Monday

Related Verses
Col. 1:12-13
12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light;
13 Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

Col. 2:6-7
6 As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him,
7 Having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Eph. 2:21-22
21 In whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord;
22 In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.

Deut. 8:7-10
7 For Jehovah your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of waterbrooks, of springs and of fountains, flowing forth in valleys and in mountains;
8 A land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees with oil and of honey;
9 A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity; you will not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and from whose mountains you can mine copper.
10 And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Jehovah your God for the good land which He has given you.

Gal. 3:14
14 In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Related Reading
As Paul was writing Colossians 1, he was considering the picture of the good land in the Old Testament as a type of the all-inclusive Christ. There is a suggestion of this in verse 12, where Paul says that Christ is the allotted portion of the saints. Then in 2:6 Paul tells us to walk in Christ. This implies that Christ is the land, the territory, the realm, in which we may walk. Furthermore, his reference to being rooted in Christ in 2:7 also indicates that he was thinking of the good land. In order to be rooted in Christ, He must be our land, our soil. All of these are indications that the Christ revealed in Colossians is our good land. (Life-study of Colossians, p. 162) 

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Paul…was aware that God’s chosen people in Old Testament times enjoyed the good land as their portion. Furthermore, he realized that the good land was everything to them. It was through the good land that they could worship God and build the temple for God’s testimony and for His unique dwelling place. It was through the good land that God’s purpose could be fulfilled through the children of Israel. Fully realizing what the good land meant to God’s chosen people, Paul composed the Epistle to the Colossians with the portrait of the good land in mind. Therefore, if we would experience the all-inclusive Christ as revealed in this book, we need to realize that such a Christ is typified by the land of Canaan. The Christ who is typified by the good land is the processed Triune God as the life-giving Spirit. 

In Joshua 5:11 and 12 we see a hint that the good land typifies Christ as the continuation of the manna. Verse 11 says that the children of Israel ate of the produce of the land. Verse 12 is especially clear: “And the manna ceased on that day, when they ate of the produce of the land; and there was no longer manna for the children of Israel, but they ate of the yield of the land of Canaan that year.” Manna was a type of Christ as the life supply for God’s people. As these verses in Joshua point out, the produce of the good land was the continuation of the manna. Therefore, if the manna typifies Christ, the produce of the good land must also typify Him. By means of the supply of manna in the wilderness, God’s people were able to build the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place. In the same principle, through the supply of the rich produce of the land, they were able to build the temple as a more solid dwelling place for God. No doubt, the good land enjoyed by the children of Israel is a significant type of Christ, for through the enjoyment of it, the temple was built. 

The land is the crucial focus of the Old Testament…[God] called out Abraham and told him that He would bring him into a certain land, which was the land of Canaan. Consider how many times from Genesis 12 to the end of the Old Testament the Lord referred to the land. Actually, the center of the Old Testament is the temple within the city built in the good land…The land is the figure of the all-inclusive Christ, a type of Christ as everything to us. (Life-study of Colossians, pp. 162-165) 

The experience of the children of Israel in the good land typifies our enjoyment of Christ today. Christ is our good land, and the various aspects of the riches of Christ are typified by the produce of the land. If we enjoy the rich supply of Christ, we will be able to live Christ. We will also be empowered to defeat the enemies. The enemies are always defeated when we enjoy Christ. Furthermore, through the enjoyment of the riches of Christ, the kingdom of God is established in the church, and the temple is built for God’s dwelling place. All these matters—living the Christian life, defeating the enemies, establishing the kingdom of God, and building the house of God—issue out from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ. (Life-study of 1 Corinthians, p. 449) 

Further Reading: Life-study of Colossians, msgs. 6, 20—21; CWWL, 1966, vol. 1, “Christ Our Portion,” ch. 1