Promises

“Once we are elected, we will…” Familiar words uttered by political leaders from all over the democratic world – and I should add in the interests of impartiality from every political party. “Once we are elected, we will…” Fill in the blanks; “make Britain great again,” “end child poverty in the UK,” “reduce immigration to tens of thousands,” “not return to boom and bust,” “scrap tuition fees,” and “clear the deficit” to name off the top of my head just a few pledges that perhaps unsurprisingly failed to materialise.

George Stephanopoulos, a US political commentator, famously said on Larry King Live in February 1996, “The President has kept all the promises he intended to keep.” That would be Bill Clinton, whose frugalities in the area of truthfulness were proverbial.

The word “promise” comes from the Latin promittere which means a word sent on in advance that something will or will not be done. There are promises all around us. Every contract we sign is basically a promise to provide a service and pay a debt. Every marriage is founded on life-long promises of mutual love and loyalty.

If some political and social promises have proved alas to be not worth the envelopes they were written on, God’s promises are different.

In the Old Testament God promised that he would send a Saviour and he was extremely specific about what he committed to. Of all human families, the whole earth would be blessed by a descendant of Abraham (Genesis 12.3), of Isaac, not Ishmael (Genesis 17.19), from the tribe of Judah, not from any of the other 11 (Genesis 49.1), and a descendant of David, not any of Jesse’s other seven sons (Jeremiah 23.5-6). He would be born in Bethlehem, nowhere else on earth (Micah 5.2), he would come with a message of good news for the poor and bind up the broken-hearted (Isaiah 61).

He would suffer agony, thirst, scorn and mocking, his clothes would be gambled for and his hands and feet would be pierced (Psalm 22). He would be rejected by his own people, unjustly condemned without protest, disfigured by his beatings, he would pray for his executioners, die from his injuries alongside wrongdoers, be buried with the rich and, after death, see the light of life again (Isaiah 53).

No wonder so many Jews became followers of Jesus in the First Century. They had been waiting centuries for a messiah fulfilling all the above criteria, and Jesus ticked every box.

God kept his promise about his Son to every last detail. And he keeps his promises to us – every last one. Here’s a tiny selection: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11.28). “I will never leave or forsake you” (Hebrews 13.5). “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (1 Corinthians 10.13). “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4.7). “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10.9).

It’s reassuring to remember in a world of many broken promises that, as D. L. Moody put it, “God never made a promise that was too good to be true.”