Joshua 23; Acts 3; Jeremiah 12; Matthew 26

A contrast of betrayal and faithfulness. Emphasis added.

A warning in Joshua:

¹² “But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, ¹³ then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you. (Joshua 23:12-13, NIV)

Peter confronts a crowd in Acts:

¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. ¹⁴ You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. ¹⁵ You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. (Acts 3:13-15, NIV)

God answers Jeremiah’s complaint:

^{5 “If you have raced with men on foot
    and they have worn you out,
    how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
    how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
6 Your relatives, members of your own family—
    even they have betrayed you;
    they have raised a loud cry against you.
Do not trust them,
    though they speak well of you.} (Jeremiah 12:13-15, NIV)

Jesus is betrayed by Judas and denied by Peter:

²⁰ When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. ²¹ And while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” (Matthew 26:20-21, NIV)

Lord, thank you for your faithfulness.

⁹ “The Lord has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. ¹⁰ One of you routs a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised. ¹¹ So be very careful to love the Lord your God … You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. (Joshua 23:9-11, 14b, NIV)

⁸ He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. ⁹ When all the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. ¹¹ While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. ¹² When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? (Acts 3:8-12, NIV)

¹⁴ This is what the Lord says: “As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the people of Judah from among them. ¹⁵ But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to their own inheritance and their own country. ¹⁶ And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among my people. (Jeremiah 12:14-16, NIV)

²⁶ While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” ²⁷ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸ This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹ I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 26:26-29, NIV

Father God, thank you for being a promise keeper.

Courtney (66books365)

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Exodus 20, Luke 23, Job 38, & 2 Corinthians 8

Can you keep a promise? Is it always in your power to do what you say you will do? Are you willing to suffer hurt so that others benefit because you kept your word? I’m sure some of the time we make promises that we don’t really think we will have to keep; such as, “Let’s do lunch sometime soon.” Or maybe we say things to our kids just to quiet them (even though we know this strategy doesn’t work), “If you are a good girl/boy, I will buy you something.” Then there are the covenants we make to each other, “Till death do us part.”
I’m not qualified to write a theological analysis on the topic, The Covenant Keeping God, Yet, I think we could learn how to keep promises and covenants by studying the many examples in Scripture which give a clear picture of why, when, with whom, and at what cost promises should be made. There was the covenant with Noah after the flood to never destroy “all flesh” again with water. God made a covenant with childless Abraham to make his descendants numerous and to give them land forever. King David’s last words declared the everlasting covenant God made with him to have his descendants rule forever. That covenant was fulfilled in the supreme covenant of Jesus Christ who, through His sacrifice on the Cross, promised salvation to all of us today.
In each of these promises by God, it is clear that man can do nil to fulfill the promise. We can try to be good, little girls and boys, but like the whimpering tot in the shopping cart, we can only hope for mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness.
On the flip side of that coin, when we are the ones making the promises, are we in a position to follow through with our intent? Are the conditions we set attainable by the one we promised? Do we set out with big hearts to bless someone only to realize that in order to do so we must give up one thing or maybe the one thing we didn’t count on letting go?
In our gray world, the idea that anyone who promises can write in ‘deal breakers,’ is a little ingenuous, I think. Even though God conditioned some of His promises on obedience or even love, He knew from the get-go that mankind would not be able to follow the rules or stay wholly devoted. That is why the supreme covenant was ultimately costly and painful to the Promise-Keeper.
So if we are to be men and women of our word by keeping promises, might we, too, have to acknowledge that others may not be able to earn the promised desire? Will we resent being reminded of our promise?
The end result of a promise kept isn’t about me; as the giver, will I be able to rejoice with the merry heart of the one promised?