Looking Beyond The Promise

While studying the life of Abraham, I came across a simple yet profound truth that I think is consistent throughout Scripture. God makes a promise then seems to renege or makes it seem impossible. This is not a new discovery. Some have called it the birth of a vision, the death of a vision, and the supernatural fulfillment. I would like to take this a step further. I believe that when a promise is made that doesn’t look as though it will be fulfilled, the person to whom it is made is forced to look beyond the promise and believe that God will bring it to pass in a greater way. Let me suggest three examples.

Moses was told to take the children of Israel to the promise land. When they got to the Red Sea it looked hopeless. The Egyptian army was fast approaching and the sea before them stood fast. And this is why Moses said, “Stand fast.” He had not been given prior revelation that God would part the Red Sea. What he had been given was a promise which demanded fulfillment. But how? Moses didn’t know, but what he did know was that God could not lie, and thus salvation of some kind was at hand. He looked beyond the promise and believed God would bring it to pass in a greater way.

Abraham serves as our next example. He was promised a son, but after his son was born (Isaac, the son of promise), he was told by God to offer up his son as a burnt offering. He was told to put the promise on the altar. Since the Lord had promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation, his son would have to live in order to carry out the covenant. This is now an impossibility. The eye of faith is based on divine revelation to look beyond the promise and believe that God will fulfill it in a greater way, i.e. resurrection. In Hebrews 11 we are told that Abraham believed God could raise his son from the dead. So it is not just the death of a vision and supernatural intervention but what the promised individual was forced to believe.

The third place we see this is also found in Hebrews 11, but it is in reference to all true believers. We read in Hebrews 11:10, 13: “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

Note carefully the wording in Hebrews 11:13, “These all died in faith.” This means when they faced death, they continued to have faith in a promise that was never fulfilled, “not having received the promises.” It seems as though they, like Abraham, “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Since God cannot lie, we again find great people of faith “seeing them [the promises] a far off.” Note that they had to look beyond their natural horizons, which is a simple definition of faith, and believe the promises would be fulfilled in a greater way. Is this not the Christian life? Will all the promises of health and wellbeing be fulfilled here? Will the promise of peace on earth and good will toward men be experienced now? Does not the earth groan to be released from its bondage so the promise of a new heavens and a new earth can be fulfilled? Do we not groan in like manner desiring to be clothed with our new glorified bodies?

If all of our hopes in God’s promises are seen as being fulfilled in this life, we will be of all men most miserable. Savor the hope that we will someday be free. Cherish the thought that He will wipe away all tears (Revelation 7:17). Rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). All these promises when viewed from a life of faith will be fulfilled in a greater way. That’s the way I see things.