Arriving in Canaan, they find “the Canaanites were then in the land.” This is deeply significant. Of Abraham, God had said, “I will bless you.” Of Canaan, God had said, “Cursed be Canaan” (9:25). If God brings Abraham, the man of blessing, into the land of promise, he at once discovers that the Devil has already brought into that very land the man of the curse. In this way, the Devil seeks to thwart the purpose of God and hinder the man of faith from entering into possession of the land.

So with the Christian: he is called out of the present world, he is a partaker of the heavenly calling, he is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. But, answering to the call and leaving the world, he finds that he is opposed by “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). The believer that seeks to enter into his spiritual blessings will find there is arrayed against him spiritual wickedness seeking to prevent him from taking the heavenly ground that is the only true and proper portion of the Church.

For Abraham, Ur of the Chaldees was in the past; the possession of the land was yet future. In the meantime, he had neither the world that he had left nor the better world to which he was going. This, too, is the position of the Christian who answers to the call of God. He has left this present evil world, and he has not yet reached the world to come.