Joshua 19-21. It was drilled into me at a young age that a person’s word was their bond. A promise was sacred and could not be broken. As I grew and experienced the world I came to realize that such a belief was not all that widely held. Lawyers proliferate partly to try and hold people to their promises and partly to try and get people out of their promises. Joshua 21:45 says, “Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” God is a promise maker. God is a promise keeper!
We are about a quarter of the way into reading the Bible in a year. It was way back in the early part of Genesis that God made the promise to Abram that He would give to his descendants the land of Canaan. That was about 600 or so years prior to today’s reading. Needless to say, some of God’s promises have a long timeline. Fortunately, they also do not have an expiration date. We most often think in terms of days, weeks, and years. The LORD, who exists outside of time, but created time for our sake, moves on a grander and more spectacular scale when time is concerned. There is a term used for Jesus’ birth that captures God’s use of time… “in the fullness of time”. When all the conditions had been met, it was time for God’s ultimate promise to be met. Jesus… God in the flesh… God walking among humanity… God demonstrating how to live… and how to die… Jesus our redeemer kinsman… Jesus, our Lord and our God! Jesus, the ultimate promise keeper. The ultimate promise kept.
As we enter Holy Week, I will deviate from posting about the daily reading through the Bible to look at Jesus and Holy Week. This week is the annual remembrance of the penultimate week in all of history. From Genesis 3:15 through the last verses of Malachi in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was inspiring the writers to point to Jesus and this week that occurred some 2000 years ago. And since that time, all of history has been shifted because of the resurrection and the reality that death has been conquered, the Holy Spirit has been given to the Church, and Satan’s domination of humanity has been broken. Many of the LORD’s great promises have been fulfilled. And we rest in the sure and certain knowledge that those that remain are coming. For it is true… not one word of all the good promises that the LORD has made will fail to come to pass. God is a promise maker. God is a promise keeper.
Come Lord Jesus. Use us to keep your promises. Inspire our words and actions to perfectly align with you and your good work in the world. Transform hearts, minds, and lives through your Holy Spirit and your people walking in a living faith. Jesus, it is in your Name that we pray!
areliablefaith 