The Bible contains numerous verses where God promises and describes the “promised land” of Israel as a place of ultimate security, physical abundance, and rest. Deuteronomy 33:28 “So Israel lives in security, The fountain of Jacob secluded, In a land of grain and new wine; His heavens also drip down dew. Deuteronomy 12:10: “But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.” Deuteronomy 8:7-9: “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing. Leviticus 26:6: “I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.”

Notice the key words for what was promised Israel in the promised land of Canaan: security, rest, safety, peace, abundance. Those promises to Israel were conditional: they would lose all of them and the land if they disobeyed God. For example, God sent the Babylonians to remove Judah from the promised land for 70 years as a result of Judah’s continued sins.

The prophets anticipated Israel losing the land but then being restored to dwell in the land when the Messiah would come. Jeremiah 30:³ For behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers, and they shall take possession of it.’” We know that promise would be fulfilled when the Messiah would come. 30:9  But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.” Anytime the prophets predicted a time when David would be the king of Israel, it is always figurative representing Jesus. When would that happen? 30:24 In the latter days you will understand this.” The phrase “the latter years” or “last days” predicted by the prophets always referred to the last days of the Jewish Age (from 30-70 AD). So Israel would be restored to their land before the end of the “latter years”, i.e. before 70 AD.

Another similar prediction: Ezekiel 36:²⁴ For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the lands; and I will bring you into your own land.” When would that one be fulfilled? 36:²⁷ And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances. ²⁸ And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.” It would be fulfilled when God would pour out His Spirit on Israel. That was, again, in the last days of the Jewish Age beginning in Acts 2 when Joel’s prophecy of pouring out the Spirit on all believers in Jesus began to be fulfilled. The pouring out of the Spirit would continue throughout the 40 year last days from 30-70 AD. Anytime the prophets predicted the pouring out of the Spirit on Israel it always was predicting the pouring out of the miraculous in the last days of the Jewish Age from 30 to 70 AD. For example, Joel 2:38-32; Isaiah 44:3; Ezekiel 39:29. So the promise to bring Israel back to their land in Ezekiel 36:24 had to be fulfilled by 70 AD during the days of the pouring out of the miraculous Spirit on believers.

Another one: Ezekiel 37 and the valley of dry bones that come to life when God pours out His Spirit on them. Ezekiel 37:¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. ¹⁴ And I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.’” Again, Israel would be placed on their land when God would put His Spirit on them, which would be fulfilled in the last days. Ezekiel 37 ends with another “David will be their king” passage, which again as in Jeremiah 30:9 refers to Jesus. Ezekiel 37:²⁴ “And My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances, and keep My statutes and follow them. ²⁵ And they will live on the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and My servant David will be their leader forever. ²⁶ And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them (i.e. place them on their land, 37:14) and multiply them, and set My sanctuary in their midst forever. ²⁷ My dwelling place also will be among them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. ²⁸ And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”’”

Notice how all these predictions end with “I will be their God and they will be My people”. Ezekiel 37 adds a new prediction that God would set His sanctuary in their midst forever. Or Ezekiel 43:7“This is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever.” The Hebrew word for sanctuary is miqdash or miqqedash: Sanctuary, holy place. It was used of the tabernacle in the wilderness and of the temple built by Solomon later. It was figuratively where God dwelt in the Holy of Holies although technically God dwells everywhere! The New Testament Greek equivalent of that word is naos: Temple, sanctuary and is used often of the 2nd temple that was still standing in Jerusalem when the New Testament books were written. This is the Greek word used twice in Revelation 21:²² I saw no temple (i.e. no physical temple) in it (i.e. in the New Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, the spiritual temple, the church), for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (i.e. the dwelling of God in believers through the Holy Spirit makes them the new covenant spiritual temple). Paul says that the Spirit dwells in believers making them the temple of God, the dwelling place of God: 1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God (also 1 Corinthians 6:19). Another Greek equivalent for the Hebrew sanctuary is skéné: Tent, Tabernacle, Dwelling. That is the word used in Revelation 21:³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle (skene) of God is among the people, and He will dwell (skenoo) among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. The Greek word for “dwell” is skénoó: To dwell, to tabernacle, to pitch a tent (derived from the word skene). That is the word for “dwell” in Revelation 21:3. It is the same word used in John 1:¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” Of course that refers to the Word Jesus making his dwelling or tabernacling among men for 30 years.

Technically, the tabernacle where God dwells is in heaven. That is where Jesus went into the Holy of Holies in heaven into the presence of the Father to offer His blood as the sacrifice for sins. Hebrews 8:1 Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, ² a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord set up, not man.” The old tabernacle was a type of the real true tabernacle where God dwelt in heaven. Revelation 11:¹⁹ And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. Revelation 15:⁵ After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened,” So the true tabernacle or temple of God is in heaven where He dwells, but He set up a siritual temple or tabernacle or sanctuary on earth in the church where He dwells figuratively in believers.

The last Old Testament prediction of Israel being restored to their land is Amos 9:14 I will also restore the fortunes of My people Israel, and they will rebuild the desolated cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit. ¹⁵ I will also plant them on their land, and they will not be uprooted again from their land which I have given them,”says the Lord your God.” We know this was fulfilled by the time the Jerusalem conference met in Acts 15. Amos 9:11 also predicted, ““On that day I will raise up the fallen shelter of David.” In Acts 15:14-16 James says that the fallen tabernacle of David prophesy had been fulfilled by the time he spoke, allowing the Gentiles to enter the church. That would mean that Amos 9:14-15 had been fulfilled.

So my belief is that all the Old Testament prediction of Israel being restored to the land had been fulfilled in the first century by 70 AD. But Israel did not receive the promised land literally when the Messiah Jesus came. A million wicked Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah were killed by the Romans in 70 AD when they destroyed the temple and Jerusalem. So the predictions were not fulfilled literally by 70 AD, but they were fulfilled figuratively. How so? Again, notice the key words for what was promised Israel in the promised land of Canaan: security, rest, safety, peace, abundance. The believing remnant of the Jewish nation did receive a spiritual kingdom of security, rest, peace, spiritual blessings. The question might be, “Where did the Jewish church dwell?” What is this spiritual, figurative land that they received in the first century? In John 10 Jesus said, “²⁷ My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸ and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.” The believing remnant found peace, security, rest and spiritual blessings dwelling figuratively in the hands of Jesus and the Father.

A key in this discussion is recognizing that the prophets predicted that the believing remnant would get the land, and not the whole nation. The majority of the nation recieved judgment and death in 70 AD. Romans 9-11 deals with this issue. Paul argues that it might look like God did not fulfill His promises to Israel, but that He did fulfill all HIs promises. But the caveat was that he only made those Messianic spiritual promises to the remnant who would accept Jesus and not to the whole nation. Those Old Testament promises and predictions symbolized the Kingdom of God, spiritual rest, and the ultimate reward of eternal life.

So, in conclusion, the Old Testament predictions of Israel being restored to their land was not fulfilled, as many teach today, in1948 AD when the U.N. gave Israel statehood and a large portion of Palestine. There was no event that happened past 70 AD that fulfilled those predictions.

I close with a quote from Alex Polyak who has a great website called thebiblefulfilled.com (I highly recommend you go to that site and read his articles and watch his videos. “This video takes a deep dive into the biblical land promise to Abraham and shows from Scripture how that promise was already fulfilled in Israel’s history (Joshua 21:43-45 says that under Joshua’ leadership the Isreeal received “all the land God had promised them”) and ultimately completed in Jesus Christ. Many Christians today believe the modern return to Palestine in 1948 and future expansion of Israel’s borders are prophetic fulfillments—but the Bible itself tells a different story. By examining key passages from Genesis, Joshua, Nehemiah, Hebrews, and the New Testament, this teaching explains how Israel did receive the physical land (i.e. under Joshua), how that land served as a type and shadow, and how Christ brought believers into the true promised land—the heavenly Jerusalem and the spiritual rest promised to Abraham’s seed.”