Promise for Promise

This past Christmas, the professor I worked for gave me the book Radical by David Platt. I read it as soon as I moved back to Michigan and really enjoyed it. I decided to take on part of the “Radical Experiment” and read the Bible within a year. We are a third of the way through the year and I am going strong (which seems almost miraculous). I’m in the Old Testament still, and there’s one thing I’ve noticed that really struck me.

My Religion professors, Pastors, and Chapel speakers always talked about God’s promises, but no one talks much about the people's responses to His promises. God was (and still is) always faithful to carry out His promises. In fact, the only times in the Old Testament when He did not follow through with what He said were instances when He threatened to wipe out a people or cause harm. Sometimes His anger was waylaid by the prophets or others who were in His favor and the people were saved. And then other times He spared only the prophet and his family…I bet that people group wished their prophet was a better communicator/"convincer." Not that that’s anything to joke about.

Anyway, we hear about God’s promises and how faithful He is to fulfill His promises all the time. That is one of the many characteristics we attribute to God - His faithfulness. What I’d like to touch on, though, is our pathetic human nature. Reading through I Samuel - II Kings I really just wanted to bang my head against the wall sometimes. There were so many kings, SO many who were promised everything they could possibly want by God. They and their lineage would be the rulers of the kingdom forever. God would be on their side and help them in battle. They and their people would have everything they would need. They would be prosperous. What was the stipulation? They had to worship God and Him alone and follow His commands. So as long as they remained on God’s good side, they would have everything.

What I also find amusing is how God gives us guidelines in order to keep us on the right track. He even tells us that. He told the kings not to marry or fall in love with women from certain tribes/families, because those women would drag them into the worship of other false gods. Isn’t it funny how we women have such control over men? We’re very convincing. I bet if there were more female prophets, less people would have died. Still not funny…and I digress. God gave the kings rules to help protect them from the things that would anger God and keep them from the potential of God’s promises.

Time and time again, the kings under God’s favor would fail. Time and time again, God would leave those kings and find another one who He thought would be worthy of His promise. I just imagine God shaking His head and feeling ashamed that yet another one let him down and then scouring the Earth for one king with an honest heart that would be able to follow Him completely. A man that would be worth promising everything to.

I think when God makes us successful and prosperous, we start to lose sight of the goal. The only real goal those kings needed was to follow God and His will. They would start out that way, then as they began to reap the benefits their judgment became clouded and gave more meaning and worth to the benefits than to God. They forgot that, in order to take advantage of those benefits, they needed to love God more.

So many of us lose sight of what is really important. It isn’t the job, the house, the car, or the money. It certainly isn’t the clothes or décor. What is important is worshiping the One who blessed us with this life, and placing Him above all other things and persons. When God is in the right place in our hearts is when we will have abundant life. We need to make ourselves worthy of God's promises.



"Not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled."
-Joshua 21:45

"I will listen to what God the Lord will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints - but let them not return to folly."
-Psalms 85:8

"Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."
-II Corinthians 7:1