“For He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my Helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” (Hebrews 13:5,6 KJV) That is God’s promise. God said it to Joshua (1:5); the Psalmist wrote it (118:6); the writer to the Hebrews repeats it for every believer to claim. (On a side note: I like King James Version for Scripture memorization. For Bible study, there are some excellent versions like the ESV, NASB, NET Bible, etc. But, for me, the KJV has a majesty of language that sets it apart in a special way. It has a certain cadence to it and a beauty of expression that makes it good for memorizing.) As we look around the world today and the deteriorating conditions, we need a promise like that to keep us pressing on the upward way and getting the Word of God to the lost.
There is a Sunday School song about God’s promises. Every promise in the Book is mine, every chapter every verse every line, All are blessings of His love divine, every promise in the Book is mine. Those who like to search the Scriptures have counted 7, 486 promises God has made to us. The first promise in the Bible that has to do with redemption is in Genesis 3:15, the Garden scene where man disobeyed God’s first command. Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
We note the positive is stated first. i.e., what he may do; only then is the negative stated: “you shall not.” The issue here, in the test comes down to one of believing the God’s word and obeying it. God had planted the garden, created all the trees (Gen 2:8), and if He had wanted to, He could have rightfully said, “All these trees belong to Me. None of them are yours. I made them, planted them and made them grow.” But we learn that God is very generous. He said that you can enjoy the fruit from every tree except one. So the maximum was allowed – only the minimum was denied. God was saying to Adam, “There’s one tree that I will keep to Myself. It is there (1) to remind you that you are not God, and (2) to remind you that there are some things that belong to God alone. I am the One who determines what is right and what is wrong. To find out what is right and wrong, you will have to look to Me- and I will guide you in the way of truth.”
Man failed the test. The serpent’s lie was believed and sin entered. “As by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Adam disobeyed, and his human spirit died at that moment which brought separation from God. That is spiritual death. Much later, he also died physically. Everyone born into this world enters it under the headship of Adam, and that same spiritual and physical death is passed on to each one of us. We arrive spiritually dead. To be restored, we must be redeemed and made alive to God again. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor 15:22). This brings us to the Bible’s first promise of redemption. It is a promise that the enemy shall be defeated, and that defeat will be accomplished by the seed of the woman who will bruise the head of the adversary, that old serpent the devil (Rev 12: 7-9). Now, here’s the promise: The Lord God said to the serpent, the adversary “Because you have done this…I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Over the course of more than 2,000 years, the OT saints held on to that promise. All they had was the bare Word of God, and they lived on that. They believed the promise. Also, we see that God who promised is faithful. For “when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal 4:4). Now, the Promise of the Redeemer is just one promise. There are 7,486 more. Each one is like a Promissory Note written by Almighty God. So, when we are in some kind of difficult circumstance and we don’t know what to do or how to get relief, we simply take those opening words of our text for today from Heb 13:5 “He has said…” And we go to Him, hold up the Promise and say, “Lord, You have said it. I pray now that You will do as You have said.” God, as our Heavenly Banker, loves to cash His own promissory notes. Remember, too, He is more ready to fulfill the Promise than we are to ask.
Dan Hooton
My wife, Janice, And I enjoy fellowship with the saints at Freeway Bible Chapel. We live in Plainview but find driving to Lubbock every Sunday as a blessing.