The City that Touches the Sky: The Promised Land

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land He has given you. ~Deuteronomy 8:7-10

Maegan & I, Lake Titicaca (Thanksgiving 2013)

Promises, promises. In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, this word has been clawing its way into my thoughts, taking root, and cropping up in conversations, books, and prayers. Humans seem to have a habit of making promises. We promise our parents that we’ll be home by 10 o’clock. We promise our teacher that we’ll turn in our homework. We promise our friends that we’ll keep their secret. We promise ourselves that we’ll never make that mistake again. We promise our spouses that we’ll be true to each other. We promise our children that we’ll keep them safe. Promises take the form of laws, treaties, contracts, handshakes, blueprints, proposals, vows, bribes, secrets, and even advertisements. Our reality, the foundation of our lives, depends on promises.

Yes, we have a habit of making promises. Coincidentally, we also have a habit of breaking promises.

Of course we do, you might say. That’s human.

If that’s the case, then I submit that a promise (in the purest sense of the word) is not a human invention. Rather it is something that we have learned and adopted. And you don’t have to look too far to figure out where we got the idea. Genesis 1 records the first promise ever made: a God-initiated covenant between Himself and mankind. Verse 26 tells us, “And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over the earth and over every creeping thing”.

Even after the Fall God continued to make promises to the chosen people of Israel, raising up generation after generation, delivering them from their enemies, providing for them in the wilderness, and preparing a land for them. Jesus Himself proclaimed the promise of salvation to all mankind and He even announced the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Why is it significant to us that God invented promises? Because if our foundation is built on promises, then what we stand on is faulty without the ultimate Promise-Keeper. Shifting sand is our reality when we trust in man-made promises.

Maybe you think this is just the cynic in me. People are ultimately good, right? Sure, we don’t always keep our promises, but at least we have good intentions.

Let’s take a page from the Weeping Prophet’s book. Literally, Jeremiah 17:9 clearly states, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Luckily for us, God was willing to wrap Himself in flesh and walk this earth to understand the depravity of our hearts. He broke bread with promise-breakers, so that when His body was broken the greatest Promise was secured.

So, what does this mean to us today? It means that if you are new creation in Christ, then God has prepared a Promised Land for you, a place where His promises become your living reality. A place where His declarations of love over your life come to fruition, right now. A place where you see and taste His goodness in the dirt under your fingernails, the sweat on your brow, and the joy in your heart. A place of fruitfulness, of figs and pomegranates and olives. A place where you will find victory over your enemies. A place where you can live and unpack your bags. Home.

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23

I’m not saying I’ve made it yet. At best I’m a tenant of the Promised Land. Like the Israelites, I see my enemy standing on ground that God intended for me, and I hide. I skulk back to the caves that sheltered me in the past. Of course, that’s human. But it’s God that gives me the courage to stand and believe His true promises over my life. And when I do, His joy is in me and my joy is made full (John 15:11).

The Promise-Keeper never intended you for the cave. He designed you for the Light.

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Just for fun, here are some photos of our Superhero Day from Spirit Week last semester.