2002-01-01
Hi There Dear Friends,
As the Christmas season approaches, the Lord has put it on my heart to write to you about the issue of keeping promises. Truthfully, I have known the pain of having promises made to me by certain people in my life that were not kept. At the time, I was too young and inexperienced to discern whose promise was one I upon which I could really rely. Have you ever been in this situation yourself? It can lead to some real trouble in your life, as it did on mine. However, a loving Lord wanted me to learn a lesson and develop a personal policy about promises and promise-making. Out of this experience He taught me to make the following policy in my life: Never make a promise that you can’t keep. Keep any promise that you make. I felt it was important enough to teach it to my own son.
We are so blessed to have the example of promise keeping that our Lord sets for us. Because there are enough examples worthy of our attention, I hope you will bear with me if I make this the subject of more than one message this week. While we look at the examples I cite, please ask yourself: What would have been the consequences to us if our Abba had chosen not to keep His promises? When you look at each citation here with that question in mind, you will begin to see just how important being a keeper of promises really is.
Genesis 3: 21 [Just before Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden] “And the Lord God made clothes from animal skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.”
I almost missed the promise inherent in this citation, except that a dear friend of mine brought it to my attention that for animal skins to have been provided, blood had to have been shed. Lev 17: 11 and Hebrews 9: 22 tell us that blood must be shed for there to be forgiveness from sin. In other words, God was expelling Adam and Eve from the garden with the promise that one day a way for man to be forgiven for his sin would be provided.
GN 9: 11-13 “With these words I [God] make My covenant with you [Noah]; I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. As a sign of this everlasting covenant which I am making with you and all living beings, I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of My covenant with the world.”
In GN 12: 1-3 and 15: 13-21, God made the Abrahamic covenant, a promise of a nation of people, their freedom from Egyptian slavery, and the Promised Land of Israel to Abraham and his descendants through his child of the promise, Isaac. God was setting apart a people to be nation which would make Him both their political and spiritual Leader and which would, as mentioned in Isaiah 42: 6 and IS 49: 6, be given the responsibility to be a “light to the nations.”
You all probably know the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ismael. (Ismael was Abraham’s son with his maidservant, Hagar. But, Isamel was not a child “of the promise,” he was born out of Abraham’s wish to have a son and his wife, Sarah’s, apparent inability to have a child at the time. However, Abraham is made a promise by a visitor who I believe to be an angel of God in GN 18: 10 in which Abraham is told that the elderly Sarah will have a son with him. Sarah overhears this promise being made and laughs. In GN 21: 1-2, we learn that this promise is fulfilled, and the child is named, Isaac, which means “he laughs” in Hebrew.
Once God commissions Moses to lead the Jewish people out of Egyptian slavery, the ensuing events of the exodus once again demonstrate the our Lord keeps his promises. If you will remember, I pointed out in a previous devotion that God never commands you to do something without giving you the means to do it. The story of Joshua’s leadership of the Jews into the Promised Land is a good example.
JOSH 1: 5-6 “Joshua, no one will be able to defeat you as long as you live. I [the Lord] will be with you as I was with Moses. I will always be with you; I will never abandon you. Be determined and confident, for you will be the leader of these people as they occupy this land which I promised their ancestors.”
Israel was not only promised people and land for them to occupy, she was also given a King, chosen by God. This King is God’s Son Who will be given all the nations of the earth to rule.
PS 2: 6 “O Zion, My sacred hill,” He says, “ I have installed My King.”
We learn in IS 9: 6-7 and 11: 1-5 that this King will be from the line of David, a “shoot from the stump of Jesse,” and will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Eternal Father, Mighty God, Prince of Peace. He will bring eternal justice and peace to those who believe in Him.
IS 53: 11 “After a life of suffering, He will again have joy; He will know that He didn’t suffer in vain. My devoted Servant with Whom I am well pleased will bear the punishment of many and for His sake I will forgive them.”
Were you surprised that there are this many citations about Jesus Christ in the OT? I haven’t even scratched the surface. That is one of the reasons that as a Jew, I feel some considerable frustration at having to wait for those of my people who don’t know yet that Christ is their Messiah to have the veil lifted from their eyes. But, God’s timing is best, so I must be patient.
Tomorrow, I will continue writing about the example the Lord sets for us as a Promise-Keeper. Some of you are looking for jobs, some are ill and waiting for healing, some are hurting from divorce, and many of you have felt the consequences of human promises not kept. Whatever your situation, take heart in knowing that your Lord loves you beyond measure and wants you to endure in faith. For some of us the stresses of the season tempt us not to do that. But remember that the person who waits for the Lord in obedient faith is the one who will know His presence and His reward. I write these devotions to you, because I know that waiting and being faithful together is a lot easier than doing so alone. Pete and I want you to know that we send you our love and our prayers that you will soon know the peace that goes beyond human understanding.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn