@ LibertyGal

Sorry, this article went out on Substack, but I forgot to post it on Nostr.

God has made many promises throughout history that are recorded in the Bible. Most of them took centuries, if not millennia to be fulfilled. The God of the Bible is outside of time, so He doesn’t look at time like we do, but His timing is just what it should be.

God never breaks His promises. He fulfills them in full and in all details, but not necessarily in the timing we desire. We’re going to go through some of God’s greatest promises and see what we can learn about God, ourselves, God’s character, and the future. Seeing what God has done should help us to trust God in all things.

Adam & Eve

God’s first promise was given to Adam and Eve after they sinned.

To Eve, He promised:

“I will greatly multiply\ Your pain in childbirth,\ In pain you will bring forth children;\ Yet your desire will be for your husband,\ And he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16)

This promised was fulfilled immediately and for all of the women after Eve.

To Adam, He promised:

“Cursed is the ground because of you;\ In toil you will eat of it\ All the days of your life.\ Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;\ And you will eat the plants of the field;\ By the sweat of your face\ You will eat bread,\ Till you return to the ground,\ Because from it you were taken;\ For you are dust,\ And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17b-19)

This promise was also fulfilled immediately and in all men throughout history.

To the serpent (Satan), it was promised:

“Because you have done this,\ Cursed are you more than all cattle,\ And more than every beast of the field;\ On your belly you will go,\ And dust you will eat\ All the days of your life;\ And I will put enmity\ Between you and the woman,\ And between your seed and her seed;\ **He shall bruise you on the head,\ And you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:14b-15) {emphasis mine}

The initial curse on serpents was fulfilled immediately, but the ultimate curse/promise was partially fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross and will be fulfilled completely in the last battle (Armageddon) at the end of the age when Satan is cast into hell.

“You shall bruise him on the heel” refers to Satan working to have Jesus crucified. A bruised heel is not fatal and Jesus returned from the dead, conquering death and sin.

“He shall bruise you on the head.” A head wound is fatal. Jesus struck the initial blow when He rose from the dead conquering death and sin after paying the price for our sins. The final blow will be His last action on Earth before His believers move to the new heaven and new earth.

According to time calculations by Uscher using the genealogies, Adam and Eve were created about 4004 B.C. How long it took them to sin is not made clear, but what details we get suggests it was very soon after creation, so it took approximately 4,000 years to be partially fulfilled and will be at least another 2,000 years to be fully fulfilled.

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. (2 Peter 3:8)

Since God is outside time, He doesn’t look at time as we do. We want things now. We don’t want to wait, but we need to understand that God’s timing is always perfect and we often learn from God in the waiting.

Next we will learn from someone who waited faithfully on God’s promises and never gave up, even when logic would say that God’s promises were impossible.

Abraham

God’s first promise to Abraham came when he was 75 years old.

“Go forth from your country,\ And from your relatives\ And from your father’s house,\ To the land which I will show you;\ And I will make you a great nation,\ And I will bless you,\ And make your name great;\ And so you shall be a blessing;\ And I will bless those who bless you,\ And the one who curses you I will curse.\ And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1b-3) {emphasis mine}

God told Abraham to leave his home and go to a land he did not know. What should have been Abraham’s golden years was the beginning of his wandering. Abraham trusted God and obeyed.

Abraham was promised that God would “make you [Abraham] a great nation.” Without faith in an all powerful God, this would have seemed impossible. Abraham was 75 years old and had no children. His wife, Sarah, was only 10 years younger. Both were past the age of having children. They were being told to leave their home and move to an unknown land inhabited by strange people. No betting person would believe this man would become the father of a great nation and definitely no one would think the whole world would be blessed through his family.

Abraham was led to the edge of Canaan (the future site of Israel) and once again God made a promise to Abraham:

“To your descendants I will give this land.” (Genesis 12:7b)

Abraham and Sarah had no children. They were blessed with flocks and servants, but it would have seemed unthinkable that they could conquer Canaan, drive out the nations living there, and father a new nation. Despite this, Abraham believed that God’s promises are true.

When did the land finally belong to the descendants of Abraham? I don’t know the exact number of years, but he was still about 25 years away from fathering Isaac. Then Isaac had to grow up and marry before fathering Jacob. Jacob had to grow up, worked many years to earn his wife Rachael before fathering his twelve sons, including Joseph. Joseph had to grow up and spend years in Egypt before being put in charge in Egypt. The Israelites were then in Egypt for about 400 years before being freed and exiting Egypt to go to the promised land. Because this generation rebelled, they were then forced to wander in the desert for more than 40 years. Looking at this, it was well beyond 500 years before Abraham’s descendants owned any of the land God promised Abraham other than a small burial plot.

Does this mean God was unfaithful? Of course not.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

At first Abraham and Sarah tried to fulfill God’s promise themselves. Sarah followed the local pagan way and gave her maid to her husband to father a child for them and Hagar gave birth to Ishmael when Abraham was 86 years old.

When Abraham was 99 years old God said,

“For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:5b-8) {emphasis mine}

God once again God promised the land to Abraham and also promised he would be “the father of a multitude of nations.” At last the promise of fathering nations seemed possible because of his son Ishmael, but owning the land of Canaan, in which he was a sojourner, living in a tent, seemed out of reach, but Abraham still did not fully understand God’s plan. God gave a new, more detailed promise to Abraham.

“As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” (Genesis 17:15b-16) {emphasis mine}

Abraham couldn’t believe that they could possible have a child of their own. He couldn’t comprehend him, at 100, and Sarah, at 90, producing a child of promise and instead of thanking God said, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!” God corrected Abraham saying, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.” (Genesis 17:19-20)

Now becoming the father of a second son, even in his old age, Abraham began to see the fulfillment of God’s promises almost 25 years earlier.

Eventually, at the age of 100 Abraham had his promised son, Isaac, through whom the promise would be fulfilled.

When Sarah died, Abraham was able to buy the “cave of Machpelah” as a place to bury his wife. This was the first piece of soil that Abraham owned in the promised land and the only piece that he got to see, but God wasn’t done yet.

I always remember the son of promise, Isaac. When I stop and think, I remember that Abraham also had Ishmael. Until recently, although I had read this passage many times, I always forgot Abraham’s sons through Keturah.

Now Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. She bore to him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. (Genesis 25:1-2)

God had promised Abraham, at the age of 75, that he would be the father of many nations. He seemed too old to become the father of even one son, but became the father of eight.

Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim. The sons of Midian were Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah. Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; but to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the east. (Genesis 25:3-6)

All of these sons and their sons became the foundation of many nations throughout the Middle East and beyond just like God had promised, but this was only a partial fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Much more was yet to come.

Jacob

God’s promise to Abraham was passed down to Isaac and then to Isaac’s son Jacob (the younger twin). After Jacob betrayed his twin brother Esau, Rebekah sent Jacob to her family to find a wife. On the way, God made a promise directly to him.

“I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 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.” (Genesis 28:13-15)

God once again promised the chosen heir the ownership of this land and that he would be returned to it. He also said, “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth,” reiterating the Abrahamic covenant.

Through two wives and two concubines, that were maids to his two wives, Jacob fathered 12 sons who became the fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel. Although Jacob was returned to the promised land of Canaan after several decades with his mother’s family, he also did not get to see the complete fulfillment of God’s promise that they would be given the land. He saw that God was always with Him; he was returned to the land God had promised Him; but he did not get to see the vast descendants or how his family was a blessing to the whole world. God’s timing was not yet complete.

In Part 2 we will see more promises of God and see how God is faithful.

Trust Jesus.\ \ your sister in Christ,

Christy