By Barrie Wittrock
Throughout
scripture
we find evidence of promises that YAHWEH has made to his people. What does the
word promise really mean? Webster’s dictionary defines promise as an assurance
given that a specified action will or will not be taken.
Let’s take a look at some promises that YAHWEH has made to us down
through the ages .Many times in scripture , when YAHWEH makes a promise it is
called a covenant. Let’s look at Gen. 9;8-17.And
Elohim spake unto Moses, and unto his sons with him,saying(9) And I, behold,I
establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; (10) And with
every living creature that is with you, of the fowl , of the cattle, and of
every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every
beast of the earth. (11)And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall
all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood ;neither shall there any
more be a flood to destroy the earth.(12)And Elohim said, this is the token of
the covenant between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for
perpetual generations; (13)I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a
token of a covenant between me and the earth. (14)And it shall come to pass,
when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the
cloud.(15) And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every
living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall no more become a flood to
destroy all flesh. (16) And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon
it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between Elohim and every living
creature of flesh that is upon the earth. (17) And Elohim said unto Noah, this
is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh
that is upon the earth.
YAHWEH hasn’t destroyed the earth with water again,
and we see the rainbow as a reminder, so, He has kept that promise.Gen17;1-8
And when Abram was 90 years old and nine, YAHWEH appeared to Abram, and said
unto him, I am El Shaddai; walk before me, and be thou perfect.(2) And I will
make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.(3) And
Abram fell on his face; and Elohim talked with him, saying,(4) As for me,
behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.(5)
Neither shall thy name be any more called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham;
for a father of many nations have I made thee. (6)And I will make thee
exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out
of thee.(7) And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed
after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be an Elohim
unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.(8) And I will give unto thee, and to thy
seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land oc Canaan,
for an everlasting possession, and I will be their Elohim.
Did He keep this promise?
Through the prophet
Isaiah, He promised a redeemer. Isa.11; 1-5
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall
grow out of his roots. (2) And the spirit of YAHWEH shall rest upon him, the
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of council
and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YAHWEH.(3) And
shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of Yahweh; and he shall not
judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his
ears.(4)But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity
for the meek of the earth; and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His
mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. (5)And
righteousness shall be the girdle of His reins.
This is only one of
the places a redeemer is promised. Did that promise come true? Let’s look at
some new testament promises; ROMANS9;9
For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have
a son. Acts1;4 And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith He ye have heard of me.
Acts2; 29-33 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch
David, that he is both dead and
buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.(30) Therefore being a
prophet, and knowing that Elohim had sworn with an oath to him, that of the
fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up the messiah to sit
on his throne; (31)He seeing this before spoke of the resurrection of the
messiah, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see
corruption. (32)This Yahshua hath Elohim raised up, where of we are all
witnesses. (33) Therefore being by the right hand of Elohim exalted, and
received of the Father the promise of the holy spirit, He hath shed forth this,
which you now see and hear. EPH.1; 13-14 In whom you also trusted, after that ye
heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation; in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,(14) Which is
the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession,
until the praise of his majesty.
As we can see, the
list of promises goes on and on, and Yahweh has kept them all, or is in the
process of doing so.
We as humans like to believe that we keep our promises. Here is a popular
saying; All I’ve got is my word, without that, I am nothing. How many of us feel
that keeping our word is important? Keeping our word or promise defines our
character in our eyes and in the eyes of the world. What happens when someone
promises us something but doesn’t keep that promise? We feel let down, hurt,
angry, and we question that persons character. What happens when we don’t keep a
promise that we made? How do we feel about ourselves?
If standing on our word is as important as we say it is, then why do we
make promises that we can’t keep? EX.24;3
And Moses came and told the people all the words of Yahweh, and all the
judgments; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words
which Yahweh hath said, we will do.
Why didn’t Yahweh’s people keep their word? Shortly after they made this promise
what did they do? EX.32;1
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the
people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us
Elohim, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us
up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has happened to him.
If Yahweh suddenly appeared to you and destroyed your enemies, and then
told you that He would provide an
angel to protect and guide you, and gave you water out of a rock and then told
you that you had nothing more to worry about from now on, would you want to keep
your promises to him? What makes you think that you can, when Israel couldn’t?
Men like to believe that when it’s all said and done, they will be remembered
for keeping their word. Many times when we become discouraged in the least, we
seem to forget the importance of our word. When things get a little tough, we
seem to forget our promises. Let’s go to John1;1-14
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with Elohim, and the word was
Elohim.(2) The same was in the beginning with Elohim.(3) All things were made by
him, and without him, was not anything made that was made. (4) In him was life;
and the life was the light of men.(5) And the light shineth in the darkness; and
the darkness comprehended it not.(6) There was a man sent from Yahweh. Whose
name was John. (7) The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light,
that all men through him might believe. (8) He was not that light, but was sent
to bear witness of that light. (9) That was the true light, which lighteth every
man that cometh into the world. (10) He was in the world, and the world was made
by him, and the world knew him not.(11) He came unto his own, and his own
received him not.(12) But as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become sons of Yahweh, even to them that believe on his name.(13) Which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
Yahweh.(14) And the word was made flesh (and we beheld his majesty, the majesty
as of the only begotten of the father) full of grace and truth.
What is the word? Isn’t the word (YAHSHUA) spoken of here, part of Yahweh’s
promise? How many of us have made promises? Have we kept them all? Why do we
make promises we can’t keep? What promises have we made concerning Yahweh? What
are we doing to make sure we keep those promises?
Recently I was offered a job opportunity. An opportunity to do something
I really love to do and to earn a good living doing it. The downside is that I
would have to probably stop doing what I have been working
so hard at.
This opportunity presents a lot of questions in my mind. Let’s see; move,
have a secure life, make money etc. The ways of the world would tell me to live
the American dream. But wasn’t that what I was doing when I sat on my prison
bunk in my prison cell? Wasn’t I living that dream when I got arrested for
selling drugs? Yes, I was dedicated to getting ahead for myself, and I was
selling drugs as a shortcut, or a faster way to get rich while I was
young.REV.13;3
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was
healed; and all the world wondered after the beast.
Unknowingly, I was
following the beast and the beast and the beast system. I didn’t have a clue as
to what the beast really had in store for me. Well, at some point in my beast
driven life as I sat alone in my little 8 x 10 cell , I came to the realization
that I was living a lie right along
with the rest of the world, and something deep inside me told me there was a
truth to be found. A truth that would allow me to be that person that the world
dreams of being but never achieves. A person who could truly keep a promise, and
who could have something solid to build on. Finding truth is like sifting for
gold. It’s heavy. It falls to the bottom of the pan, where it waits for you to
sift through the fools gold to find the real. It takes a special breed of person
to pan for gold. It takes a deep desire and dedication to the effort. Searching
for truth is the same, but once you get a taste of what Yahweh’s word has to
offer, you realize that true righteousness and the ability to keep a promise are
possible.
One of the few things they allow you to have in a prison cell is a bible. The bible they say, is a book of promises. THE HOLY BIBLE. It is holy, holding the secrets to a righteous life, containing ancient writings, passed down for centuries. I believed there was something to that. What else at that time held any truth? The prison guards ? The court system? The other prisoners? I knew there was no reality in any of that. For years that bible just sat on my desk. I got out, came back and it still sat there. One night I picked it up got down on my knees and I began to pray… I believe there is an EL out there and I know there has to be truth here so I am asking for truth and I am asking you to help me make a promise that I can keep. I promise that if you teach me, I will dedicate my life to you and whatever job you have for me, I will do. At that moment, I made a promise to Yahweh. Now time has passed. I am no longer in prison and Yahweh has kept his promises to me. Because of a sincere desire to find the word, and a dedication to that word, Yahweh is making me to ride upon the high places of the earth. So the answer to the job offer has to be no because I have something that the things of the world can’t buy: I have the ability to keep a promise. Yahweh, the great keeper of promises wants to give man the desires of his heart. That longing to be able to keep a promise, and to be able to stand on something. MATT.7;24-25 Therefore, whoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will like him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock;(25) And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. Here is another promise to us, that if we build upon his rock, we will not fail. So, why would we forget our promises to Yahweh, and let ourselves be enticed by the so called fortunes of the world? So, once again, I ask you ; what promises have you made that you haven’t kept? When we, in our hearts become truly dedicated to Yahweh and what He has for us, He puts us where He wants us and we become truly blessed when we work with Him to build His house.MATT.16;18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my assembly; and the gates of the grave shall not prevail against it. That opens us up for all the promises He has for us.MATT.6;19-21 Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.(20) But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal;(21) For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.MATT.7;7-8 Ask, and it shall be givenyou; seek and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;(8) For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that that knocketh it shall be opened. So we see that scripture is full of promises that are for us if we are able to focus on Him and not what the world expects from us. PRAISE YAHWEH!!!! ~