October 2020

God’s Promises!  Here we are going back into (local) Lockdown. We are learning to live with Covid-19. We are learning to live in recession. We are learning to love our neighbour better (in light of Black Lives Matter). We’re watching to see how Brexit will be completed. We are aware of the need to care for our world – God’s Creation – better. With so much happening across the world and in our own personal lives – it is a good time to turn towards God’s Promises in the Scriptures.

The Story of the Bible – the Story of God – is all about God’s promises to his people. The Old Testament tells the story of the Old Covenant of the first promises – agreements God made with his people. The New Testament tells the story of the New Covenant of the new and final promises, God has made to his people. In the Bible, there are five Covenants that are key to understanding the biblical story and how we fit into it. In the Old Testament, we have God’s Covenants with Noah, Abraham, Israel and David. In the New Testament, we discover the New Covenant through Jesus – with Us – all people.

Why does God make Covenants with his people?  He always finds ways to rebuild his relationship and partnership with his people. What is particularly special too is how each time God makes a new Covenant with his people – His promises with his people get better! (Albeit humankind’s contribution to the agreement increases too!)

• With Noah, God promises to be more kind and faithful than he needs to be – to never to flood the world in the same way again! Yet he does this even though he knows that humankind will turn against him in due course again.
• With Abraham, God promises to be faithful and to make Abraham the father of all his children but also he makes a request of Abraham – the Covenant becomes an agreement where he asks Abraham to be faithful, to do what is right and just in return.
• To Israel’s twelve sons (Israel is the new name that God gives to Abraham’s son, Jacob), their twelve families become the twelve tribes of the nation Israel – God promises to be kind and faithful and watch over the nation. In return God asks them to obey his laws and commandments and to be a light, a shining example, to the rest of the world.
• During the time of King David, God grieves again at how his people do not keep their part of the Covenant, yet even so He promises that one day a Son of David, the Messiah, will restore the Covenant, God’s Promises, completely (Jer. 31).
• Then in the New Testament we have the New Covenant (Luke 22:20), we have God’s Kingdom Established, God’s Children Restored, God’s Earth and Creation, Renewed – through the person of Jesus, who died and rose again. How great are God’s promises to us – to humankind.

These five promises and covenants of God help us to understand the Story of the Bible and the Story of God – the Covenants, Old and New, point us to a better world, a forgiven world, a restored world, a healed world, a saved world, a world of everlasting love, joy, peace and hope all made possible ultimately because of Jesus Christ.

Moreover in the New Testament we discover lots of promises of God that we can apply personally to our own lives too – promises which Christians over the ages have testified and experienced and found to be true. Why not consider some of them for yourselves too?  Here are just four –

• Hope: “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
• Rest: Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matt. 11:28-29
• Life with God: “And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises… that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.” 2 Peter 1:4
• He watches over us: “The Lord watches over you - the Lord is your shade at your right hand...The Lord will keep you from all harm - He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and always.” Psalm 121

May God give you his hope, rest, new life and a knowledge of his care for you always.

​In Christ,



Adam