Standing on the Promises

There was an old hymn we used to sing when I was growing up. It was titled “Standing on the Promises of God.” This is the first verse and the chorus:Standing on the promises of Christ my King,

Through eternal ages let His praises ring, Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God.

Standing, standing, Standing on the promises of God, my Savior; Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.

That sings really well, but it doesn’t really help you at all. We didn’t understand any more about God’s promises after singing it, than we did before we sang it. What promises is it taking about? Wouldn’t it be better if the song actually told you what some of those promises were, and how you are supposed to stand on them?

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with singing that song and the guy who wrote it had great intentions to spur others on to faith in God’s ability to heal. He had a heart condition that

the doctors declared there was nothing more they could, but he ended up living an additional 49 years when God healed him.

My point is this, if we are going to stand on the promises we find in God’s word, maybe we should know what they actually are and how they operate for us.

Let’s look into an early promise God made to Jacob who would later be called Israel. This happened when Jacob had his famous dream where he saw a ladder that reached into heaven and angels were ascending and descending on it.

Genesis 28:13-15 “13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

God has made an unconditional promise to Jacob, because of his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. God was establishing His chosen earthly family, that He would use to bring Jesus the Messiah into the world. Notice how God identifies Himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac. He is not yet the God of Jacob...because Jacob is not yet ready to surrender to Him.

The name Jacob means deceiver. At this point in his life, Jacob has already lived up to that name. He has just deceived his father Isaac and stolen his brother’s blessing.

Here’s the thing about us as humans. We all believe that other people are just like us. Here’s what I mean. If you are a very trustworthy person, you naturally think other people are trustworthy. If you’re default position in a negotiation is to cheat someone, then you probably think the other person is trying to do the same to you.

Jacob is a deceiver and is not trustworthy, so his natural reaction is to believe the same about God. Here is how he responds to God’s promise.

Genesis 28:20-22 “20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

Jacob says, if you do theses things, then You can be my God. We often think about God as being an if/then God, but here it’s Jacob, not God, who puts conditions on his promise. All throughout scripture we see God making if/then promises to Israel when it comes to the blessings He promises them. This just means that you have a part to play in the equation. You have a responsibility, if you are to see this promise come to pass.

Let’s examine an if/then promise.

Deuteronomy 28:1 ““And if you faithfully obey the voice ofthe Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

The conditions are clearly laid out first. Faithful obedience to God’s direction and taking action on all His commandments.

Next, we need to understand who this promise is made to, and figure out if it applies to us today. In order to do that, we have to establish context. Is this passage written to an individual or nation? Clearly it is written to the nation of Israel, in order to get them to understand their role as God’s people. Deuteronomy 28 is part of God’s covenant with the nation of Israel, in order for them to be His nation.

Deuteronomy 28:2-9 “2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice ofthe Lord your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city,and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneadingbowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways.

This could not be more clear. This is for the nation of Israel. But I can’t tell you how many sermons I’ve heard pastors preach about your personal blessing guarantee from this chapter.

If we personalize the context of this passage, it can be dangerous for churches today. It’s because telling people that they will be blessed like Abraham gets people excited and makes for a high energy, feel good sermon.

But the reality is that those promises were not made to you individually, they were made to Israel specifically. And they were for the benefit of God building His nation of people, Israel. So that the other nations would have no doubt that Yahweh is the the Most High God over all creation.

Deuteronomy 28:10-11 “10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that

the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.

Did God swear to your father to give you land? Do you still think this is talking about you personally? It’s not. Having said that, are there principals and concepts we can take from it? Yes. The concept of obedience and following God’s word, is always going to be to your benefit. Notice I didn’t say blessing.

Deuteronomy 28:12-14 “12 The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do

them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Don’t serve other gods. Does that sound familiar? “Thou shall have no other gods before Me.” The first commandment.So if someone teaches that a promise that was made to the nation of Israel in the Old testament, is for you today. And then you claim that promise for yourself...and it is not fulfilled, you

may naturally want to come and ask me why it didn’t work. It may even lead you to believe that God cannot be trusted to keep His word...and that is the real danger. In that situation, the only answer I will have for you is that the person who taught you that was wrong.

As this passage continues, God makes some more promises to Israel, to let them know what will happen if they do not obey His word. This is the part of the passage that does not get preached.

Deuteronomy 28:15-19 “15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the

field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneadingbowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

That doesn’t preach good, does it? That just sounds really terrible. Do you still want to take this promise passage personally?

There was a song we used to sing in Sunday school when I was a kid, and it said this:“Every promise in the book is mine,every chapter, every verse, every line.

All are blessings of His love divine.Every promise in the book is mine.” Nope, that’s not accurate.

So, how are we to understand the promises found in the Bible? How do we know if we can claim a promise for ourself or not?

The first thing we have to do is understand the context of a promise. Is it Old Testament or New Testament? Generally speaking, Old Testament promises are different than New Testament promises. The context of Old Testament promises are generally to be viewed as speaking to Israel as a nation...from which we can derive principles. The context of New Testament promises are generally to be viewed as speaking to us as individual believers.

Why is that important? Because as I said earlier, we cannot take an Old Testament promise that God made to Israel and try to apply it to our life individually. It won’t work.

Another thing to examine is the if/then setup. You see, some of God’s promises are unconditional, but others are conditional. The idea of a conditional promise would be a promise that uses the “if/then” statements. God says that “if you do something..then He will do something.”

Proverbs 2:1-5 “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”

An if/then promise requires something from you first...then God will respond. It is a conditional promise.

John 8:31-32 “31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We love to quote verse 32, but the condition to that promise is in verse 31. The prerequisite or condition, to being a true disciple, knowing the truth and being set free is...“If you abide in My Word.”

It’s simple. Promises that have an if/then condition attached to them operate like this. If...we promise to make monthly payments, then...the bank promises give us money for a building. BUT, if...we don’t make the payments, then...they don’t let us keep the building. There are promises made on each side of the deal. Both parties must keep their promises in order to fulfill the promise.

But what if you read the contract that we signed with the bank and then claimed that the bank has to give you money for a house also. Is the bank under any requirement to give you money individually just because it gave us money as a group?

Of course not. But that’s how a lot of people want to read that Deuteronomy passage. The one where God promised Israel blessings if they keep His commandments. They want to claim that God is required to give them the same thing He gave Israel.

God will 100% fulfill every promise He has ever made, but it is up to you to understand if that promise applies to a specific person, to a group generally or to you personally. This is the key to unlocking God’s promises in your life.