says. It is something that he says he would cause to happen, that he would give, or that he would enable one to receive, obtain, or perform. He had made promises to Abraham, but as the promises themselves indicated, Abraham was never intended to fully live out these promises in his lifetime. God has ordained that those who follow Abraham would inherit these promises and continue their fulfillment, and to live out these promises. Thus Abraham was promised the land of Canaan by conquest, but he was not to be the one to do this. Yet he started the fulfillment of the promises made to him by leaving his home land, giving birth to Isaac, and so on. Then, Jacob inherited the promises and became Israel.

God’s promises to Moses built on the promises made to Abraham. The calling of Moses and the deliverance of Israel were based on the covenant that he made with Abraham (Exodus 2:24). And he commanded Moses to lead Israel to the land that he promised to Abraham some centuries ago (Exodus 6:8, 33:1). God also made promises to Moses, but Moses himself did not fully live out these promises in his lifetime. Rather, Joshua and the people now inherit these promises and continue to live out their fulfillment.

Thus although God made the promises to Abraham, it did not mean that only Abraham could live them out. In fact, he was never destined to live them out to their fullness and completion. Then, although God made the promises to Moses, it did not mean that only Moses could live them out. Again, he was never destined to live them out to their fullness and completion. God had ordained that those who followed him would continue the work.

Moses is dead, but God is not dead, and his promises are not dead. Joshua and the whole nation must now live life and wage war on the basis of these promises. They would have whatever it takes to be successful – divine apparitions, angelic assistance, miracle power, and superhuman wisdom and courage. They would perform greater works than Moses, not because they are greater than Moses, but because God continues to fulfill his promises.

All the promises concerning the possession of the land were considered fulfilled by the end of Joshua 21 (v. 43-45). To maintain the possession of this land would be a different matter. God promised that if the people would worship him only and follow his commands, he would defend them and prosper them in this land (Deuteronomy 28:7-8). But he also said that if they would forsake him to worship other gods, which were no gods at all, and that if they would disobey his commands, then he would throw them out of the land (Deuteronomy 28:63-68).

Israel indeed rebelled against the Lord. So more than once he exiled them from the land, and more than once he allowed them to return. This painful history did not produce a new heart and true faith in them; instead, they became hardened in a self-righteous, hypocritical, and deadly system of religious tradition. So when God himself arrived in the person of Jesus Christ, they murdered him. As a result, God permanently ejected them from the land. In rejecting the Son of God, the Jews testified that they were the successors of those who murdered the prophets. Jesus told them that they filled up the measure of the sin of their forefathers, and all the blood of the prophets would come upon that generation (Matthew 23:32, 36).

This political/religious system would be destroyed and never again be established. Of course, men can band together to form a nation and call it anything they wish, but there is no more promise for the constitution of a national Israel and there is no more promise for the possession of the land. Thus Israel’s system of state and worship can never be restored on the basis of God’s promises to Abraham and Moses. These promises were already fulfilled in Joshua’s time. After that, God said, the people’s ownership of the land could be revoked forever.

Jesus announced this death sentence. As he said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again” (Mark 11:14), and the tree dried up from the roots. Then, as he predicted, the nation was disbanded and the temple destroyed in that same generation, in AD 70. Yet God had always preserved for himself a remnant of faithful people within Israel – the Israel of faith and not of blood – and this same remnant would now continue in the form of the church and expand to all nations, even more aggressively incorporating individuals from every race and class.

Although God’s promises concerning the land have been fulfilled, some of the promises to Abraham continue to apply. For example, Abraham was told that his descendants would be numerous like the stars. By this, God did not mainly mean natural descendants, since he intended to give Abraham true children, or people who would resemble him in the truest sense, that is, in his faith. Thus the promise becomes a basis for our Christian labor – for the spread of the gospel and the conversion of the nations.

Many centuries after Abraham, Jesus miraculously healed a woman on the basis of God’s promises to Abraham (Luke 13:16). Abraham was God’s covenant friend, and it was appropriate for his descendant to receive deliverance on the day of rest. Later, Paul would say, “Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7). God’s promises to Abraham constituted a basis for miraculous healing, and these promises have been passed on to all those who have faith like Abraham. But there are those who refuse to understand.

In another place, Paul explains that the blessing to Abraham comes to us through Jesus Christ, and that is the promise of the Spirit (Galatians 3:14). This was the thing that Moses desired when he said, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29). When Moses said this, the effect of the coming of the Spirit was prophecy. Standing on the shoulders of Abraham and Moses, Joel announced that God would indeed pour out his Spirit on all his people, and the effects would include prophecy, visions and dreams, and signs and wonders (Joel 2:28-32).

Then, in Acts 2, Peter refers to Joel and declares that God would now carry out the promise. And he says, “This promise” – the same promise whose effects include prophecy, vision and dreams, and signs and wonders – “is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call” (v. 39). Peter does not pull a bait-and-switch scam on the people. The same promise, described in Joel’s words, would continue as far and as long as the gospel call extends.

Jesus commanded the apostles and the first believers to preach the gospel (Matthew 28:19-20), but he did not mean for them to survive and preach to every individual that would hear the gospel before his second coming, and he did not mean that the gospel would only be preached in their lifetime, so that all who lived after the apostles would be condemned to hell. Rather, as those who follow the faith of Abraham, the faith of Christ, and the faith of the apostles, we have inherited the command to preach the gospel to all men and to make disciples of all nations.

Jesus made promises to the apostles and the first believers, but he did not mean for them to exhaust these promises in their lifetime. He said, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). He did not intend that those who come after would inherit the command to preach but not the promise of his presence! Rather, as those who follow the faith of Abraham, the faith of Christ, and the faith of the apostles, we have also inherited the promises made to Abraham, to Christ, and to the apostles.

Let no one rob you of the promises that God made to all believers. The apostles are dead, but God and his promises did not die with them. Be empowered by the promises that Jesus gave to the apostles and the first believers, and that they conveyed to others in their generation. We possess these same promises, and now we believe, labor, and succeed based on the same promises that they received. They are dead, but we are not; therefore, do the work of the living, and declare the Christian faith to our generation with the same boldness and power.