Genesis 12: 2-3
Recently I needed to get a legal document notarized. The purpose of the notary public is to be a witness to your signature on an agreement, confirming that you have indeed promised to the terms of the contract.
In spiritual terms, the Bible is the witness of God's promises; the notary, if you will. Scripture is full of God's promises. According to Time magazine, Canadian schoolteacher Everett R. Storms made a detailed list of God's promises in the Bible. He calculated 8,810 promises, of which 7,487 were promises made to humankind.
My wife Sara is reading the Gospel of Luke. If you want to see a sample of God's promises come true, Luke 1 contains a slew of them, given through the angel Gabriel as he promises two families of babies that will be born (John the Baptist and Jesus Christ) and what will become of them.
Possibly the most overarching promise of the Bible, the one that influences how we should read and comprehend the entirety of scripture, is the promise God gave Abraham in Genesis 12: 2-3.
"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."
With this vow, God launched the nation of Jewish people. Through them, He raised the Messiah, Jesus, whose church was founded to bring all people on earth, Jew and Gentile, to be blessed together in one body. In a sense, the entire Bible hinges on this one story and promise: how the Holy Father intended all along to send His Son to earth for our salvation and our instruction. It's a heavenly promise that is desirable because of failure on the human side, the unfolding truth that people are imperfect and need a Savior, and then the issuance of that Savior to become the sure pathway for our reconciliation with God.
The Bible is witness to this promise and all the stories that hang off of it. The Bible "notarizes" the agreements between God and humans. We can see how God is the Great Promise Keeper; as Joshua exclaims in the Old Testament (Joshua 23: 14), "Every promise of the Lord your God has come true. Not a single one has failed!"
Is there a particular promise of God that is meaningful to you? If so, please mention it in the comments section.
Who is this Savior, Jesus Christ, and what is He all about? There's no better place to learn about Jesus' philosophy and teaching than in the Sermon on the Mount. Please check out my two podcast installments (so far) on the Sermon on the Mount. You can find them by visiting CecilTaylorMinistries.com/free-content, or by searching for "Cecil Taylor Monthly Podcasts" on Apple, Spotify and Podbean platforms.