Yahweh said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” – Psalm 110:1 (from the Hebrew)

At one point in my IT career in Vancouver I was tasked with improving the performance of a second level support team in Los Angeles. Even though I was technically their supervisor, they’d been working together for years and had their routines without me. I had been “given the land” so to speak, but then I still had to go win them over desk by desk. Being put in charge was just the beginning of the journey.

As we go through the New Testament references to Psalm 110:1, we see the same thing. The whole chapter of Acts 7 is Stephen recounting the history of Israel up to the Promised Land. Then he reminds them of the prophecy:

Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” – Acts 7:55-56, referring to Psalm 110:1

God gave Israel the land. It was theirs.

“Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.” – Numbers 33:53

But having the title to the land wasn’t the same as occupying it. The conquest didn’t happen overnight.

“I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.” – Exodus 23:29-30

This slow, progressive expansion of God’s reign mirrors exactly what happens in Acts 7. Stephen, standing before the Sanhedrin, traces the entire history of Israel—their reluctance to obey, their resistance to God’s leadership—and then he looks up and sees Christ:

“I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” – Acts 7:56

Jesus is enthroned. But Israel, like before, is resisting him. The gospel is spreading from Jerusalem, like Israel crossing into the Promised Land. And just as in Joshua’s day, God’s people take new territory “little by little”.