God Keeps His Promises

Young and idealistic, just out of college, Gail showed up for her first assignment as a youth guidance counselor with Memphis Youth for Christ. She was given directions for an address and sent off to meet with “her” girls, 10-to-20-year-olds who had been referred by the court, their schools, or their families.

Having just moved to Memphis from college in Jackson, Mississippi, she was unfamiliar with the city and didn’t think anything about the address and directions she’d been given. Her supervisor had not warned her about what to expect.

As she got closer to her destination, she started to realize that she was headed to a part of the city that was not typically visited by young women who looked like her. It was a neighborhood controlled by a gang. There was no way that she could slip in and out without everyone noticing her, especially not in her bright orange Chevy Vega.

If you’ve seen the movie “The Blind Side,” this neighborhood was across the street from that one and very much like it.

As she drove slowly, looking at building numbers, trying to find the right address, Gail’s thought was, “Lord, you have promised to be my refuge and my strength. Can I believe that you will keep your promises to me?”

There was a time when Abram wondered how he could know if God would keep his promises to him.

In Genesis 12, God had called Abram and had made huge promises to him.

“I will make you into a great nation

               and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

               and you will be a blessing,

I will bless those who bless you,

               and whoever curses you, I will curse;

and all people on earth will be blessed through you.

“And to your offspring, I will give this land” (Gen 12:2-3, 7).

All the promises depended on Abram having an heir. But he and his wife Sarai remained childless.

In Genesis 15, Abram wonders how he can know that God will keep his promises. “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless… You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir” (Gen. 15:2-3).

Abram was asking, “LORD, how can I believe that you will keep your promises to me?”

Then the Lord did something that, to our modern minds, seems extremely weird.

The Lord had Abram get a heifer, a goat, a ram, and two birds. The heifer, goat, and ram were cut in half, and the two pieces were laid opposite each other so that blood drained and made a pathway soaked in blood. Then, a smoking brazier and a blazing torch passed along the bloody path (15:9-18).

What in the world was that all about?

When two parties entered into a covenant, a ceremony like this would often be held. It was called to cut a covenant. The two parties would walk together through the bloody path, their feet squishing, blood splashing up on their ankles and legs. The symbology was that if the parties failed to keep the terms of the covenant, then like the sacrificed animals, they would be cut to pieces.

God made a covenant with Abram, promising great things, and through Abram to all those who are part of his “great nation,” that is, all believers. God promised to bless them, to bless us, and to make us a blessing. The smoking brazier and the blazing torch represented God. In this ceremony, by walking the bloody path alone, God was saying “Abram, I will be the faithful covenant keeper. I will keep the covenant even if you and your descendants do not, even if I have to be torn to pieces, I will bless you.” And he has.

Abram did not keep the covenant perfectly. Neither did Moses, or David, or any of the kings or the prophets. They all sinned and broke the covenant. So have I, and so have you. None of us are covenant keepers. And yet, God has continued to bless us and make us a blessing. At great cost to himself, he has proven to be the great and faithful Covenant Keeper.

There was a day when he bore the punishment of those who broke the covenant, a day when he walked a bloody path, when he stood in a pool, not of the blood of cows or goats or sheep, but a pool of his own blood. There was a day when Jesus Christ, God incarnate, was ripped to pieces so that God could keep his promises to you and to me.

Can God be trusted to keep his promises to us? Yes. Jesus is the proof that God will do whatever it takes and go to any length to keep his promises. We can trust him.

Gail didn’t have laundry facilities in her apartment building. A way for her to get her laundry done and spend time with her girls was to meet them when they washed their clothes in the neighborhood laundromat.

One day, she was in the laundromat chatting with one of her high school girls when a young man came in. Gail’s friend immediately froze and went silent. The man came over to Gail and questioned her about who she was and what she was doing in the neighborhood.

Gail explained that she worked for Youth for Christ, and she was there sharing the Gospel and helping young women to get their lives on track. The man thanked her and left.

“Don’t you know who that was?” her friend hissed with eyes as big as saucers. The man was the leader of the local gang.

Later Gail learned that the gang leader had decided that she was okay. He put the word out that not only were none of the gang members to bother her, they were to make sure that she was protected. That neighborhood was the safest place in all of Memphis for her.

God has kept his promise to Gail to be her refuge and strength. God will keep his promises to you.  

Much love, Barry