God Promises?

“And I promised you…” – Leviticus 20:24, CSB

How easy it is for us to claim the promises of God, all the while neglecting the truth behind the fact that God actually promises us anything. I believe we can be so quick to expect God’s promises before we actually thank him for being a God who makes promises in the first place. Are we humbled in any way by the fact that God promises himself to us in limitless ways, or do we move forward in claiming them from a place of entitlement? One of my favorite verses in the Bible is found in Paul’s second letter to a bunch of Christians in Corinth.

For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him. – 2 Corinthians 1:20, CSB

The danger that comes with this verse, though, is that we can read it and then think, “I’ll claim every promise of God as mine based upon how I prefer it to be fulfilled.” But that’s not what Paul is saying. First, he said that all of the promises in the Old Testament were fulfilled in Jesus. His coming, his life, his death, his resurrection were the fulfillment of the promises of God. And so we first start with looking at how God brought about the fulfillment of those promises through his Son. But second, we can receive the promises through the Scripture as applicable to us as long as we look at them through the lens of Christ, first, and then apply them to us in accordance with the context of the promise and the overarching workings of God that are focused on his glory and our good, with our good being defined by what God sees as good for us.

But without even getting into the promises of God through the Scriptures, stop for a minute and answer this question: what is it about us that God would make promises to us? And the key to answering that question is not to focus on us as the reason for God’s making promises, but on God as the one who makes promises. God promises because of who God is. He is a promise-making and promise-keeping God. His making promises reminds us of his faithfulness and power to accomplish all he intends. His making promises reminds us of his generosity toward us. His making promises reminds us of the beauty of his grace and mercy, rather than of our belief that we are worthy of his promises. His making promises is not based on our merit but upon his character. His making promises should cause us to bow in humble worship and thanksgiving, with hands open facing the heavens as an outward expression of our longing to receive any blessing and promise that God has designed and desires for us.

So let’s move past that simple statement from the Lord, “And I promised you…,” without pausing to praise him for being a God who makes promises and for finding us worth promising anything.

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