How many promises have you made that you have not kept? Does it bother you when you must break a promise? Do you get upset when someone else breaks a promise made to you? Wouldn’t be nice if promises were never broken? Do you believe God keeps his promises?
Promises, promises, promises. We all have heard the saying promises are made to be broken. Yet, I doubt any of us like to break promises nor do we like promise made to us being broken. Breaking promises gives us a letdown feeling, we are disappointed. We may even be depressed.
We can count on God to keep his promises. We see in today’s passage that God makes a promise through the prophet Jeremiah. He promises that a descendant of David will become a wise king, one who will be righteous and just when dealing with everyone. From this prophecy, we deduce that it is pointing to Jesus. Yet, it did not point to Jesus’s birth and life on this earth. It is pointing to Jesus’s return and the new earth along with the new Jerusalem.
How can we make that claim? We must connect the dots throughout Scripture. We hear of the new earth in 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1, and the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21:2. In both passages, they point to Jesus’s return and setting forth eternity. We also use experience or history. We know that there has been no earthly king who has been wholly righteous, just, and wise and ruling the land of Judah. Therefore, we must see this prophecy as one of many pointing to God’s promise being fulfilled in eternity with Jesus being the King of kings.
During our lives, we may make promises we must later break. Emergencies and urgent situations arise. We may have good intentions when we make a promise, and a higher priority pops up that causes us to break a promise. Despite our failures, we can count on God to keep his promises to us and all humanity.
I pray we do our best to keep promises. I pray we are careful about making promises. I pray each one of us know that God will keep his promises, even if they are made for eternity. Keep your promises. Be careful making promises. Trust God to keep his promises. Know that God’s promises last for eternity.
Jeremiah 23:5
“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh,
“that I will raise to David a righteous Branch;
and he will reign as king and deal wisely,
and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
Marty Pressey 