I don’t know if this event is still around, but I remember going to an event for Christian men called, “Promise Keepers” when I was a teenager with my father. At the time, I loved it because it was a good father-son bonding experience. He and I went to the event with a few of his friends from our church, and I also had a friend of mine come along.
The weekend-long event was focused on how to be a “strong Christian man” in the changing world. It had a number of main speakers as well as small group events and lectures. There were lots of testimonials given, books sold, and songs sung, but I don’t remember the speakers using the Bible itself too much. Being a teenager, I didn’t really understand everything the speakers said, but the theme of “keeping a promise” was something I did understand. And we can find that all throughout the Bible.
The Promise
God is the true “promise keeper”. We are called to be like God and keep our promises we make to Him in faith. When God says He will do something, he means it. In one example we see in the Old Testament, God spoke through His prophet, Isaiah, and said,
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and it shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:10-11
In these verses, God mentions how rain waters the earth, making the plants grow so farmers can plant seeds and people can eat the food they produce. God doesn’t do things randomly. Instead, He has a plan and that plan is for the salvation of His people. When He gives His words to the prophets, He makes sure those words fulfill their purpose. Just as the rain does its purpose.
During the time of King Solomon, the people of Israel worshiped foreign gods because their king did also (whatever the head does, the body follows). Because they broke the covenant, the promise, they had made with God to not worship any gods but Him, God had to make a way to get them back. He wanted to create a new way to reconnect with His people. So, he made a prophecy (a promise) through His prophet Isaiah.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Isaiah 7:14
As our earlier passage from Isaiah 55 says, God will carry out what He says. It doesn’t mean God will do it right away, though. If you’ve ever baked a cake or cookies before, you know how important timing is. If you leave the food in the oven for too long it will burn. But if you take it out too early it’s not completely cooked through. You’ve got to take it out at the right time for it to be edible.
Likewise, God will make good on His promise when the time is right. He first needs to let the prophecy spread to all of His people, so that they would know what He promised and what is to come. God doesn’t hold people accountable to a promise they don’t even know about. He allows time for everyone to hear about it so that they have a chance to keep it.
The Fulfillment of the Promise
After time had passed, and all of the Israelites knew the prophecy, God then chose a young woman named Mary to carry his promised child.
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
Luke 1:30-32
Then, when the time came for the baby to be born…
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
Matthew 1:18-23
This was but one example of God promising something and then doing what He said He would do. It shows us that the Bible is not just a collection of moral teachings or history. We can see how God always keeps the promises He makes with His people. He does this so that He can complete His will and plan of reconnecting us with Him.
For us as Christians, we should know the promises that God made through Jesus in the New Testament so that we can recognize the reality of the promise when He keeps it (John 14:29). As believers and followers of Christ, we know and trust that God has and always will keep His promises. Let’s consider for ourselves if we’ve also kept our end of the promise too.
Written by Kenny
If you would like to read more about some of the things God has promised, check out these posts!
Could A World of Peace Ever Exist?
The End of the World…Or Is It?
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