God ALWAYS keeps His PROMISES!
May 3
Bible Reading: 2 Chronicles Chapters 4-6
God ALWAYS keeps His PROMISES!
"Lord
God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like You, who keep Your
covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their
hearts. You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both
spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.
Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my
father, saying, 'You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne
of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk in My law
as you have walked before Me.' And now, O Lord God of Israel, let Your word
come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David" (2 Chron.
6:14-17).
After
building a magnificent temple for God and making a short inaugural speech
before all the assembled elders, leaders and all the people of Israel (2 Chron.
6:1-11), King Solomon began his dedicatory prayer by reminding God that He always keeps His promises. God had kept
His word thus far concerning His promises to David, and Solomon asked that His
faithfulness might continue in the future.
Falling on
his knees on a platform built for this special occasion, Solomon displayed his
humility as a model for the people (vv. 12–13). He first acknowledged the Lord
as the only God, the Covenant-Maker and Covenant-Keeper who had fulfilled His
promise to David about dynastic succession (vv. 14–17). Then he described the
Lord as the God who keeps covenant and mercy. This was a bedrock belief for the
Israelites—that they worshiped a God who could be counted on to keep His
promises.
Our Jehovah God
is different from everyone else in
this world as He alone made and kept
a covenant with His people, something unheard of in the religious traditions of
the nations. What Solomon declared to God as he began his prayer makes sense to
every child of God who can reflect on God’s faithfulness through His
everlasting covenant and mercy. The word
for mercy here connotes loyalty; it means that God is faithful to His servants—to those who walk before Him with all their hearts, otherwise they would face divine
retribution (Deut. 7:9–12; 30:15–20).
God had made
the following covenant to King David many years ago: "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I
will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will
establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish
the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My
son" (2 Sam. 7:12-14). Solomon was now asking God to fulfill all of the
covenant promises He had made with David that included establishing the throne
of his descendant forever. We should note that this covenant will be ultimately fulfilled through Jesus Christ (who was born as the seed of
David) whose kingdom will eventually be established forever and continue
throughout eternity.
God always performs what He promises
through His word. In
a world of uncertainty and fickle-minded people, we can trust in a faithful God
who always keeps His promises. God has already given us exceedingly great and precious promises in His word that through
these we may be partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Let us cling
closer to our God who is trustworthy and who always keeps His promises!
