There is much that could be said here about the promises of God and how they are kept, but what I really want to focus on is the fact that these kept promises are REALLY important to us.
Matthew 1:22 says, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet” Matthew then quotes Isaiah 7:14 about a virgin bearing a son named Immanuel.
When we are celebrating Christmas, it is hard enough to turn our attention to Christ instead of Santa. Even when we do succeed in turning our eyes to Jesus, we rarely think about the importance of fulfilled prophecy. I mean, God PROMISED to send a Messiah, and He DID.
God keeps his promises. He is the only person to keep all of his promises. That is important.
Paul magnifies this importance when he is articulating the gospel message to the church in Corinth, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” He did not merely say that Jesus died and rose again; he made sure they knew that all this happened according to the promises God made in the Old Testament.
You may ask, “What difference does it make whether God made and kept promises to us?”
That is a fair question. You might say that it should be enough for us that He acts on our behalf apart from his promising to act.
Well, operating under that idea, what would be missing from our lives if God did not give us promises that He would act for us?
I can think of at least one, huge thing: hope.
Hope kind of gets shortchanged all the time. When the Big 3 are listed at the end of 1 Corinthians 13 (faith, hope and love), faith and love get all the press and hope is the odd man out. But Andy Dufresne was right, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.”
Hope is so much more important than we realize. It is our trust in God’s faithfulness that causes us to hope. When God makes a promise we believe that He will keep it because He has been faithful in the past. This gives us hope for the future.
Think about it. Why are you confident that when you die you will live for eternity with God? You have no objective proof, no outward, tangible receipt from God that your eternal salvation has been purchased. All you have is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (which we cannot see directly) and the promise of God. This is why we call it the Christian FAITH. We BELIEVE the promise of God to forgive us and save us when we repent of our sin and follow Him.
This is so much bigger than Joe Namath guaranteeing victory or Babe Ruth calling his shot, yet those stories have risen to legendary status with us. We all place our “hope” in weathermen who promise it will not rain tomorrow or economists who tell us 2010 will be better for us financially because we are looking for someone to tell us our future is secure.
All of those pale in comparison to the Creator and Sovereign LORD of the universe making promises to us because He WILL keep them. Our future IS secure in Christ. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will hold our lives secure in his hand which in the Father’s hand. Therefore we are free to hope in tomorrow, for Jehovah-Shammah… God is already there.
So, back to this whole business about celebrating the promises that God has already kept. This Christmas I pray you will take some time to think on and celebrate the fact that “all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.” God did not just send Jesus to be our Savior… He PROMISED to send Jesus, and He kept his word. Praise the LORD!
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