I talk to my Bible classes often about how God keeps His promises. I think it is extremely important for them to understand that. If they grow up believing that, their faith will be strengthened.
Over the whiteboard in my classroom are the words, God Keeps His Promises. I teach that as an undisputable fact; and every promise of God that appears in my lessons, I call attention to those words.
One of the promises made was to the patriarch, Abraham. “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him” (Genesis 12:7 ESV).
Abraham and Lot began a long journey with their families and their flocks. The two eventually separated, and God made the promise again. “The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, ‘Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever’” (Genesis 13:14-15).
There was no offspring at the time of either promise, but the promise was fulfilled with the birth of Isaac. The land promise took a little longer. It took longer because of these descendants of Abraham being in bondage for 400 years, an event that was also promised in Genesis 15:13-21.
The promise was again repeated in the book of Deuteronomy but this time with conditions. “And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers—provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the LORD your God and by walking ever in his ways—then you shall add three other cities to these…” (Deuteronomy 19:8-9).
It took many years for this promise to be fulfilled. Some think it was never fulfilled, but we can read that it was.
When we turn to the book of Joshua, we find proof of the fulfillment. The 21st chapter is a description of the division of the land, and then we read these words; “Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there” (Deuteronomy 21:43).
When Solomon became king, scripture says, “Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life” (First Kings 4;21). This is also found in Second Chronicles 9:26.
Many years later, when the people of Israel returned to Jerusalem from captivity to rebuild the walls of the city, Ezra, the scribe, stood before the people and read the Law. The people responded by separating themselves from all the foreigners among them, stood and confessed their sins, and worshiped the Lord. The Levites reiterated God’s making the world, and then repeated the promise He had made to Abram. They told the story of the captivity in Egypt, Moses leading the people out of bondage, the giving of the Law, the holiness of the Sabbath, their sins, and the many disobedient acts of which they were guilty.
Before the Levites began their proclamation, this is what they proclaimed. “…And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous” (Nehemiah 9:8). There is no doubt that God kept His promises.
When Jesus came, He brought another promise. “Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: “’The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’”? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (Matthew 21:42-43).
The Jews lost their place as the chosen people of God, because they rejected the Lord. Christians are now the seed of Abraham: Jew, Gentile, or whomever obeys the commands of the Bible. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew not Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:27-29).
This is just one example of how God keeps His promises.
Sandra Oliver
*Yes, God keeps His promises and so must we.*
Notice in every Scripture example of a promise (except for the rainbow, which was promised to everyone good or evil), there were always two parts–man’s part and God’s part. Two examples of instances where God did not keep his promises are:
1. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Sam. 2:30 KJV).
2. “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; *because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord”* (Heb. 8:6-9 KJV).