God's Great Promises

Coming to the end of Genesis it's important to grasp some of the great promises God makes. In theology, we often call these covenants and they can form a basic outline of how God has dealt with and will deal with humanity throughout history.

The first is God's covenant with Adam. This is the covenant of obedience. This covenant establishes the basic relationship of God to man. God created humanity in His own image, then established an intimate relationship with them, talking with them, and coming to them in the garden. God's one boundary was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the day that man ate of this tree, he would surely die.  This boundary established God's authority over man and man's requirement to obey God's will. This covenant was made with Adam (Eve was not yet created), and the sign was blood. Yet Adam rebelled against God, disobeyed, and died, bringing death to all his posterity. Adam was covered with animal skins, signifying the death he would die. This is the problem God ultimately deals with in the death and resurrection of Christ, the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45).

God's next great promise was the promise of preservation. In this promise God declared never to destroy the earth again by water and literally place the entire human race at risk. This covenant was made with Noah and the sign was the rainbow. Christ fulfills this covenant when He returns and recreates a new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1).

God then promises to bless the earth with a people of His own. These people will be a special treasure to God and be constituted through the faith of Abraham. God's people are not limited in this regard to ethnic Israel, as some mistakenly concluded, but are the inheritors of God's promise by faith (Rom 4) in God. The epicenter of personal faith is found in the person and work of God's only Son, Jesus Christ. Thus, again, in Christ the promises of God are fulfilled.

As I read Genesis 50 this morning I was reminded of the promise that was, for Joseph, still to come, but which he indicated in these words, "'Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.' Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them" (v19-21). Even in the circumstances around us that seem most evil, God can and does work them out for good (Rom. 8:28). This is the promise of Christ still to come.

It is good to know that we worship a God who was not constrained to destroy evil (Adam) from the beginning, but who instead began the great work of redemption fulfilled in the God/man Jesus Christ. God brings good from evil, life from death, hope from despair, beauty from ashes. Praise the Lord we have such a promise keeping and awesome God.