Promise – a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified.
Oath – from a Greek word meaning “a fence, a limit”.
Every day millions of promises are made, given, vowed, pledged, throughout the world.
And every day a lot of those same promises are broken.
Have you ever had someone break a promise they had pledged to you?
Have you ever broken a promise?
Without a doubt, I’d say each of us have, at sometime, made a promise we either didn’t, or couldn’t keep. And we all probably know what it’s like to have a promise broken.
When it comes to having faith in God, it’s easy for us to allow our experience with others to taint our ability to believe God’s promises. But God “isn’t a man, that He should lie…”
In fact, it is impossible for God to lie!
(Hebrews 6:13-19 NKJV)“For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil”
Two unchangeable things – His Promise and His Oath.
First of all, His Promise. He is very particular about what, when, to whom, why, and how He says anything. He has no idle, or empty, words. Each one has His backing, His authority and power. See the example below, as God prepares to release the Israelites from slavery.
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them. I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. Therefore say to the children of Israel:’I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord.’” So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.” Exodus 6:1-9 NKJV
God PROMISED! To Him, it was the same as saying “DONE”!
We need to understand this truth: every promise has a “partner”; something that gives strength to the promise. That something is the “oath”. Note the definition. A fence, a limit, a border. In other words, the promise can not go beyond the oath! No one can truly promise something they are incapable of doing.
That’s why The Lord confirmed His promise to Abraham with an oath. He was saying, “Abraham, I not only promise you this and that, I am the guarantee for its fulfillment. This promise is well within My means of carrying it out. That is My oath – I AM THE LORD!”
Two unchangeable things – God’s Promise and God’s Oath.
As you read God’s Word, as you pray and He “quickens” a promise to your heart, remember the promise and the oath. God is capable of fulling every promise, and willing to do so or He would never have promised.
I am the Lord , and I do not change… (Malachi 3:6 NLT)
Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. (James 1:17 NLT)
God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through (Numbers 23:19 NLT)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8 NLT)
Two unchangeable things – God’s Promise and God’s Oath.
Jan Grace 