Promises Fulfilled, Unconditionally!

“WOO-HOOO – The Tim Team is Home!”, read the Facebook posting this Wednesday morning. At lunch, the team would be recounting how God had worked during their journey to Peru where they had trekked in both the Amazon jungle and the Andes Mountains. Throughout this missionary journey they shared the Good News with their lives in village after village.

At the celebration lunch, each team member gave testimony about how God blessed them through his/her ministry to others. Listening, I was struck with the greatness and goodness of God. It was like hearing the book of Actsbeing played out again with each and every testimony.

being played out again with each and every testimony.

But, this would not have been possible without a foundation that was laid earlier. Last fall, I began working with this group of ten young believers who have given one full year of their lives to being discipled by Keith Myer, of T Bar M Camps in New Braunfels, Texas. Like Abraham, these young disciples of Jesus, started their journey with a decision. They left behind their homes, families, and friends to follow God wherever He leads.

Obviously, Bible education constitutes a significant portion of their training. My role with them is to prepare them for a trip that we take together in January, to Israel. More than a tour, the preparation beforehand enables them to glean so much more than normal “tour-in-a-box” pilgrims ever can.

Genesis 12:1b-5 is one of the first passages we discuss.

“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.

To understand this passage better, here are some questions for you to think about.

• How many times do you see the phrase “I will” in this passage?
• Who is responsible for making good on all the “I will” promises to Abram?
• Why is it that the fulfillment of the “I will” promises made to Abram are not dependent on him in any way?
• What does the word “covenant” mean?
• Bonus Question: When were all of these promises completely fulfilled?

As God delivered on His unconditional promises to him, Abrams’ faith in grew. Abram took God at His Word. His belief in God was the foundation of His faith. Because of his belief, God’s own righteousness was imputed to the man who is known today as Abraham, the father of the Jewish people.

God established an everlasting eternal covenant with Abraham. In this week’s Vlog you will discover the importance of the Abrahamic Covenant to your own understanding, interpretation, and application of the Bible to your life as a believer.

Don’t miss the connection between what my friends from T Bar M experienced on their recent missionary journey to Peru and God’s unconditional covenant with Abraham. Much of what God promised Abraham, he lived to experience and enjoy. Some of His promises were fulfilled in the lives of Isaac and His grandson, Jacob. Others were fulfilled as Israel finally entered and began to take the land of Canaan as their own under Joshua. In Bethlehem, Yeshua, who existed before Abraham and yet was also one of his descendants, stepped out of eternity past and into the present “to give His life as a ransom for many.” Following Pentecost, the Jewish feast of Shavuot, Yeshua’s disciples spread through out the entire world to proclaim God’s story and reveal His glory. That story is still being written by Him in all who by obedience to His calling on their lives are going wherever He leads today to “make disciples of all nations.”

Enveloped in the darkness of night in a boat in the Amazon, Abraham was watching my friends on their mission. High on the Andes, hiking from one village to another, he was intently watching my friends on their mission as they showed the Jesus Film, distributed Bibles, and proclaimed the Gospel. All along their way, both Abraham and the Lord were watching them each day of their journey.

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  – Hebrews 11:8-13