Faith On Promise

“The LORD therefore hath performed his word that he hath spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.” (2Ch 6:10 AV)

 

Solomon is praying over the newly constructed temple.  He is reflecting on God’s faithfulness as the motive behind this building project.  As David did before him, Solomon wishes to recognize the faithfulness of God with a temple built to His honor.  In the statement above, Solomon is reflecting on specific events of God’s faithfulness.  God promised David his descendants would never cease to sit on the throne over Israel.  In particular, he promised Solomon would sit on the throne and secure the prosperity of the nation.  This God did.  God honored His promises.  The covenant to David was altered slightly with Solomon.  The condition of obedience to the law was added although the promise of an eternal kingdom with an eternal king was reconfirmed, if the descendants of Solomon refused to follow the law, then the covenant would be interrupted until Shiloh (Christ) comes.  These covenants were the basis of David and Solomon’s heart to build the temple.

Faith on our part has much to do with the faithfulness of God.  If God is not faithful, we can have no faith.  Two Eskimo boys stood at the shoreline waiting for their fathers to return from the annual seal hunt.  Both had been promised the hunt was to last for a specific number of days.  As they stood at the shore, their eyes were fixed on the boats coming in.  It didn’t take long before their fathers met their families.  One of the boys grabbed his father for a big hug.  It had been weeks since he had seen him.  The other boy stood there, waiting for his father.  Six weeks was promised.  Six weeks had come.  No dad.  This young boy stood there until all others had left the water’s edge.  He stood there for another two hours constantly gazing out into the open waters.  No more boat.  The walk home was a long and sad one.  A week later, his father arrived at the door of his house.  There was the smell of alcohol on his breath.  Nonetheless, they embraced and joy appeared on the face of that young boy.  The next year’s seal hunt came around.  Again, this young boy’s father promised six weeks and he would return.  History repeated itself.  This young boy stood at the water’s edge and no dad.  He could not celebrate as his peers did.  As was his pattern, the drunken father returned, albeit two weeks late this time.  The same happened year after year.  After a while, the young boy stopped going to the shoreline.  In fact, not knowing when his father would return, he didn’t even stick around the house to find out.  Because his father was not faithful to his word, the boy lost faith in his father.

Faith needs an object.  That object must be consistent and reliable.  When we speak of faithfulness, the is no other so faithful and God.  The promises of God are that upon which we base our faith and our actions.  Sometimes it takes a testing or two before we come to trust in the promises of God.  Once we learn that God does honor His word, it makes it all that much easier to trust promises yet needed.  That Eskimo boy had a father who never returned when he said he would.  This led to doubt in any and everything this father promised.  However, the other boy, enjoying a father who kept his word of when he would return, found it easier to trust him for a promise not yet fulfilled.  If father promised his return would be in six weeks, and he returned, surely if he promises to take him on the next hunt, that will come to pass, too.  Our problem isn’t in the promises.  Rather, it is in seeing them fulfilled and giving the benefit of the doubt to our Father that when He promises, it will come to pass.