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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
God has promised many things in the Bible. There are books written by uninspired men which capture and catalog these promises. One of these books, Precious Bible Promises, gives a long and quite extensive list of God's promises divided into over 100 categories. Another book of promises is actually a calendar of 365 promises, one for each day of the year. While such efforts are appreciated, a few fundamental facts need to be known about God's promises before embracing them as applicable to all men for all time.
First, God's promises are generally conditional. This is to say that many, if not most, of God's promises apply if and only if certain circumstances prevail. When God promised Adam that He could eat of every tree of the garden except one, He did not explicitly say, “As long as you remain in my fellowship you may eat of every tree of the garden except one,” but that was the obvious intent. After man sinned and he was cast out of the garden, no one accused God of going back on His promises; the conditions of His promise to Adam were understood!
A second example is also presented here. God promised to give the Promised Land to Israel forever (see such passages as Genesis 13.15, Exodus 32.12, Joshua 14.9, etc.). However, that is not all He said on the subject. After Solomon's temple had been dedicated, the Lord said to him, “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them [Israel] from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and this house?’ Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’” (2 Chronicles 7.19-22). Again we see that God's promises are frequently conditional, even when it is not explicitly stated.
Secondly, God's promises are sometimes made to a specific person or group and any attempt to extend the benefits to others is a violation of God's intent. This fact is so obvious that it should not need to be expressed, yet men have forgotten (willingly or unwillingly) this fundamental fact. For instance, the promises made to Israel do not apply to humanity in general. The Promised Land was the Promised Land only to Israel. In fact, if one thinks about it, if Israel was promised exclusive rights to the land, no one else could have been recipients of the same promise! God's promises to Noah were exclusively to Him UNLESS He extended them explicitly or implicitly to others. Salvation via the ark was a promise exclusively to Noah and to his family. The promises connected with the rainbow, on the other hand, were promises that were extended to all of humanity so long as time stands (Genesis 9.8-17).
Finally, we would do well to end these thoughts by pondering the magnificence of God's promises. So splendid are they, that even men who were directly given words by the Holy Spirit found it impossible to fully communicate their grandeur. Streets of gold, walls of jasper, gates of pearl, a pure river of water of life clear as crystal, and scores of other metaphors represent the marvellous promises that await fulfilment for all those who call upon His name. Even God's conditional promises – especially God's conditional promises – are more than worth the effort to accept and receive!
Questions:
1. Why is it important to determine to whom specific promises apply or were spoken?
2. If a promise is conditional, but it is known in advance that the conditions cannot be met, is it a promise or a deliberate deception? Can we meet God's conditionals for the promises of salvation? If not, why isn't God guilty of deliberate deception?
3. Why did inspired writers like John use metaphors to describe some of the future promises that the elect will receive in eternity?
4. What is it about God and His promises that distinguishes them from the promises of man (see Deuteronomy 7.9, Titus 1.2, and 2 Peter 3.9)?
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