God Made a Promise

 "For when  God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swear by Himself. Saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee...For men swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation..." Hebrews 6:13-14 & 16-18

My dad used to tell me about a time when men would make agreements based on verbal promises and  handshakes. He would tell me how those handshakes were just as solid and binding as a signed contract. A man with reputation would NEVER think about breaking his word. All I can say is - "Wow!" Men stood behind their promises and kept their word!

Consider how we treat God sometimes - we tend to look at Him with all the skepticism and mistrust we afford other human beings. The words trust, promise and integrity have little meaning in our society. You've heard it or maybe said it..."I can't trust them as far as I can throw them!" The sad part is we begin to treat God with the same disdain and mistrust...

Picture it - Abraham didn't have history or the Bible to tell him about God. God picked Abraham out of all the humans on earth (at the time) because he was a righteous man. God did not physically show himself to Abraham, but God began the conversation with Abraham. Abraham trusted God (this voice) enough to move from his homeland. Imagine it...Abraham's family must have thought he was crazy!

God made a promise to multiple his seed as the stars in the sky - Abraham took God at His word. God promised to bless him and that was enough for Abraham. I can imagine God searching for something or someone greater to swear by - in order to give Abraham the consolation he desired. When God could not find anything or anyone greater, He swore by Himself. To this extent, God made a promise based on the immutability of Himself!! (Immutability basically means unchangeability.) 

Hmmm....Abraham was willing to trust God at a time when no one really knew what that meant. We have the Word of God and we have the indwelling Spirit of God. Yet we put human restrictions on God  expecting Him to be like everyone else - being shortsighted, untrustworthy, self-indulgent in every way. Inside we may not believe, but that is how we treat our relationship with God. 

God is NOT like us humans! He is the creator of the universe, he spoke the world into existence and shaped Adam out of the dirt. God gave the oceans boundaries, told the stars where to hang (yes, He created the constellations), and He put 24 hours in a day! He does not need our permission to to do His work and, yet, he takes great pleasure keeping His promises to us. 

God makes us promises every day and He stands by each one of them! We must always remember He is holy, righteous, worthy of power and glory! He alone is God! When Adam and Eve failed miserably, He had a back up plan! God loves us that much! 

Dear reader - following, loving and serving God is worth it! For God alone is holy, righteous, and REAL!!!

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