Promises

“ To Abraham and his seed were the promises made… if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. ”

Promises are made to be broken. Promise her anything, but give her Arpege. Don't give me promises; give me money . Our attitude about promises can be shaped by many disappointments and failures, betrayals and lost dreams. We can become cynical about all promises, because one promise was broken. A promise delayed can make the heart grow sick. We come to reject any promise and want performance only. But these failures and betrayals were people—fallible, gullible, frail and sinful—doing what people do: lie, forget, change their minds, and cheat each other.

When it comes to God, do we know if He keeps His promises? How do we know that? Has He promised you anything, and not kept His promise?

Abraham has been rightly called the Father of Faith. From this one man who lived 4000 years ago, come three major world religions and more than half of the world today follows one or another of them. What was it about Abraham that created such a following? Abraham never wrote a book, didn't really found a religious practice of unique worship, didn't even have much to say to people about his God. Moses did a lot more in those ways. What was revolutionary about Abraham was that he believed in one God. This God was not like the gods worshipped by his father's family, pagan deities worshipped and served in order to get favors on earth, rich harvests, material pleasure. The God of Abraham was the God Who created all things, and to whom all things are answerable and shall return after this life ends.

One day, God commanded Abraham to leave his family and head south; “To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3 Abraham didn't say to Sarah, his wife, “Did you hear anything? I just had the craziest daydream.” No, Abraham believed the voice and began packing. God just loved Abraham for that. They arrived in Canaan, and God appeared to his friend and said: “To your descendants I will give this land.” Genesis 12:7 “And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.” Genesis 13:14-17 “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” Genesis 15:1 “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them. So shall your descendants be.” Genesis 15:4-6

Abraham believed all that. God loved him for it. God overlooked Abraham's human failures and sins and considered him righteous because of the man's faith in these promises. Now this faith meant Abraham acted accordingly. When God said, Go south, Abraham went. Faith is not just a fond hope, a fantasy of what might be. Faith is a kind of knowledge of what shall be. When the God of the universe said it, Abraham trusted God to perform it. But God stretched Abraham, just a bit.

This promise of countless descendants didn't come to fruition for 25 years, and by the time Abraham was 99 years old, a son by Sarah had not yet been born. God commanded circumcision as the sign of the man's faith and that of his tribe. When Abraham turned 100, Isaac was born.

This boy grew to a teenager and was the apple of his daddy's eye. This was the son God promised to take the covenant to countless generations. Then one day, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah. Abraham was so faithful, so obedient, that he obeyed this terrible command. God stopped the sacrifice and accepted a ram instead, then told Abraham, “Because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Genesis 22:16-18

Our Epistle today cites Abraham's faith in God's promises as being greater than the Law of Moses. The Law came 430 years later, but God already counted Abraham righteous because of the man's faith. And because of this faith, God promised Abraham, and his descendants, great things—an inheritance. What was the inheritance? It's never stated clearly in Genesis where the account of Abraham's life is first given, but later Scriptures caught the gleam in the old man's eye. Abraham and his descendants are praised in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own… a better country, that is a heavenly one.” Hebrews 11:13-16 “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which he also received him back.” Hebrews 11:17-19

Bottom line: if God said it, Abraham believed it, and a faith was born that has lasted. Later, the Law came as a training ground for what behavior is accepted, and what is not. The Law was never intended to establish the standard of salvation because on that standard, everyone failed. It was never a performance standard, God believing every promise men made. If God believed me, every time I promise, He would be foolish. He knows what I'm made of, and how I lie, forget, and change my mind. He is looking for faith, a soul who believes the promises He made and lives according to the promise.

On Mount Moriah, God made a promise and inside that, a Promise. He had Abraham offer up his only son, Isaac, the son of promise. It was a brutal, heart-rending command, and Abraham passed the test. God stopped him from following through, but then promised Abraham that in his seed would all the world be blessed, every nation, every family, everybody. Now, Abraham was great, and his faith has touched billions of people, but how could this one man's family, the Jews, bless everybody? Here our Epistle to the Galatians notices something: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,' as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,' that is, Christ.” Galatians 3:16 Abraham's seed is Jesus, the Savior of the world, who died for every soul to have the promise of eternal life offered. That promise has one requirement: you've gotta believe it. St. Peter wrote: “ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 “We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:13 And St. John echoes with: “This is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.” 1 John 2:25

In His life, Jesus had a constant battle with those who thought they had the promises, but by a strict adherence to the law, without grace, without faith, without mercy. His parable of the Good Samaritan chafed the sensibilities of Pharisees and priests, because they thought avoidance of a bleeding, perhaps dead stranger was keeping the Law. He showed how a foreigner, one they distained, kept God's will by being merciful.

It was just such teaching as this that got Him executed. But that was a fulfillment of God's promise, as it turns out. God had promised salvation, a suffering servant according to Isaiah, whose stripes would heal us and whose death would be for us salvation. But Abraham knew more: he knew where.

For it was on Mount Moriah, 1900 years after Abraham had offered up Isaac, after God had stopped the sacrifice and commended Abraham's faith, on the same mountain, God's only son, the son of promise, was led up the hill, carrying the wood of the sacrifice on his own back. He laid down on the wood and cruel iron bit into his flesh. He went without complaint, a perfect male, a lamb offered for the sins of the whole world, at the command of God, His Father. By His righteous and faithful obedience the entire world was blessed and goes on being blessed. This seed of Abraham fulfilled the promise and made the way to eternal life by His sacrifice.

What do you think of promises? Men's promises are a shaky prospect, unless that person is tried and true, inspiring trust according to how faithfully he has performed all his other promises. Even so with God, for we are human, and we must come to trust this invisible Deity according to what He has already fulfilled. Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies of the Old Testament. His miracles could not be faked. His resurrection was witnessed by over 500 people. The church He started continued in the faith and miraculous path He started. It was a way of faith, not salvation by the Law, returning Jews and Gentiles back to the faith of Abraham, the friend of God. His means of grace, forgiveness, new life, and redemption are available right now in His church. You must receive them by faith, but these are not promises deferred. We will see Heaven later, but it begins right now. And so we approach His altar. “ Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised.)” Hebrews 10:23

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