I don’t know how many times I’ve sung the old hymn, “Standing on the Promises,” but for me,  it’s been a part of my worship of God that has recurred regularly for over half a century, so it’s safe to say that it’s been way more than just a few times. And as it should be when we sing our praises to God, my heart was usually occupied in one way or another with the profound implications of the words I was singing. After all, to sing those words and not think about some aspect of the wonder of God’s promises would seem unnatural. But even so, my thoughts were not always the same.

Other Promises ~
Sometimes, I might have been overwhelmed with gratitude that God’s promises had traversed oceans of time and distance and found their way to me. At other times, I’d think about the incredible pain God had to submit to in order to fulfill those promises. We love rejoicing in the assurance of His blessing, but maybe our concentration on the benefits alone is narrowing our focus a bit more than God actually intended. There are other promises God made to ensure our welfare that we aren’t so quick to write a praise song about. Some early advice I received about parenting provides an appropriate lead-in to consider them. . . 

One of my early mentors was a guy no one would describe as eloquent, but his advice was always sound and effective. His approach to parenting isn’t likely to show up in any of the handbooks published by today’s parenting “experts”, but I would favorably compare the outcomes with their psycho-babble nonsense any day. The condensed version went something like this . . .

1. If you promise to give your kid a cookie if he does somethin’ good, and then he does it, you’d better find some way to get that boy a cookie.

2. If you promise your kid a whoopin’ for doing somethin’ bad, and then he does it anyway, you’d better be ready to warm up his backside hard enough so he don’t forget it.

3. But . . . If he ever does somethin’ you promised would get him a whoopin’ and you give in and don’t deliver it, or maybe even decide to give him a cookie anyway, then you’ve earned a worse whoopin’ from God than the one you lied to your kid about.

Unveiling a Different Role ~
God revealed His role as a parent when brought that collection of former slaves out of Egypt, In addition to the incredible array of divine power, He also unveiled His decision to adopt them as His own. To help them understand how that covenant relationship would function, He instructed Moses to prepare a special welcome for them as they arrived in their new home. 

God’s “Life in the Promised Land” tutorial began with being confronted by huge stones that had been whitewashed with lime so they could be easily seen. Then those basic, foundational laws that would govern their relationship with God and with each other were written on them for all to read. Moses recorded God’s directive like this:    

You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you,‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ just as the Lord God of your fathers promised you. (Deuteronomy 27:3 NKJV)

In light of the incredible challenges they would soon confront, God revealed some things about Himself that His people needed to know. One of them was revealed in the phrase, just as the Lord God of your fathers promised you. It was God’s way of reminding them that He is a promise keeper. In simple terms, it meant that if God said He would do something, they could count on it. 

Distinct in Every Way ~
Another thing they needed never to forget was that the living God they served was distinct in every way from any of those manufactured deities worshiped by their neighbors. Throughout history, people have ascribed deity to things they associate with certain situations or circumstances. Thus, idolaters have always had an assembly of gods and goddesses. Some of them were associated with pleasure and had a reputation for catering to their worshipers’ appetites and passions. But since droughts, plagues, and disasters also happen, someone had to be blamed for them. So other gods were invented that seemed to be perennially irritated and punitive. But the God who is real was nothing like that, and a prayer that has been prayed by Jews daily since the time of Moses highlights that distinction

The prayer is called the “Shema” and it declares that the Lord our God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4). Although God manifests Himself in different ways, He cannot be dissected to suit our preferences. God has one nature, one heart, one purpose, and one motive for every promise He makes to us. His activity toward us is constrained within the bounds of His love and always reflects His irrevocable commitment to ensuring our welfare. That is an invaluable revelation when we consider another declaration made by God that employs language designed to get our attention. He said: 

Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. (Deuteronomy 11:26–28 NKJV)

Same God – Same Love ~
That’s a sobering announcement, isn’t it? God does love to hand out the “cookies” He promised. When we honor Him by conducting our lives in accordance with the principles He designed for our welfare, He’ll deliver a handful of them. But the same love flowing from the same heart of the same God will not hesitate to deliver a whoopin’ we’ll never forget when we decide we’d rather have the trinkets offered by the devil’s idols instead. 

I don’t mean to sound like some depressed prophet of doom, but we do need to take God seriously. Here’s just a snippet of the many things God promised to bring if we reject Him: 

• • The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do. (Deuteronomy 28:20a NKJV)
  • Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies… in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything… (Deuteronomy 28:47–48 NKJV)
  • The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you. (Deuteronomy 28:28–29 NKJV)

Promises Being Kept ~
A brief, honest look around is all it would take to validate that God is in the process of keeping those promises we don’t want to sing about. In the wake of nationally ignoring, denying, ridiculing, and openly mocking Him, His people, and His Word, we’re seeing the curses unfold. Our children are being abused and systematically sacrificed on the altar of sexual perversion. Corruption is rampant in the highest levels, greed rules the marketplace, and relational perversion is accepted as the new norm. Adultery, pornography, filthy language, and random violence are hardly noticed, much less condemned as the moral plague that they are. 

The God who wants the best for us will not close His eyes to what is worst for us. He will keep all of His promises, whether blessings or curses, and that does give us hope, because the God who promised to unleash the plagues also said, 

Come now, and let us reason together,
Says the Lord,
Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.
If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:18–19 NKJV)

(Check out Deuteronomy 27 and 28 for a sobering review of more of God’s promises.)

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to tweet and share from the pull quotes below.  Each one links directly back to this article through Twitter.

• • “God can’t be dissected to suit our preferences. He has one nature, one heart, one purpose, one motive for every promise He makes to us. His activity toward us is constrained within the bounds of His love and always reflects His irrevocable commitment to ensuring our welfare.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • “The same love flowing from the same heart of the same God who delivers blessings when we honor Him won’t hesitate to deliver a whoopin’ we’ll never forget when we decide we’d rather have the trinkets offered by the devil’s idols instead.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 
  • “The God who wants the best for us won’t close His eyes to what is worst for us. He will keep ALL His promises, and that gives us hope because the God who promised to unleash the plagues also said, “Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins be … Isa 1:18–19.”  @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    

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