Lately I have been reading Deuteronomy and Joshua in morning devotions. To be honest, there have been some rather methodical almost monotonous passages as the children of Israel were dividing up the land of Canaan amongst the tribes. They were naming place after place that I had seldom heard of and if asked to point them out on a map, I probably would have pointed to southern Georgia if I didn’t know they were biblical locations.
But then this morning it dawned on me, no pun intended, God was giving them what He had promised many years before and to the children of Israel these names were the claiming of the promises of God. Each name was a precious promise of God being claimed. The names such as Jarmuth, Engannim, Mishal, Abdon, Helkath, Rehob, and Kartan were actually the promises of God to those whom they were given. To me they were unknown names, but to the children of Gershon the Levite family, these places were precious as precious could be, as they were the inheritance of faith be given by God Almighty!!!
But for us today, what does it mean to claim the promises of God?
First there are some promises that God has given to every person on the face of the earth. Such as Acts 2:21 “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And then Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” These are promises from God Almighty to every person on the face of the earth. I know that a Calvinist would disagree with this statement, but I encourage these folks to take that up with the Author of the Bible not with me as I am not going to debate you on it here.
Second there are promises that are directed to just the saved born again children of God. Such as Jesus saying in Mark 16:17-18 that believers only will see the mighty acts of God in their witnessing. John 14:14 and John 16:23 gave the precious promise of answered prayer to only those who belong to the Heavenly Father and ask in faith. To be honest, this list could fill volumes but I hope these two get the point across. There are promises that are given ONLY to those who believe, but they are given to ALL that believe.
Third there are promises that are given to unique groups of people and that is really the heart of this post today. You see when the children of Israel were given the land of Canaan they were given unique promises that were for no other nation. The names of the places I started the post with are some of those promises being fleshed out. But another such promise is 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Though this verse is a wonderful encourager to any nation to repent, the unique promise of the verse is distinctive to Israel alone as they are truly the only nation that is “called by His name.” Can our nation see revival? I believe so! But will that revival automatically get the promise of national healing based on 2 Chronicles 7:14? That is not as certain. Why? Because that was a unique promise of God to Israel alone. Here in America we have seen many great sweeping revivals take place, but even those revivals did not completely heal the nation as the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 commits. Each promise has a distinctive group, IE, believer, unbeliever, Jew, Gentile and so on.
When you read the Word of God and see the promises contained therein, you must first look to see to whom the promises was given and see if you are within that group which is covered by the promise. You cannot expect God to give you something He has promised to someone else nor should you fail to realize that God wants to give you EVERYTHING He had promised to you!
As an example, Israel may have been promised eternal national status (Genesis 12:7) but they did not receive the promise of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as believers today have been promised (John 14:6). The Jewish nation was promised an earthly inheritance (Hebrews 11:8-9) but born again Christians have been promised a Heavenly kingdom (John 18:36). Israel does not get my promises and I do not get their’s, and, that is completely just and right!
Claim the promises of God, but be sure they are God’s promises for you!
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