“Now the word of the Lord came to him (Abram): ‘This one (chief servant Eliezer) will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.’” (Genesis 15:4)
“The Lord said, ‘I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!’” (Genesis 18:10). ‘Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.’” (Genesis 18:14)
“The Lord came to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.” (Genesis 21:1)
Abraham’s story is a truly remarkable account of how the One True God, Yehovah, chose a man from an idolatrous region, the Chaldeans, and shaped him into a man who would trust Him. That was, after all, humanity’s problem since the start – refusing to trust God.
Because Adam and Eve refused to trust God and follow His ways, the Lord had to inundate the earth with the Flood. But before the Flood’s waters poured forth, God found a man who would trust Him and rewarded Noah for his trust by saving him and his family from the terrible deluge. However, within a few generations, humanity once again distrusted God and sought to do things their way by building the infamous Tower of Babel.
And that’s when the Grand Redemption Plan kicked into full gear.
The Plan had to go forward because God promised to redeem and restore the world in Genesis 3:15. He created us to live with Him and experience a never-ending relationship of trust and faithfulness with our Sovereign King. Anything short of complete trust and faithfulness wouldn’t do.
So, God started from scratch.
He found a man, Abraham, who would learn to trust Him. Through a promised miracle birth, Yehovah created a family that would learn to trust Him and eventually grow into a nation that would learn to trust Him, through whose Messiah, Jesus, the Gentiles would have the opportunity to learn to trust Him. God’s Grand Redemption Plan will be complete when the earth is filled with people who absolutely trust Him as it was “in the beginning.”
So, God found Abraham in Genesis 12 and promised to create a family through him. Yes, that means God promised that the old geezer of seventy-five (my apologies to all seventy-five-year-old geezers reading this) and Abraham’s post-menopausal, sixty-five-year-old wife, Sarah, would have a child through natural means.
Now, at this point, I bet you’re thinking my point is about trusting God. Well, it is, in a way. What I want to focus on are the bread slices of promise and provision. Trust is the filling between the two slices.
Remember, God promised offspring to Abraham when he was seventy-five years old. When his promised son, Isaac, was born via Sarah, Abraham had just crossed the century mark in years. Let that sink in. From Genesis 12 to Genesis 21, Yehovah took twenty-five years to fulfill His promise to the elderly couple.
Twenty-five years.
We can’t even wait five minutes for a promised hamburger in the drive-through lane at McDonalds.
It took twenty-five years from Yehovah’s promise to His provision. During that time, God worked on building Abraham’s trust in Him so that the old boy could teach his vibrant, steadfast trust in God to his soon-to-be-born Isaac.
So, let’s talk about promise and provision for a moment.
What is a promise? The word comes from the Latin pro- “before” and mittere “to put, send,” which combines to mean to put or send ahead of the recipient. A promise is something that is sent ahead of the recipient. A promise is a reality that doesn’t exist now but will meet the receiver sometime in the future as soon as the receiver catches up with it in time and space.
For example, a father promises his child, “I give you my word that on Sunday (a time) I’ll take you fishing.” When the father and child reach that point in time, Sunday, the reality of fishing commences. Here’s another one. A father promises his children during a car ride, “When we reach the next town, we can all stop for some ice cream.” This promise is not just tied to a point in time but to a space, a place, in time.
Sadly, our human experience has proved that even though promises are based on our word, we often “alter” (read break) our promises for unavoidable or selfish reasons. Therefore, through the experience of broken promises, we become jaded. We sometimes scoff at someone’s promise and think, “Well, we’ll see if we go fishing when Sunday rolls around.” Promises are made, but the words don’t always connect to fulfillment.
Unfortunately, we sometimes regard God’s promises like we regard an unfaithful person’s promises – with doubt. Sure, God promised to provide something for us, “but we’ll see when the time comes.” For the record, the wait between promise and provision is the interim where trust is grown.
But God is not a fallen human being. His being transcends our own. God exists outside of time and space. He’s not limited by time and space as we are. Therefore, He’s with us now when He makes a promise to us and the moment when He fulfills that promise in the future. His reality exists around our reality.
Further, God cannot lie! Because He is God and can never lie, His promises are solid. That which He proclaims now, He has already sent ahead, and the reality of His promise will meet us (or our descendants, as in Abraham’s case) when our place in time and space converges with His provision. God’s provision is like Him keeping an appointment with us.
But until promise and provision meet, the path between them is the walk of trust-building. This waiting period was Abraham’s twenty-five-year walk with God! Abraham knew what God had promised him – a son. And when Abraham looked trustfully up into the sky that extraordinary night in Genesis 15:5, the multitude of stars became the faces of babies smiling down on him.
Now, let’s talk about provision and how it connects with a promise. The word provision comes from provide, which is derived from the Latin providere, “look ahead, prepare, supply,” from pro- “ahead” and videre, “to see.” When God makes a promise, He looks ahead to the provision He’s “sent ahead,” or set in place, to meet us when we reach that specific time and place. When God provides, we realize that we have reached that particular point, and we know that God has met our needs right here. He saw what we were going to need and presents it to us now.
For example, once Moses and the Israelites escaped Egypt (Exodus 15), everyone rejoiced. Just three days later, though, the Israelites quickly changed their tune because the water at the oasis they arrived at was poisonous. What happened? Didn’t God promise to take care of them? Moses cried out to God, and God showed him a piece of wood that, when thrown into the water, detoxified it and made it pure enough to drink.
One way to think of this event is as a miracle. But then again, why didn’t God just change the oasis into potable water without using the strange stir stick?
Another way to think of this is God’s provision, God foreseeing (providere) what the Israelites would need and placing the provision when and where they would need it. God knew their route through the Sinai, God knew they would need water, and God knew they would find it undrinkable. In His marvelous way, God arranged for that specific piece of wood to be at that place, at that time, to provide safe water for them to drink.
What was Israel’s God teaching them? That they could trust Him, and He sandwiched the trust lesson between His promise and provision.
Don’t we go through that all the time? The Bible is chock-full of God’s promises to us. For example, “And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). God has promised to supply what we need when we need it. Of course, the point is in the time and place of His choosing. For years, my wife and I lived with significant financial needs while raising a family of four kids. Jeanne decided to stay at home with the children because they needed her more than she needed a paycheck. So, the financial burden was on my shoulders. I can’t tell you how many times I bellowed to the Lord for help. But what I can tell you is all those financial needs were met once I arrived at the time and place of God’s provision. In the meantime, I worked on trusting Him by not giving in to anxiety, anger, despair, or depression.
God promised to send the Messiah to His people in 2 Samuel 7:12-13,16. “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name,” and “Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.” Yes, the first verse refers explicitly to David’s son, Solomon, but in context, it points to a son whose kingdom lasts forever. Now, either David’s line would last with son following son, generation after generation forever, or the Messiah would be David’s physical descendant who would live forever. Thus, His kingdom would be established forever. Knowing what we know about Jesus, the answer is the latter.
With this messianic example in mind, we’re on the path of trust-building between the promise and the provision. God promised Israel their Messiah. Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise, at least partially. He is Israel’s Messiah, but He doesn’t reign on David’s throne – yet. But we know a day is coming when He will (Luke 1:32; Matthew 19:28).
Those are a few of God’s written promises to us. Sometimes, He makes a personal promise through His Holy Spirit speaking to us. Let’s not pooh-pooh that vehicle of real-time communication. The Holy Spirit with us is Jesus residing within us, who talks with a voice that only His followers recognize” (John 10:4).
“Yes,” you may say, “The written promises are sure. How do we know if we’ve heard Jesus’ voice correctly and that a promise I’ve heard is from Him?” Great question! That comes from spiritual maturity, trial and error, and building trust. But know this. If a promise from God is fulfilled with a provision, you’ve heard correctly. Remember what it was like hearing that voice. If the provision is not forthcoming, then we either wait trustfully for the Lord until we reach it in time and space or put the promise “on the shelf” and go on with our lives. Regardless, learning to hear Jesus’ voice is a crucial element in receiving His real-time promises and provision.
For fun, do an internet search on God’s promises. I found this list on a website for The Log Church, Crosslake (365 Promises, https://crosslakeefc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/365-PROMISES.pdf). Soak in these for a while and let the Holy Spirit bring them to mind when you face a need or a crisis. Remember, He will highlight the promise, but you’ll have to traverse space and time to get to the Lord’s provision. In the meantime, let the Lord reinforce your trust in Him.
That requires a third “p” between promise and provision – patience.
Sources:
Promise, www.etymonline.com/search?q=promise
Provide, www.etymonline.com/word/provide
Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts