"Promises" when repeated is an expression of disappointment. It implies that commitments are not kept.
You and I might have promised one thing but did not fulfill it, or vice-versa. How often do we hear friends or ourselves say, “I’ll keep in touch.” But do they or do we?
“OPM” (Oh Promise Me) responds to someone who makes a promise but will not keep. We say it with matching eye roll.
And then, there’s this saying, “Promises are made to be broken.” (Politics?)
Sigh. We frequently make "throwaway," unkept promises. While we do not intentionally lie, casual promises are broken. Promises are cheaper than a cup of coffee today.
In contrast, God’s thousands of promises in the Bible are nothing but casual. They are pricelss and many have already been kept.
One example:
The promise: Genesis 12:3, to Abraham, “. . . all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,”
The Fulfillment: In the New Testament, this was not just about the physical nation of Israel, but about Jesus Christ as Abraham's descendant. In Acts 3:25–26 and Galatians 3:8, Paul explains that the "blessing" is the grace of salvation and the Holy Spirit, which is available to people of ALL nations through faith.
Example two:
The Promise: Isaiah 53 (written roughly 700 years before Christ) describes a "Servant" who would be "pierced for our transgressions" and "crushed for our iniquities," bearing the sins of many so that they could be healed.
The Fulfillment: The Gospels and Epistles explicitly point to Jesus’ crucifixion as the fulfillment of this. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross... by his wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24)This transformed the Old Testament system of animal sacrifice into a final, one-time fulfillment.
Unfulfilled ones?! Believers in grace would rather call them just delayed. Not YET realized in this current world, but these promises will be fulfilled when He comes again.
Revelation 21:2-3 says, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”
I’ve soaked in abundant joy in God’s many kept promises, but I choose to dwell in what is most relevant, after deciding to stop dying my hair: "Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” Isaiah 46:4 (ESV)
