I’ve sung several hymns where this point of view is held. The crossing of the river Jordan into Canaan’s land is held to represent death, and the land itself is Heaven. I don’t hold to that view, and I’ll explain why.
Remember when God sent spies into the land to check the land out in Numbers 14? The men returned and said it was a terrible place. Enemies everywhere! “There are giants there,” they said. “Let’s go back to Egypt!” That doesn’t sound like a report of Heaven to me!
Furthermore, after that incident, God had the Israelites turn back to the desert. He told them that only two of them would enter, Joshua and Caleb, because they believed God, while all the rest of the people would die in the wilderness. Only their children would enter the land. Would that then be symbolic of missing Heaven because you thought something bad about it? Multiple problems attend the idea of entering the land as symbolic of entering Heaven. Continue reading
