There are 4 major promises made by God and recorded in the Bible that have significant impact for believers today. With amazing precision these promises have been fulfilled and are being fulfilled before our eyes in this generation. When we step back and view the promises and the unique ways they were and are being kept, we see that God will follow through with every detail prophesied in the Bible and believers can rest assured that their salvation is secure. God’s promises are trustworthy.
The first was God’s promise to Abraham that through him and his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In Genesis 12 Abram is called by God to leave his country, people and family and go to a land God will show him. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
The Lord prospered Abram and he became wealthy and known, however he and his wife did not have any children. As Abram aged, he questioned God and God spoke to him and reassured him that a son coming from his own body would be his heir. God took him outside and showed him the stars and told him “Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.” Genesis 15:5. Abraham’s belief in God’s promise was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).
In the 17th chapter of Genesis, Abram is told again by God that he would be the father of many nations and God changed his name to Abraham and his wife’s name to Sarah. In his unique way, the Lord caused this aged couple to conceive and have a son when Abraham was one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety. God then established the covenant of circumcision with Abraham and his descendants as a sign of God’s promise to him (Genesis 17:9-14). Abraham’s offering of his son Isaac on the alter, as recorded in Genesis 22 became the precursor to the heavenly Father offering his one and only Son, Jesus as a sacrifice for sin on the exact same location two thousand years later (refer to the article Precise Precursors, November 6, 2021).
The second promise was his covenant with the nation of Israel that if they faithfully served him they would prosper as a nation and if they were not faithful to him, they would be destroyed. While they were slaves in Egypt God established the Passover, sparing the households that smeared lamb’s blood on their door posts, from the death he brought upon the first born babies in the land (Genesis 12). The significance of the Passover was elaborated at the last supper when Jesus celebrated it with his disciples the night before he was crucified as the Lamb of God.
God rescued the people of Israel from bondage in the land of Egypt, parted the Red Sea and destroyed the Egyptian army in a powerful display of his power (Exodus 14: 21-31). God then gave Moses the ten commandments on Mt. Sinai and established the Mosaic covenant.
Interestingly enough, before Moses could descend from the mountain, these people, who had personally witnessed firsthand the power of the Almighty decided to make an idol, a golden calf (Exodus 32:1-5). It gives one pause to wonder how people who saw the glory of God going before them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night and providing manna and quail for food in the desert could question those experiences and abandon their Redeemer. Yet they did.
Such was the nature of the people of Israel, who embarked on a journey that cycled between obeying God, being blessed as a nation, abandoning their faith, being cursed as a nation and so forth. They were carried away as slaves to Babylon for over 400 years then restored to their land only to reject their messiah and be destroyed as a nation until 1948 (refer to the article Israel’s Prophetic Presence, June 10, 2021). Jesus warned them, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” Mathew 21:43.
The third major promise was the covenant with King David that his family would produce the Messiah who would reign over God’s people forever. The Lord spoke to the prophet Nathan who relayed the message to David, “When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son.” 2 Samuel 7:12-14a. Mathew 1:1-17 records the genealogy of Jesus back to Abraham which includes Isaac, Jacob, Jesse and King David right down to Joseph the husband of Mary.
Accordingtothescriptures.org lists 356 Old Testament prophecies that predict the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ. Here are just a few:
Genesis 12:3 fulfilled in Acts 3:25-26; Genesis 28:14 fulfilled in Luke 3:34; Genesis 49:10 fulfilled in Luke 3:33; Isaiah 7:14 fulfilled in Luke 1:35; Micah 5:2 fulfilled in Mathew 2:4-6; Psalm 40:6-8 fulfilled in Hebrews 10:5-10; Psalm 78:1-2 fulfilled in Mathew 13:34; Isaiah 8:14 fulfilled in 1 Peter 2:7-8; Isaiah 11:10 fulfilled in John 12:18-21; Isaiah 53:3 fulfilled in Luke 4:28-29; Zechariah 9:9 fulfilled in Mathew 21:8-10; Zechariah 11:12-13 fulfilled in Mathew 27:6-10; Exodus 12:21-27 fulfilled in 1 Corinthians 5:7; Exodus 12:46 fulfilled in John 19:31-36 and Psalm 22:15 fulfilled in John 19:28. This is just a small sample. Look them up and verify them for yourself and see how Jesus did not come about his role as Messiah by chance.
At the last supper, Jesus laid out the New Covenant before the disciples and ratified the terms by breaking bread and sharing the cup (refer to the article The Bride of Christ, February 9, 2021). Jesus said, “In my father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may be where I am.” John 14:2-3.
Christ spoke of the days leading up to his return, listing signs that would precede it and indicate the end of the age (Mathew 24). Today we are witnessing the fulfillment of many of these prophetic predictions simultaneously and in abundance and we are unmistakably living in the last days. Jesus said, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Luke 21:28. Make special note of God’s regard for timing. Two thousand years from creation until Abraham. Two thousand years from Abraham to Jesus. And two thousand years from Christ’s life on earth until his promised return. This timeline is not coincidental and there is purpose correlated to the seventh day which is a Sabbath rest for God’s people. This will be the millennial reign of Christ.
The Bible is the revelation of God’s plan for mankind. From the beginning of the Old Testament, Jesus’s redemption and salvation is the very foundation of the events and actions of humanity and God. The late Dr. Chuck Missler used the phrase, “The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.” The entire Bible is a testimony to the power and holiness of God. He has gone to great lengths to demonstrate his authority, patience, love, mercy and grace throughout history and in doing so bring glory to himself.
Through it all, the Lord has extended his loving hand to those who would take it. He has marked the narrow path that leads to life so that only the spiritually blind could possibly miss it. He has connected the dots for us so that we could navigate through this life as mortals and through faith in him enter his eternal kingdom as his children.
Everything in human history has served a purpose and has been intentional, and it is our responsibility to learn from it. The apostle Paul wrote, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11. The culmination of the Bible and human civilization is unfolding before our very eyes. Do not be unsettled by the events happening in the world, but place your hope in the only God, who stands waiting for your repentance and renouncing of sin and evil in favor of his great love, mercy and salvation.
