Past Promises
Promises that God has made in the past include the following:
- To bless the nations through Abraham (Genesis 22:18)
- To bless or curse Israel depending upon their obedience or disobedience (Dueteronomy 28)
- To give David’s descendant an eternal kingdom (2 Samuel 7:5-16)
- To bring salvation to the Gentiles through a Jewish Messiah (Isaiah 49:6)
- To establish an everlasting priesthood through a Jewish King (Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7-8)
Often, God's promises are conditional. God’s promises often present people with choices: obedience or disobedience, belief or unbelief. Humans can count on God’s past words because they are promises, God cannot lie, and he is all-powerful (he can bring his promises to fruition). Prophecy often looks back at past predictive prophecy and shows how God has fulfilled his promises in the past in order to remind God’s people that their hope in God’s future fulfillment of promises will surely come about (2 Peter 3:1-9 ).