Genesis 3:14-15 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
 
TODAY begins a series of promises pointing to Jesus. In truth, the entire Bible points to Jesus. But we’ll look at some of God’s specific promises regarding Jesus’ saving work. We begin with a three-part look at God’s judgment of Satan, Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:14-19. They are standing before God. Satan has tempted the first couple to sin, and God is passing judgment on the Tempter and the tempted. In this passage the LORD God judges Satan. He promises a Savior will destroy Satan.
   The title of this lesson could be “God Promises a War”. Conflict marks God’s message to Satan. God’s first act of war is to curse the snake. No longer would it walk upright as it had been created. It would crawl along the ground and be an object of fear and aversion to mankind. We may see the snake as an innocent tool of Satan’s destruction. But it is at God’s authority that he re-created the snake to remind us of sin’s curse.
   Then the LORD directly promises there will be conflict between mankind and Satan: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. We may stop to wonder if this is true. After all, most of the world since that day have submitted to Satan’s rule. Cain is the first of Adam’s and Eve’s offspring, and he lived as Satan’s friend! And we know sin’s horrible effects on the world.
   But this is a promise of hope. God is telling Satan there will be people in the world who will reject him. They will hate him to the point they despise his temptations and turn in pleasure to God’s salvation. The hatred toward Satan is revealed in the human race through the law, prophets and gospel. We hate Satan when we hate sin’s condemnation and its destruction of all things good. God’s Word discloses the battle against evil and the ultimate triumph of Good.
   God promises that triumph in his next statement to Satan: “He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This points to Jesus. The Savior will come to crush Satan’s head – his authority – over Jesus’ church. The apostle Paul testified to Jesus’ words that confirmed this promise: Acts 26:17d-18 “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”  God’s forgiveness is crushing Satan’s condemnation.
   But there is a cost to Christ. God’s promise you will strike his heel means that Jesus’ saving work will cause the Savior to suffer physical harm. It also means that the faithful will suffer physical persecution.  
   From the very first prophecy of the Savior, God is telling us that salvation requires a battle to defeat the Tempter. Jesus is called “Savior” for a reason.

 

Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
 
THIS is the fifth of the Ten Commandments. The apostle Paul wrote of this command as he taught on family relationships: “Honor your father and mother” - which is the first commandment with a promise. (Ephesians 6:2)
   God’s promised long life is a promise for a nation that lives under God’s laws, principles and promises. A nation will live long when the people’s hearts and minds esteem parents as leaders in the household and respect their position. This extends to adult children as well as young children.
   God’s Word directs the family relationship to be of mutual honor. As Paul also wrote in Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. These are two more keys to long life for a nation. Parents are not to frustrate their children with inappropriate rules and commands. And the LORD’s Word is to be the foundation of each family. Parents must honor God as the first three commandments decree. They are to live with integrity into the Bible’s teachings. In turn, parents must instruct their children to do the same.
   The parents’ responsibility is very clear in Deuteronomy 6:6-8 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Commandments on one’s heart become your way of life.
   If parents reject God and fail to impress the LORD’s commands upon their children, how will the children know God? How will children understand his commands and know their responsibility in a Christian household? And is there any way children can live well in their community if others do not know God’s truth?
   A nation might survive in chaos, but it will not thrive in God’s presence if God’s law does not guide its people’s lives. History and current events prove this is true. Dishonoring the law leads to dishonoring one another. Families, communities and nations suffer. Children are not meant to rule the home, the schools, the church or any aspect of life. They are to be taught and nurtured with God’s wisdom, so they will one day properly rule the next generation.
   God’s commands taught and obeyed at home extend into the church, government and all organizations to do good for one another. A people together in God will be together in one purpose in the land he has given them.   
 
Note: On vacation. Next lesson will be around July 31.

Proverbs 2:20-22 Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
 
WE can understand the concept of land. We all live on the land. God’s first command to Abraham told him to, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1) The LORD commanded Abraham away from his pagan family’s land and its traditions, so he could more readily accept the transforming life God had prepared for him. On his arrival in the land, God further promised Abraham: Genesis 12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” Later, Israel’s destination out of Egypt was that land God had promised to Abraham. That’s why it is called “Promised Land”. God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob their descendants would live there. Israel was to conquer that land to establish it as a theocracy – one nation under God.
   God’s promise in Proverbs 2:20-22 is a very practical promise regarding both a physical and spiritual land. The blameless and upright devoted to God will live in the land. Wicked, unfaithful men will be torn from this land.
   In Israel’s history we can see the truth of this promise of blessing and judgment. Much of the Old Testament recounts Israel’s association with evil that caused them to have a hard life in the Promised Land. The promised good life began to go bad when Israel associated with their wicked and unfaithful neighbors. Instead of Israel drawing the pagans into God’s goodness, the pagans tempted Israel into evil. That caused great physical strife throughout Israel’s land. Sometimes the LORD punished them with drought and other natural phenomena. Other times conquering nations enslaved them and stole their crops and livestock. The LORD removed his people from the land, and God’s chosen people lost the land’s promise.
   For you today, God’s promised land in this scripture and elsewhere is twofold: It is your personal relationship with God. And it is the church. To live well in this land is to reject relationships with the wicked and unfaithful. That does not mean you totally avoid such people. You can’t. And we’re commanded to go to such people to tell them the way to Jesus’ promises. But we cannot allow evil to draw us away from God’s promises. The sinful world wants you to approve of their sin. God’s history and God’s promise plainly tell us the blameless will remain in the land; they will remain in God’s care. The wicked and unfaithful will be torn from it.  
   How tragic to hear of people who exhibited a strong faith and love for the Lord, but then they turned to the world and rejected him. And sadly the church’s history is as Israel’s. Wicked and faithful people have led too many congregations and denominations into a drought. They are lifeless without God’s redeeming Word. People live in the land of exile from God’s blessings because they allowed evil to influence them.
   Anchor your life in God’s promise to live well in his land. Walk in the ways of good people who demonstrate God’s rule in their lives. Keep on the right path. Be upright in God’s sight. Be open and obedient to the Lord’s teachings. Help others do the same. Help your church be steadfast in the good land of God’s truth.
   Live a good, blameless and upright life in God’s good land.  

Psalms 24:1-2 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
 
AT times God’s promises are not written in specific language such as, “I will…” or “The LORD says.” We can see in Scriptures as this one that God’s promises are understood within the declarations of God’s character. This psalm promises God is sovereign over the earth.
   Do we know this? Maybe we do, but most likely we can have our doubts as difficult circumstances in our lives and in the world seem to occur at random. God wants you to know that even amid human and natural turmoil, he has his strong hand on the world.
   That lesson is the theme of many psalms, the epistles and wisdom literature such as Ecclesiastes. But perhaps we learn this lesson most directly in Job. When God allowed Satan to destroy Job’s wealth, family and health, Job sought to plead his case before the LORD. He wanted an answer for his suffering. Job asked the LORD, “If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? (Job 7:20)
   God’s response is summarized here: Job 38:35 “Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? 36 Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind? 37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens 38 when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?” Job could only respond with, “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6)
   Job released his questions and his accusations into worship. What God had done and allowed Satan to do was under God’s providence. In his suffering, Job learned to revere God more deeply than when he knew physical prosperity. Job’s story concludes with the LORD blessing Job with twice the wealth he had before his trials.
   Not all stories of suffering end this way, do they? Too many times suffering is the road to a life that is less than before the suffering. But as we understand God’s authority over the earth, we come to more completely know he reigns over heaven. If you believe the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it, you will understand he has
has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. (Ecclesiastes 3:11-12)
 
 

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
 
MUCH has been written on God’s will. What is it? How do we know it? Do we have choices within God’s will? And many Christians have personally inquired, “What is God’s will for my life?” These are good, necessary questions we must have on our minds if we say, “Jesus is my Lord.” After all, we want to live as the Lord leads us.
   In Romans 1-11, the apostle Paul wrote of sin’s affects on our lives and of Jesus’ transforming power to redeem us. A good summary of those chapters is Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  
   Then in Romans 12, Paul essentially address the question, “Now that I am redeemed in Jesus Christ what do I do?” God promises you will know what to do when your mind is transformed into the mind of Christ.
   This transformation happens when you offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. A living sacrifice is a life different than your natural life. The sacrificial life purposefully pursues God. A focus on others is your focus. Obedience, confession and passion mark your spiritual act of worship. Such a life is centered on knowing and responding appropriately to God’s character, his commands, and his promises. You discard long-held desires and beliefs that place your self above Jesus and others. Inappropriate actions and words become your past. You no longer conform to the world’s system. But the Spirit transforms you through a mind made new in Jesus Christ. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
   Paul then gave practical examples of the transformed mind knowing God’s will. Read through Romans 12:3-20, and the Holy Spirit will point you to a mind renewed in God’s will. He teaches you to be humble. Use your spiritual gifts such as teaching, serving, generosity, mercy, sincere love, devotion and honor. You should be passionate to seek God’s knowledge. Hope and patience must mark your life even in affliction. Be faithful in prayer and share with the needy. You are to bless those who persecute you. And be especially kind to those who are unkind to you.
    This life is one that worships the One who has redeemed you. Release the old, focus on the new. Know God’s will is to transform you into a more complete relationship with him.  
   

Matthew 5:19 “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
 
MEDITATE on this verse for  a minute. Perhaps you have two questions: Are there lesser and greater commands in the kingdom of heaven? Will the disobedient be in the kingdom?
    We can answer the questions when we understand that Jesus is teaching people who have learned many man-made commands mixed with God’s commands. In the Pharisees’ religious structure, there were least and greater commands. The Lord of the Law emphasizes God’s Word is precious in even the smallest matters. “This means the smallest details of the Law will be fulfilled. We must heed all. But we must make sure that they are His commands and not human rules.” (from Exegetical Commentary on Matthew, by Spiros Zodhiates) We know his commands when we know the Bible.
   The Teacher also underscores the need for faithful teaching. Jesus is pointing ahead to the church as the visible kingdom of heaven. Teachers in the church must treasure all of God’s Word. They are to educate their congregations, classes and Bible studies to cherish and adhere to all God’s commands. The apostle Paul warned, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4) Teachers who do not honor all commands will have a lower position in God’s kingdom than those who speak plainly from the Bible.
   To be great in the kingdom of heaven, then, is to be loyal to God’s commands. God calls the faithful great because they are of high value in the Kingdom. Your value is not defined by the culture’s standards. Your value is determined in your devotion to live into God’s commands.
   When you consider your own life, how do you look at the law? Are you resisting some of the “smaller” laws that seem to make little difference in your life? Or do you hold all God’s Word in high esteem? Do you desire with all your heart to follow God’s commands into the full life Jesus’ promises? What happens when you break a command? Can you be great then?
   God says you can. A wonderful assurance in Scripture is expressed in 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Obedience, confession and passion are the pathway to kingdom greatness. Strive to know God’s law. Live God’s law. Teach God’s law. Be kingdom great.

​Jesus Promised He’s All You Need
 
Matthew 5:17-18 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”
 
HOW do you receive Jesus’ promise? If you consider the Law and the Prophets’ words as restrictive rules and judgment, you may see Jesus’ ministry in the same way. His teaching require a constant pursuit of God’s holiness. Who can do that?
   Or you may see Jesus’ promise as God’s bold statement that you can, indeed, live into the Bible’s truths. You might rejoice that one day the Law and the Prophets will become the standard for all people in the Kingdom of God.
   If Jesus had abolished the Law or changed one letter of a word, what point would there be to read, study and know what is spoken in the Old Testament? If he had removed the Prophets’ words, he would have been saying, “The LORD had no part in what happened before me.” We thank God the evidence of Jesus’ Lordship comes through our understanding of the Law and the Prophets’ words.
   For example, we see the illustrations of Jesus’ atoning death in the sacrificial laws. We also learn of Jesus’ expected humility, power, suffering and triumph in Daniel, Isaiah, Micah and others.
   Before Jesus’ incarnation, the Law and the Prophets were words to guide Israel’s religious and cultural life. Those words gave hope to the faithful. When Jesus came, the words became the Living Word. The faithful, inspired students of Scripture in Jesus’ time could exclaim as the disciple Philip, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the Prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (John 1:45)
   How different Jesus’ ministry would have been if the Jews had truly believed Jesus’ promise and Philip’s confession. What joy and celebration would have exploded throughout Judea if all had confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16) And how eager they would have been to learn and submit to Jesus if they had recognized he is the transcendant God who came to his own: John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. Instead, the ruling Jews saw the Living Word as a threat to their self-serving laws. The Jews had killed the prophets, and they killed the One the Prophets proclaimed.
   Does your faith trust that Jesus’ teachings are enough for you? Or are you looking for something more – or less – from Jesus? Jesus has promised he completed God’s Word. His words do require a constant pursuit of God’s holiness. What joy to know you can do that when you know Jesus is all you must know.   
 
John 15:3-4 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
 

Amos 2:6-8 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back [my wrath]. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. 7 They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. 8 They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines…12 But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.
 
WE move from God’s seven promises to redeem Israel from Egypt to seven reasons God promised judgment on Israel. In the prophet Amos’ time, “Israel” had become 10 tribes that separated from Judah and Benjamin. Corrupt kings led Israel to reject God’s laws; and thus, they rejected God. The phrase: for three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back [my wrath] is a way to write that God promises to judge Israel for seven sins.
   The sins included selling people into slavery to pay their debts. Courts conspired with creditors to take land from the poor. This was a gross violation of God’s law that one must not deny justice to the poor (Exodus 23:6). In addition there was the gross sexual misconduct of fathers and sons.
   The fourth sin is at the root of all Israel’s sins. They worship false idols. Fifth, they lie on garments taken in pledge. A poor man’s cloak was not to be kept overnight in pledge for payments. (Exodus 22:26) Widows’ garments could never be taken. (Deuteronomy 24:17) Then crimes six and seven are against God’s especially anointed men. Israel caused Nazarites to break their vow to God to not drink wine. And the pagan-worshiping Jews commanded the prophets to stop prophesying. You could summarize the seven sins to say Israel was determined to silence God’s voice. 
   Listen! Do you hear God’s warning to us and his church today? The apostle Paul wrote of the ways we silence God’s voice: Galatians 5:19-21 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. Then he wrote, I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
           Here’s the truth. One can’t live apart from God, violating at will his essential commands if he desires the LORD’s eternal promise of heaven. That’s why Paul then exhorts us to the Spirit-powered life. Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. As Christians, we are commanded to care for others with generosity, justice and mercy. Our hearts must be tuned to God’s commands, so we are in harmony with his character. This is God’s divine purpose for your life. Reject self pleasure. Live into God’s pleasure.      

Exodus 6:9 Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage. 
 
THIS is a sad response to God’s seven promises to redeem Israel from Egypt’s slavery. (See the two prior lessons.) Egypt’s cruel bondage over Israel was severe. But perhaps Israel’s spiritual bondage was worse.
   Generation upon generation, Egypt’s oppression infected Israel with despair of God’s promises. When the LORD of creation stepped into their lives to say, “I will.” Israel was too weary to welcome him.
   But if they had opened their mind to remember all of God’s promises to Abraham, they would have remembered this: Genesis 15:13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated 400 years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 
   Exodus 12:40 tells us Israel lived in Egypt 430 years. Moses came with God’s message in the length of time God had promised. Their despair should have turned to joy, “The LORD is a Promise Keeper!”
   But despair puts a dark cover over God’s promises, doesn’t it? This seems to have been the psalmist’s heart when he petitioned God, “I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy.” (Psalm 123:1-2)
   As the psalmist, we might see God as a slave master who demands unreasonable devotion. We might believe he directs our lives without reason. In life’s hard places we wonder, “Is it true God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble? (Psalm 46:1) Or do we stop to remember Jesus’ mercy to declare, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
   Despair can steal our joy and cover our hearts with darkness. God’s mercy is his abundant love to welcome us into his life-giving light. For faith to clear their spiritual eyes, Israel needed to believe the God of heaven and earth had moved events over 400 years from the patriarchs to the day the merciful God said to his people, “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.”  
   Is despair, doubt or weariness keeping you from knowing God is Eternal Mercy? Jesus confronted the darkness to lead  us into his light. Trust his eternal freedom from despair. See joy’s clear skies, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3)
    

Exodus 6:6c-9 I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’”
 
WE continue with the seven promises God declared to Israel in Egypt. The LORD’s third promise reveals he will personally demonstrate his power.
   Number 3) I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. We might see two promises in this. God’s outstretched arm is an image of God’s power stretching over Egypt to redeem Israel. To redeem is to purchase. He will purchase them with his unassailable power. Second, God will judge Israel’s enemies. Those judgments are the 10 plagues and the destruction of Egypt’s army in the Red Sea. Both Egypt and Israel needed to know Yahweh is supreme. Egypt needs to know it cannot resist the LORD. Israel needs to know they are following the LORD, who is their personal Redeemer come to save them.
   God then further promised himself to Israel: 4) I will take you as my own people. This should have caused great reverence in Israel’s hearts. The God who made the heavens and the earth has chosen this nation to be my people. Surely they would be eager to worship him as he extended himself to them.
   He adds more to this personal relationship with them with promise number 5) I will be your God. For 400 years God had been silent. The faithful in Israel knew of God’s personal relationships with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Through oral traditions, they listened to God’s promises as Moses would later record in Genesis 22:17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies. Now God had come to them as he had come to the patriarchs. Surely this was a marvelous thing to consider God was fulfilling his age-old promise in their lifetime!
   God concludes his seven promises pointing to a new home for Israel: 6) I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. It’s as if God has raised his right hand to swear to himself he has spoken the truth. God uses this image in Deuteronomy 32:40 “I lift my hand to heaven and declare.” and elsewhere to emphasize his word is true.
   Then is promise 7) I will give it to you as a possession. The LORD promises to lead them to the land and to give it to them. No nation would understand a god giving land to a people. Not even Abraham had much land! Then you could say God signed his promises with the declaration, “I am the Lord.”
   Do you see your Christian life here? Jesus has personally come to redeem you with his arms stretched out on the cross. They are not weak arms under a despot’s control. They are the Savior’s arms extended with love. He extends them in power to gather his people unto himself. He is our personal God, come to fulfill his centuries-old promises, so we will enter into the Kingdom of God. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
   Did Israel believe God’s promises? Do you?