How Can We Not Keep Our Promise? By Lane Jordan Burday

And all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the word of the people to the Lord (Exodus 19:8).

I’m blessed to be able to teach a Bible study in my home each week. I’ve been teaching for almost 23 years, and I believe God has set me to teach because I need to learn so much!

We decided in the fall to go through the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Not sure how much time it will take, but it doesn’t matter. We are learning God’s Word, which is our sure and best foundation.

We are almost at the close of the book of Exodus. The people have seen the miracles of God: the Ten Plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and the daily food of manna.

And yet, in the third month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites came to Mount Sinai, where Moses had first seen the burning bush. God was ready to give this new nation His laws and the blueprint for the building of the first temple, a tabernacle in the desert.

God called Moses from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant (promise), then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession…you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites” (Genesis 19:4-6).

Moses then went to the people and shared what the Lord had told him to say. The people responded together, saying they would do everything the Lord had said. They even consecrated themselves by washing themselves and their clothes. They were committed.

Then Moses took Joshua up to the mountain to meet God. And they were there for 40 days and 40 nights.

However, you probably remember what happened. The people saw that Moses hadn’t come down from the mountain, even though the cloud of God covered the mountain, and they came to Aaron, Moses’s brother and priest, “Come, make us a god who will go before us as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Exodus 32:1).

And they gave all their gold jewelry to Aaron, who melted it and made a golden calf.

I thought, “How could they forget all that God had done in just three months? How could they forget their promise to Him so quickly?”

And then I looked at myself and remembered that we are all sinners! And because of that, we can easily fall into temptation and sin even when at one time we were walking in obedience to the Lord.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Haven’t we made promises to God and then broken them? Yes. And that is why God shows us all the human frailties and faults of the people in the Bible. We are just like them.

This causes us to stop and review our lives. What promises did we say ‘yes’ to and then forgot?

That is why we are blessed above all people to believe in a God of Grace!

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Just as the children of Israel forgot their promise to the Lord, so we forget ours. Which should cause us to fall down before God with thanksgiving and great gratitude for His forgiveness!

My prayer for you is that no matter how far you have fallen, God is still holding your hand. Call on the name of the Lord and be saved and back in His arms!

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Do you live in our near the Austin area? Then you will want to join us for our Level-Up Austin event on April 25th from 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at Wells Branch Community Church. Register today at: https://levelupconferenceaustin.eventbrite.com.