“This land is mine,” croons Andy Williams in the song titled “The Exodus.” He sings, “This land is mine. God gave this land to me, this brave and ancient land, to me. And when the morning sun reveals her hills and plains, then I see a land where children can run free. So, take my hand and walk this land with me and walk this lovely land with me. Though I am just a man, when you are by my side with the help of God, I know I can be strong…To make this land our home. If I must fight, I will fight to make this land our own.” Although the song was written for the 1960 movie about the founding of the modern state of Israel starring Paul Newman, Pat Boone wrote the lyrics that were son by Andy Williams. The song fits well with the determination of the Zionist movement after World War II, along with the movement we read about in Deuteronomy about the determination to occupy that which had been promised by God to the former slaves coming out of Egypt after having spent 40 years in the wilderness homeless.

As God prepares His people to enter into their promised inheritance, He lays out the dimensions of what he had promised as their land. If our understanding of this short passage is correct, Israel never occupied all this land. Deuteronomy 1:5-7 says, “Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.’” Most commentators agree that this would cover nearly the whole middle east. The western boundary is the Mediterranean Sea. The eastern boundary is the River Euphrates. The southern boundary is the Arabian peninsula, and the northern border reaches Lebanon. Merrill writes, “The great extent of the land—’ as far as the great river, the Euphrates’—reflects the ideal inheritance that God had promised the patriarchal ancestors as part of the covenant pledge he had vouchsafed to. The fact that this territory was never, in its entirety, brought under Israelite control does not vitiate the promise, for its eschatological fulfillment lies yet ahead. That it was theirs by right and not by might” is clear from the verb used, which is better translated as “inheritance.” Merrill continues, “Yahweh the Great King owns all the earth, and it is his to bestow upon his peoples as he wishes. His people, therefore, were not about to take the land of other people but to receive the land as a gift from its divine owner, coming into their own rightful claim as vassals who work the royal estate of the Lord their God.”[1]

Throughout the history of the church, there have been preachers arguing that this is still the promise and that this land will be occupied by the descendants of Abraham. Some have taken this to include the church of Jesus Christ. This is seen as early as 150 AD. In the writings of Irenaeus. He said, “Thus did [Abraham] await patiently the promise of God and was unwilling to appear to receive from people what God had promised to give him, when he said again to him as follows, ‘I will give this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates.’ If then, God promised him the inheritance of the land, yet he did not receive it during all the time of his sojourn there, it must be that together with his seed, that is, those who fear God and believe in him, he shall receive it at the resurrection of the just. For his seed is the church, which receives the adoption to God through the Lord, as John the Baptist said, ‘For God is able from the stones to raise up children to Abraham.’” (This is taken from “Against Heresies” by Irenaeus.)[2] If so, we too can sing, “This Land Is Mine!”

[1] Merrill, Eugene H. 1994. Deuteronomy. Vol. 4. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[2] Martin, Francis, and Evan Smith, eds. 2006. Acts. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.