Five Promises of Genesis
The greatest honor of my life is being trusted to teach God’s Word. I’ve been teaching workplace Bible studies several days a week since January 2000. Only God could generate the level of interest and participation we’ve experienced in our Bible studies. If you’ve been a part of them, thank you.
The process of digging into God’s Word and sharing it with others has been as humbling as it has been fulfilling and rewarding. Perhaps I could have mastered another book had I studied and taught it for 25+ years. Though decades of studying Scripture have simply taught me how much more there is to learn and challenged me to more deeply consider what I’ve learned but not lived.
We’ve just completed our study of the book of Genesis. We started in September 2023, and I had to rush the last few chapters to keep my promise to finish in May 2025.
I have so many thoughts about Genesis, though here are a few that stand out:
Its messages are both foundational and intricately interwoven throughout all of Scripture, human history, and modern life.
There are no perfect people (whew!). Only a perfect God, who is the only hero in Genesis.
Fear & pride are our greatest obstacles to every kind of success. Fear & pride are misplacements of trust. The antidote to fear & pride is the correct placement of trust – faith.
God keeps his promises.
God continually makes five promises in Genesis. The first two emerge early in Genesis. Though all five are repetitive throughout Genesis 12 through 50.
The Five Promises of Genesis are:
I have been with you.
I am with you.
I will be with you.
I will bring forth a great people from you.
I am preparing a place for you.
I have been with you.
I’m confident that this promise extends beyond Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to each of us. I know that if you’ve walked through loss, trauma, grief, betrayal, abuse, divorce… you may struggle to wrap your head around this promise. How could God let this happen? Why would God let this happen?
I don’t want to force this perspective on anyone hurting. I certainly won’t pretend to have all the answers. Though years of ministry and counseling have taught me that the farther believers get from acute pain the more clearly they tend to see that God was with them through their trials.
Because God wants to be chosen, He allows each person to make choices. Many of the trials of this world are based on choices. Other trials are beyond our understanding or explanation. Though God does not abandon us. He does not look away. His working in us and on us through a trial may not be obvious or even discernable. Though, according to His Word, He has been with us through it all. As Joseph acknowledged, God can and often does offer his best through the very acts and circumstances others meant for harm.
I am with you.
In the first and last chapters of Matthew, this promise is echoed through the words of an angel to Mary,
‘“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means God with us).” Matthew 1:23, quoting Isaiah 7:14
and the words of Jesus Himself,
“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
For those who begin grasping who God is, this is a game-changer! Nothing else comes close to the encouragement, empowerment, confidence, and accountability of this promise. An awareness of God’s presence challenges our passivity, aggression, selfishness, powerlessness, hopelessness, pride, fear, and even the bondage of our favorite sins.
I will be with you.
It’s foolishness to think that you can map God’s calling in your life as you start a journey. I know. I’ve tried and failed countless times. I think I know what or where He’s calling me, and I start mapping out exactly how I’ll get there. Then life happens. Challenges surface. Detours and distractions are encountered. Timelines are trashed. Expectations crushed.
One of those lessons I’ve had to learn over and over is that I’m not the navigator. God rarely reveals step three before I take step one or step ten before I take steps one through eight. So how does one find peace in an unknown journey? We trust that God goes before us. We seek to follow Him. When we peer into the unknown wanting to honor and obey Him, we trust this promise - that God will be with us.
I will bring forth a great people from you.
Clearly, this was a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob referring to the coming nation of Israel. But I don’t think the promise is limited to the nation of Israel. God told Abraham that he would be the father of a multitude of nations, that through him all the world would be blessed. Abraham is considered, not just the Father of Israel, but the Father of Faith.
According to Scripture, what makes a person great? Faith, and faith alone. Consider our calling as believers – to share our faith. With all due respect to the nation of Israel, the Church, the community of people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, is the greatest of people. That’s not because our behavior, relationships, or interactions are perfect, or even healthy. It’s because we have been made perfect through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
So, when we have an impact on people that moves them closer to trusting Jesus or leads them to trust Him more, God is bringing forth a great people through us.
I am preparing a place for you.
As the patriarchs in Genesis traveled through and settled within the best and worst of circumstances, God promised them that the best was yet to come, that He was preparing a special place for them.
Jesus echoed this to His followers,
“In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. John 14:2-3
Just as God reminded Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that they were sojourners in foreign lands, Jesus reminds us that this world, with its trials and tribulations, tears, pain, betrayals, illness, and death, is not our home. This promise is meant to provide us hope while in our deepest despair. Death is not an end, but a transition. Death opens the door to eternity in the physical presence of God. Death allows us and those believers who have gone before us to reenter the Garden. Adam and eve were expelled from the Garden when they failed to choose God. We are promised that if we simply choose God through Jesus we will reenter the Garden for good. What a promise!
As previously mentioned, these five promises are as much for us as they were for those in Genesis. They matter because they remind us that we matter to God. He loves you. He has not forsaken you, and He never will. We need not ask for God’s presence in our lives. We may simply ask for an increased awareness of His presence and engage in the practices, relationships and community that remind us of His presence to gain the peace that surpasses all understanding and the hope that shines bright in the darkest of circumstances.
Thanks for Reading,
John