THE PROMISES OF GOD are starkly different than our promises. We are quick to open our mouths with declarations of loyalty to those we love, or harm towards those who we consider enemy. As time inexorably tests the truth of our vows, we are proven untrustworthy by our lack of action. But, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Num. 23:19) God’s promises, whether blessing or curse, are promises that he keeps.
He promised to take Israel out of slavery in Egypt. This promise he kept, in the full sight and knowledge of all of the people. “Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?” (Deut. 4:34) The promise of a land of their own had been made long ago to Abraham— “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” (Gen. 12:1)
That same promise extended through Abraham to Isaac, Jacob, and all their descendants. But the generation under Moses’ leadership, despite all that God had done in their sight, lacked trust in him; they also were devoid of the courage necessary to enter the land and make it their own. So his promise passes by the desert generation of Moses to the next generation under Joshua: “As for your children, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.” (Num. 14:31) But God’s prophetic curse falls upon those who failed the covenant promise, “For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.” (Num. 14:34)
All disobedience to God is an affront to his loving-kindness, and incites his wrath. In the N.T. we are warned, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31) And in Hebrews, scripture recalls the disobedience of that generation of Israelites who fell in the desert, and reminds us of the nature and character of God in respect to his covenant promises. “I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” (Heb. 3:10-11) The promise of God to those who came out of slavery in Egypt was indeed a land of their own, a land of “milk and honey.”
But there was a far greater promise, and that promise was a God of their own, a God of providence and protection, a God who takes personal interest in the lives of both people and nations who call him “Father.” In him was—and is—freedom from the anxiety produced by the lack of needs and basic security. In rejecting him, they removed his hand of protection. And so they fell victim to the very things they feared—and their bodies fell in dead in the desert as an object lesson to the Israelites, and to us.
The covenants of God are always made in the context of “If you, then I…” You and I have an inherent obligation within the covenant promises. God assures his bounty and blessing to those who meet that promise with faith and obedience; he also warns of the dangers of disobedience. His two-edged promise is important enough to him, and therefore to us, to inscribe this in stone as the second of the Ten Commandments: “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Ex. 20:5-6, Deut. 5:5) If you think this unfair, remember, he is the God who created us. Consider also Paul’s thoughts on this subject. “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” (cf. Rom. 9:19-24)
The covenant promise of the fourth of the Ten Commandments remains, and this too is written in stone: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.” (Ex. 20:8, Deut. 5: 12) The writer of Hebrews reminds and cautions us, “Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.” (Heb. 4:1-2)
Let this, then, be our guide and our prayer: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Pro. 3:5-6) “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb. 4:14-16)
Q. Am I a covenant-keeper?
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