A few things to keep in mind re. "land" promises.

1) There was a place, on the ground, that the patriarchs were being promised--a place for the nation they were bringing forth to settle, so that the Messiah would come forth of the flesh.

2) A linguistic consideration: the word for "earth" and "land" is the same; it requires some interpretive thought to understand whether the reference is to "dirt", to a plot, to a national extent, or to the whole world--or whether the word could have a telescoping meaning.

3) The patriarchs themselves, and all the children of faith, were looking for something more than could be seen with the eyes, and walked on by feet.

4) If Israel the nation had been a faithful people, within only a few generations (100 years?) the tiny confines of the Land of Promise would have been burst by sheer population boom. This is proof that the concept of "the land" could itself have only been a "seed" promise. Which is why we understand further, that the ultimate referent of the "land" is the whole world. Where else is number of all the "sand of the seashore" going to dwell?

5) Ezekiel's depiction is extremely idealistic. Clarence Larkin and the other "diagramers" have given us all a pretty little picture of what this might look like if literally scratched out on the ground. This Old Testament description comes short of idealizing the whole "world" with sweet parallel lines drawn on it, and all the world carved up between the tribes. On the other hand, it does present the blowing away of the old land confines, and the "filling" of much of the known "world" (one which most of the original readers would have been familar with) by a restored Israel.

6) Thus, since the national purpose of Israel in redemptive history has been totally fulfilled and accomplished in Jesus, we need to see this passage as being fulfilled in the gospel mission of subduing the whole world unto the Messianic reign of King Jesus, which is for us a present reality. If the "definite fulfillment in the future" (mentioned in the quote above) is conceived as something related to a specific national or ethnic identity, or to a definite middle-eastern tract of land, I have to disagree. But if it implies that we are still awaiting the full outworking and blessing of Jesus' present reign, then I would grant the conclusion.

__________________
Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


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