Promise With Condition

Today, on this first of August,

Holy Ghost, to thank You we must,

Teach us this day, Your way to trust.

Amen!

Here is the question that was asked yesterday. To whom is God speaking?

Let’s listen again to the text from which the question comes.

So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today – to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul – then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. Deuteronomy 11: 13 – 14

The Lord God is speaking to His saved and liberated children. He has brought them into the place which He has chosen for them. They have come out of bondage and slavery, by the enemy from whom they could not free themselves, to this precious place. It is not a holy and righteous place, where the citizens are serving Jehovah as the One True God. Certainly not! It is a place where the people who live there worship all kinds of gods and live as their gods dictate.

Idols and idol worshipping is the order of the place. Indeed, idolatry and adultery are the hallmark of the place. It is into such a place that God chose to place His beloved people to live. He does so, and gives them some strong commands to follow and obey. God knows that it is obeying Him wholeheartedly, in fearing Him implicitly, in taking Him at His word fully, that they will receive every promise which He has made to His people, while in this place of vice and utter degradation.

Was this not God’s way and still is His fool proof way of showing up all who obey Him and those who do not? Regardless of what you and I may say, despite all our excuses about our weakness as humans, and our helplessness to help ourselves, our Heavenly Father has shown us wretched, stubborn, sinful human beings, the way. The way is to obey Him. To obey ourselves is to disobey Him. Daily, He continues to provide us with opportunities to obey Him, for He is our Father, who is present with us, but we too often choose to disobey. Obedience is the one and only way to receive His, conditional promises.

Pause for a bit and think of human situations, important and not too important occasions, where promises are given on condition. Parents tell children that if they perform well at school or in an exam, they will give them something that the children really want. Bosses tell their workers that if they produce a certain number of sales, they will have an increase in their salaries. Store owners tell us that if we spend a certain amount, they will give us something free. You and I live with conditional promises and we also make them.

One of the things we must note however, is how practical and feasible these conditions are. To place a condition before me that is impossible for me to achieve, is downright wicked and evil. Is God wicked and evil when He brings us conditional promises?

Think about that.