The idea is gathered from a litany of writings of Church Fathers and doctors, as well as Sacred Scripture and the Catechism. If you are very interested in this image, as you put it, or rather conceptualizing the Promised Land of Christians, then learning about the 8th Day is a good place to start. Christians, technically, worship on the “8th day,” the New Day. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, especially the second one, is a scriptural foundation for this, wherein he speaks of how all things are renewed in Christ, and how we presently subsist “in jars of clay,” (our present bodies being the clay) and how we inwardly long and groan to shed off this present “clothing” of decay, and to put on the clothing of immortality.
Now the Catechism teaches that death entered the world through sin, and sin did not just have consequences on humanity in creation, but owing to our special place in creation (e.g., Adam’s dominion over it) spread into and through creation from us ; therefore, it is not only man whose physical (but also spiritual) reality suffers from the effects of sin and death, but also all of creation. And if all of Creation is somehow made defective by the consequences of sin, then it too needs to be restored, and hence St Paul’s saying that “all creation” longs for the restoration - pardon me - rather, the “revealing of the sons of God.”
As for the Promised Land of the Old Covenant being a type and prefigurement, such we know is common in the Old Testament. I spoke of how the crossing through the Red Sea prefigured Baptism, and crossing over the Jordan likewise prefigured our crossing over death into the Heavenly Promised Land, as examples. We could further speak of how God’s people, being enslaved in Egypt, prefigures mankind’s enslavement to the world in general, and to the “mighty ones,” (or strong ones) who are tyrrants, authorities, etc. Man’s wordly subjection, expressed especially economically by the primacy and necessity to work and toil (economic tyranny) to a polluted and corrupt government is the misery of man before being enlightened by God and His Christ, wherein man begins to learn to live by Faith once more (i.e., to subsist off mana in the dessert, which prefigures the Eucharist, and the Living Water of the Rock, which prefigures also Christ).
Personally, I believe the world will more and more - owing to the “nature” of sin - dominate man, especially economically, as the Hebrew enslavement to the Egyptians prefigured. This enslavement, though painful to human dignity, nonetheless draws man inwardly out of his worldly infactuations, making him long and groan for release and to desire a restoration of that dignity. Moses, then, prefigures Christ and His Church who stands up to the powers that be for the sake “of his people,” in order that Pharoah might “let them go,” i.e., release them from their bondage. In like manner the plagues upon Egypt prefigure those plagues God shall also send upon the world at the end of times, and the wonders worked by Pharoah’s magicians shall similarly be worked by the Antichrist and his disciples to stall and confuse God’s people, however, this shall ultimately be of no avail.
But returning to your original inquiry, again I advise you to read up on the 8th day, which doctrine is of the Church Fathers, and to study St Paul’s writings in regards to the new creation in Christ, as these are like links and anchors to core Christian teachings that furnish themselves towards the Christian Promised Land, i.e., Heaven, and Heaven on Earth (“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”).
I sometimes think of Heaven as “the Undiscovered Country,” the true “New World” that lies just beyond the horizon of our sight. We know from reports of those who have seen it and returned from there that there is indeed such a place, and like the pioneers and settlers of old, Christians believe in the promise of this place, in the hope it carries with it, and we set out to arrive there, even though the journey may be full of perils and dangers.
Pax,
Tim
