The Promise Land


What is the Promised Land? To the Jews and the Palestinians it is their
homeland. They both claim it was inherited by God. Since it is their
right, each is willing to fight for it. However, does God want us to
fight for an inheritance?

Is our inheritance material or is it spiritual? Since God is Spirit He
can only give us things that are spiritual. God gives us everlasting
love, peace, fulfillment, supply. Since God is all, He gives all to His
perfect child man. We all have a glorious inheritance from God. No one
is denied this inheritance.

The name Abraham means father of many nations. In Bible history both the
Jews and the Palestinians claim their inheritance from Abraham.
Abraham;s first son was by a Palestinian woman named Hagar. His name was
Ishmael. His second son was by his wife Sarah. He was called Isaac.
Sarah wanted her son to be the only heir so she talked Abraham into
casting out Hagar and Ishmael. She wanted her son to have Abraham's
inheritance and Ishmael to be forever cast out of any inheritance.

Hagar may have been cast out from Abraham but not from God. God gave a
promise to Hagar. " Arise lift up the lad, and hold him in thy hand; for
I will make him a great nation." (Gen. 21:18) Arise lift up your thought
God never rejects you. You have the spiritual strength of God wrapped
around you and can never loose your true inheritance. One nation is not
deprived while another exalted. God gives each of His children
everything they need right this very minute.

Abraham would never have wanted his ancestors to be fighting for a piece
of property. When he had a dispute with his nephew Lot, Abraham settled
it by saying to his nephew " Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between
my herdman and thy herdman; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land
before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee from me: if thou wilt take the
left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right
hand, then I will go to the left."(Gen. 13:8,9) Abraham was a good
negotiator.

Can a piece of property be the source of our promised land? Since our
promise land or our true inheritance is spiritual it does not matter
where we dwell. Jesus knew this. He knew that the promise land was
really in our thinking. He called it the kingdom of heaven. He told us
we were always in this kingdom. Our inheritance is how we think about
it. When we know it comes from God we know our inheritance is forever.
We cannot loose it nor do we need to fight to keep it.

Since man inherits all good from God one thing he inherits is reflecting
Mind. Mary Baker Eddy uses the word Mind as one of her synonyms for God.
Since Mind is God there can be only one mind in man. This mind loves
his neighbor and wants to negotiate with his neighbor. This mind holds
no grudges. She states in her textbook Science and Health with Key to
the Scriptures, "It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one
Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become
perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and
the true brotherhood of man will be established." (463:9-13)

These two nations came from Abraham. They are not really two nations but
only one nation from Abraham, and one child of God good. Mrs. Eddy says
of Abraham, "This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create
trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of spiritual
understanding". (579:12-14) Both of these nations can trust that only
good is going on. They do have the power of spiritual understanding of
God to trust that only God is the true negotiator. If God is the
negotiator than both parties can only be blessed.

God blessed Abraham because he was the first person to acknowledge there
was one God. Today there is still one God. This God is the God of both
the Jews and Palestinians; He is a God of Love. God knows only peace and
brotherhood and so does His idea man. Let us refuse to believe that man
is anything but the loving, pure honest child of God now and forever.
Acknowledging this true concept of God and man can help bring peace to
the Middle East.