Questions from Our Readers

To write about pleading the promise(s) is—next to it being often a serious question—also a matter which unfortunately in more recent church history has often led to fruitless debates, hot heads, and cold hearts. It would be neither edifying nor helpful to write about this. The person who asked this question, however, did not demonstrate the intention to add to this debate but rather asked the question from a personal soul’s-struggle point of view. Then the matter becomes different and deserves a sincere answer which, hopefully, can give biblical direction for those who are not strangers of such struggles.

There are many examples in Scripture where the Lord gives a special, individual promise to His children even though the fulfilment of the promise covers a broader purpose than just the individual. Think of Abraham (Genesis 12), Moses (Exodus 3-4), Jacob (Genesis 28:15), Joshua (Joshua 1:9), and many others. There are also promises recorded which have a larger audience in view, namely, the blessing for an entire family tribe (e.g., the sons of Jacob) or even an entire nation (Israel). In Acts 2 we read the well-known text at Pentecost: “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

To these observations we could add the clear biblical distinction there is between conditional and unconditional promises, meaning that the unconditional promises are sovereignly fulfilled in the life of God’s children without any conditions laid upon them or for their account, such as “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him” (Hosea 14:4) and the conditional promises which are fulfilled only in the way of obedience, upon a turning, after a forsaking of sin, and a lamenting after the Lord: “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings” (Jeremiah 3:22a). Read in this regard, also, Isaiah 1:16-18: wash you, put away evil, cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment etc., and then: “Come now, and let us reason together…”

We clearly see in the Bible that there are more general promises, which have a general address, like that of the gospel (Isaiah 45:22 “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”) and a more particular personal promise of God’s Covenant of Grace, of which the unbreakable oath between God the Father and God the Son is the foundation. Let it be noted that also the first-mentioned, the gospel promise is wellmeant, sincere, and must be preached with the command to be obeyed unconditionally, but the fulfilment of this promise never depends on man’s work because it is God who works both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12&13).

When we study the historical, personal, and spiritual circumstances of those to whom a promise was given, we notice how often the life of a child of God was and is a continual struggle regarding what God has promised—not in the sense that the promise itself is the cause of such struggles, or that the Lord purposely leaves His spoken word in darkness so His people have no choice but to struggle about it. No, the fault lies not with God but with God-dishonoring unbelief and a darkened understanding. Neither does struggle imply that there are never times of quiet resting upon what the Lord has spoken. On the contrary, unbelief is never to the honor and glory of God, and it is a blessing when this is learned. The fact of the matter is that the Lord always tries His own work, and this is what the question is about. Yes, then there can be tempting of the promise when Satan and unbelief pull the matter into doubt or when the fulfilment of that which is promised is taken in one’s own hand, like Jacob, David, and Abraham did.

Did we ever realize how the promises indirectly referred to in Hebrews 11 were in most, if not all cases, immediately under the pressure and trials of circumstances and temptations? “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off…” (Hebrews 11:13a). It is striking to study how often the saints of the Old Testament were tossed to and fro between either a lack of trust and tempting the promise, on the one hand, and pleading the same on the other. When the Lord called Abraham out of darkness to light, He mentioned no less than six promises to him, all of which were immediately under the pressure of the impossibility to be fulfilled.

Again, this was not because the promise itself was shaky or lent itself to distrust or that the Lord spoke in a language that was unclear to Abraham. It pleased the Lord, from the beginning, to exercise faith in the heat of battles, impossibilities, and temptations.

Even of Abraham, the father of all the faithful we read that he said to the Lord: “O that Ishmael might live before Thee!” in a context where Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness, and the God of Abraham confirmed the promise many times. Why, then, does it still say in Romans 4:20 that “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God?” Ah, what is more to God’s honor and glory? It is, as Thomas Manton writes somewhere: “Where the bent of the heart is right, the infirmities of God’s people are not mentioned.” Hebrews 11 speaks of Rahab’s faith, not of her lie, and Exodus points out the fear of God in the midwives, and doesn’t condemn them for what they said to Pharoah. Think of a guilty Jacob by the Jabbok, who nevertheless is called with a new name and was told that as a prince he had power with God and with men, and prevailed (Genesis 32:28).

What Zacharias said to the angel: “Whereby shall I know this?” was more a tempting than a pleading of the promise! Mary the mother of Jesus said it differently: “How shall this …be?” The one questioned the Lord; the other asked for more light upon and wisdom concerning the matter. Tempting the promise always suspects the veracity of God’s speaking or manner of bringing the thing to pass. It refuses to wait, to submit in quiet faith; it wants to help the Lord and questions His wisdom, timing, and manner of fulfilling what He has spoken. Pleading actually is already an act of faith, and though earnestly looking for the fulfilment does not do so with a haughty heart or lofty eyes, exercising oneself in things too high and matters too great to understand (Psalm 131). Pleading the promise takes place as a child that is weaned of his mother, hoping in the Lord.

In closing, dear friend, let it be a comfort that the giving, as well as the fulfilment, of all what God promises lies firm and sure in the hand of Him that promised. Not one word of what the Lord speaks shall fall to the ground. It is, as I once read somewhere, God’s promises are, in the first place, obligations to Himself, and that gives rest, hope, and trust.

Please send your questions to Rev. H. Hofman, 112 Pratt Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49001, or hofman@premieronline.net.

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