Pattern of Promises

 

In Genesis 15 God tells Abram that his promise will be fulfilled but after a long time and after a lot of suffering....

Dale Ralph Davis:

This pattern goes against the grain of our expectations; we are always wanting the kingdom of God to appear immediately (Luke 19:11) and much prefer that God march to our microwave time. God will be faithful, but God is not rushed, not in a panic. Which means that a good bit of our covenant living (and waiting) will be pretty routine stuff. 

But there’s more. God says that it will be a long, hard time before the promise is fulfilled (vv. 13b-14). We have already alluded to this. There will be suffering in their future. By analogy, we might point to Acts 14:22, where Barnabas and Paul tell believers in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch that it is ‘through many tribulations’ that we ‘must’ enter the kingdom of God. And the text in Acts says that this was the word they used to ‘strengthen’ and ‘encourage’ the believers. Already the same pattern seems slated for the Old Testament people of God. Covenant people are not spared distress but preserved through it. Yahweh will be faithful to his promises but not apart from but through suffering.

Now the question: how does all this assure? It assures because it underscores Yahweh’s integrity. Yahweh does not hide the problems of time and suffering that will seem to pose roadblocks to his promises. It is as if Yahweh brings up all the threats and hindrances and obstacles and yet says, ‘Now all of this will not keep me from proving faithful to you.’ But, you see, he has nothing to hide; he is so candid about it all; he covers up nothing.

You may remember his words in John 16:1: ‘I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.’ What things? Oh, what he had just warned them about in John 15—about how the world’s hatred for him will spill over to them. He, like Yahweh here in Genesis 15, hid nothing from his disciples. All the obstacles and difficulties and discouragements are right out in the open. And what on earth does that have to do with assurance. Simply that you can trust a God like that; you can lean on a Savior like that. He doesn’t hide the nasty stuff in fine print in an endnote. His candor stirs up your confidence, his frankness feeds your faith.