What is a Promise?

There are MANY promises in the Bible - I've heard that there are anywhere from 365 (a convenient 1 per day of the year), to thousands of promises. But how do I know if a promise applies to me? In my evaluation, there are several types of promises. There are covenants, there are some promises for specific people or groups of people (i.e, quite possibly NOT me), some are conditional promises - something that God promises, but requires an action or attitude on my part. And then there are statements in the Bible that are really more of principles rather than promises.

Two questions I want to ask with each category is this: 1. Does it apply to me? In other words, is this a promise TO ME? 2. Whether or not this promise is TO ME, is there a principle or something that I can learn from it that should and/or will affect my life or walk with God? Just because a promise in the Bible isn't to me, doesn't mean it isn't valuable and shouldn't be applied in my life - I just need to make sure I'm not "claiming it" as a promise, if it isn't a promise!

First of all, I consider the difference between a promise and a covenant. There are a number of covenants in the Bible. For example, there's the Abrahamic covenant - to simplify, it was a promise to a barren Abraham that he would have descendants more numerable than the stars in the sky, among other things (forgive the simplicity: I'm not remembering all the details at the moment, and the rest of the details aren't the point at the moment!). Then there's the Adamic covenant - the promise to Adam of a coming Savior. And those are just two of the covenants. They involve promises from God, but they are to a specific person about a specific topic. I've been reading the book by R.C. Sproul called "The Promises of God: Discovering the One who Keeps His promises". What a read! I'm only to the third chapter, but there's already so much to learn. Here's how Sproul boils down what makes a covenant. "Though the biblical covenants have elements of promise, one thing makes them different from these other kinds of agreements - biblical covenants are established on the basis of a divine sanction. That is, they are established not on the foundation of promises made by equal parties, but on the foundation of the divine promise of God. In the biblical covenants, it is God who declares the terms and makes the promises." Okay - that sounds an awful lot like a promise to me! But what about question 1: does that apply to ME? No. Does it affect me? It does in this sense - God promised Abraham, for example, that he would make of him a great nation. Does that mean that God will make a great nation of ME? No. But it DOES affect me - God DID make of Abraham a great nation, so I can see from some 5,000 years removed that God DID keep his covenant to Abraham, which gives me faith to trust His other promises - including those that DO directly apply to me. Of course the case could also be made that through Abraham, the great nation was made, through that great nation the Savior came, and through that Savior comes MY Salvation. But the bottom line is this: that covenant wasn't directly made with me. Meanwhile, other covenants DO apply directly to me - including the NEW Covenant, presented by Jesus! And just in case I wasn't sure if it would apply to me as a Gentile, the book of Romans is only one of several New Testament passages that make the argument for the fact that it DOES apply to me! Thank you, God!

Though I touched on it above, there are also promises of God that were designed for a specific person or group of people. My favorite husband suggested 2 Chronicles 7:14 as an example. Here's what it says: "if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." I can't tell you how many times I've heard this presented as a "promise" from God. So lets ask the question again: does this promise apply to me? Lets take a look at the context - this is a MAJOR clue in helping us know the answer to that question, no matter the passage or "promise"! Take a look at the context on this one. 

11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished. 12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 17 And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, 18 then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.’

This is a conversation that God had with Solomon, after he had built the temple. I don't see any references to the Solomonic Covenant in the commentaries (for one thing, it's a mouthful to pronounce!), so it doesn't seem to be a major covenant. But if you look at the beginning of the sentence in verse 13, it says sets the stage for when people are to humble themselves, pray, seek his face, turn from their wicked ways, etc. "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people..." 1. There is a specific circumstance for this promise. 2. There is a specific condition for this promise (people called by his name, humbling themselves, etc.). 3. It seems to be to a specific people - He was talking to Solomon about the Israelites (see the following verses about his promise of a throne to rule ISRAEL). Now we ask the second question though: does it affect me? I certainly believe it DOES. What do we learn about God from this passage? 1. He can and does bring physical consequences for sin. 2. When sin is present, he desires that his people (now us Gentiles are called by his name as well) will humble themselves, pray, seek his face, and turn from their wicked ways. 3. He promised Solomon that he would hear the Israelites prayer when THEY did those things - it is likely that he will hear us as well (see other passages like James 5:16 for principles that support this), forgive our sin, and heal our land. By the way, that's another major clue: what does the rest of the Bible say about this topic - if it's a promise from God, it won't be contradictory to the principles taught in the rest of the Bible! So this certainly isn't a useless passage for us. I still wrestle with the context to understand better whether this might still apply to us (am I as a Gentile part of the "my people who are called by my name", through the New Covenant?). But at the same time, I don't want to claim that God's promising me something when he was really just promising a certain person or group of people. Even though this promise may not directly APPLY to me, I believe there's a strong APPLICATION to me, that I certainly won't limit. I can still quote this verse as a reminder of this hearty PRINCIPLE to apply to my life. I just won't take it as a PROMISE to ME. 

Now how about the conditional promise? That promise to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 actually is a good example of a conditional promise to the Israelites. Another name for this would be an "If, then" promise. He was telling Solomon that IF the people would humble themselves, IF the people would seek His face, IF they turned from their wicked ways, THEN God would hear from heaven, THEN He would forgive their sins, THEN He would heal their land. What would happen if the people DIDN'T humble themselves, etc? Then God WOULDN'T hear from heaven, etc. An example of a conditional promise that applies to ALL believers is this verse from Acts 16:31 - "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (sorry, one of those that I learned from the KJV, and just can't be recited without the "thou"!). IF you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, THEN you will be saved. What happens if I DON'T believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? THEN I won't be saved. So again we ask the question: does this APPLY to ME? The answer is a conditional "yes". Do I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Then, yes, this promise DOES apply to me. The question of its effect on me is also dependent on the condition in the verse, though I can also apply general truth from this verse even if it doesn't apply to me. If I DON'T believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I can still see how it would affect me: God WANTS me to believe on  Jesus, and by doing that, I would be saved. 

Additionally, I hope you've already seen that there are still PRINCIPLES that can be applied. Many of the passages that we take as promises are really just principles. Take the book of Proverbs for example. Certainly, I'm not saying that there aren't some promises in that book, but most of what you will find are PRINCIPLES. The one I hear most often is one I hesitate to bring up, as fragile parents have clung to this passage. Proverbs 22:6 says "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." I can only begin to grasp the pain of a parent who has dedicated blood, sweat, and tears into training their child into a Godly young man or woman, only to see them walk away, sometimes RUN away, as the prodigal son into a "wicked" lifestyle - whatever that means for that child. But as I look at the context of this verse, it is part of a string of principles, and there is nothing that vaguely resembles a "promise" here. So is this a promise that applies to me? I'd have to say no. BUT... is there a way that this passage still should affect and impact me? MOST DEFINITELY! When you have a principle from God, it's one you SHOULD see changing your life - you SHOULD model your life after those things, even if it's not a promise! 1. As a parent, if you want your children to go "the way he should go", your job is to "train up a child in the way he should go" - it doesn't happen by accident. Please allow this slight bunny-trail from someone whose job it is to minister to children - It also doesn't happen by sending your child to one hour of Sunday School (OR Good News Club) each week! This happens by living the example, actively TEACHING your children on a daily basis - not just through devotions, but through conversation, teachable moments, praying for and with your children, etc.! I digress. 2. In a general principle, a child who is trained well will stay in the way he should go. Ultimately, as a comfort to parents, though, it's between that child and God - and if you ever doubt that child's ability to communicate with God, never doubt God's ability to communicate to that child - HE is the one who loves them even more than you do, and through His Holy Spirit can convict! 

Of course, there is also the flat out promise. You may still find qualifications (ie the promise to the believer, v the unbeliever), but there are general promises that you can find that apply to Jew or Gentile, Old Testament or New Testament, etc. For the sake of conversation, lets assume that we are believers, and looking for promises that apply to all believers. One example that comes to mind is that of Hebrews 13:5 "for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" You'll find it in a list of general instructions, but these instructions are definitely written to believers. Though the book itself is written to a predominantly Jewish audience, it is written to the Jewish believer - members of God's family. In the midst of that, we find this beautiful promise. Does it apply to us? Yup! Does it affect us? Yup! This is a promise I can COUNT ON!!! Praise God!

So, those are the different types of promises that I see... maybe as we go, I'll find another category, but this'll help lay the foundation for future conversations. Thank you for joining me on this journey. We may find ourselves at a very different understanding by the time we "finish" this journey! One thing I know for sure, though, and find great comfort in: when God makes a promise, he KEEPS his promise! 

Oh, and here's one more bonus promise for you as a believer, with a God that will never leave us: "So we can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?'" There's one to apply to our lives!