People ask what the promises of God are for two reasons. Some want a clear definition. Most want to know what God has really said, and whether any of it belongs to them. This guide answers both, one step at a time.
Here is the short answer. A promise of God is a place in the Bible where God commits Himself to do something, give something or be something for someone. It is not a hope or a nice saying. It is God putting His own name behind a future event.
Peter, one of the twelve apostles, called these words exceeding great and precious. He said they do more than comfort you. They change the person who takes hold of them.
A promise puts the speaker on the line
Think about the difference between two sentences. A friend says, I hope I can help you move. Another friend says, I will be at your door at eight on Saturday. The first one is kind. The second one is a promise, and you can plan around it. If that friend does not show up, his word is worth less the next time.
That is why the Bible spends so much time on the character of the One who promises. A promise is only as good as the person who makes it. Oddly enough, one of the clearest statements about God's word came from a hired prophet named Balaam. King Balak of Moab hired him to curse Israel, and God would not let him. Balaam had to tell the king this:
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Numbers 23:19 (KJV)
People break their word for two reasons. Either they did not really mean it, or they could not pull it off. Balaam's message rules out both for God. He does not lie, and He does not fail to make His word good.
The letter to the Hebrews adds one more layer. When God promised Abraham, He also swore an oath, so that people who trust Him would have two unchanging things to hold:
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Hebrews 6:18 (KJV)
The kinds of promises God made
When you read the Bible from front to back, the promises fall into a few kinds. Knowing the kind helps you know how to read it.
| Kind of promise | An example | Who first heard it |
|---|---|---|
| To one person | A son in old age (Genesis 18:14) | Abraham and Sarah |
| To a family line | A house and a throne that would last (2 Samuel 7:16) | David |
| To a nation | The land of Canaan (Genesis 15:18 and Joshua 1:3) | Abraham's children, Israel |
| To every living thing | No flood to destroy the earth again (Genesis 9:11) | Noah and all life after him |
| To everyone who believes | Everlasting life (John 3:16) | Whosoever believes in the Son |
| About the end of the story | No more tears, death or pain (Revelation 21:4) | God's people in the age to come |
Notice that these overlap. The promise to Noah reaches you because it was made to every living creature. The promise to David's family line finds its answer in Jesus, the Son of David. The promise of land was for Israel, yet it still shows you a God who gives His people a place to belong.
Some promises come with an if
Many of God's promises tell you plainly what He asks. The condition is part of the promise, not a fine-print trap.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)
God spoke those words to Solomon after the temple was finished. The promise is to heal the land, and the conditions come first: humble yourselves, pray, seek, turn. James writes the same way to believers. Wisdom is promised, and asking is the condition: let him ask of God.
Other promises have no condition at all. When God set the rainbow in the cloud, He asked Noah for nothing in return. He bound Himself. Read each promise slowly enough to see which kind it is. Our guide Are God's Promises Conditional? goes deeper.
Who did God make promises to?
The promises have names and faces. Each one was spoken into a real day in someone's life. Here are some of the people who heard a promise from God spoken to them, by God Himself or by His angel:
- Noah, after the flood, standing on a washed-out earth.
- Abram, who was told to count the stars if he could.
- Hagar, alone in the desert with her son, who heard that he would become a nation too.
- Isaac and Jacob, who heard the promise to Abraham repeated to them.
- Moses and Joshua, who were told God would go with them.
- David, who was promised a house that would not end.
- Mary, who was told her Son would reign over the house of Jacob for ever.
- The disciples, who heard Jesus promise the Comforter and a place prepared.
How to know which promises you can stand on
This is the question behind most searches. You read a beautiful verse and wonder if it is yours. A few honest questions will sort out most cases:
- Who is God talking to? Look at the verses before and after. A promise to Abraham about Isaac was for Abraham.
- Is it repeated to believers in the New Testament? When an apostle picks up an old promise and hands it to the church, you can hold it too.
- Is there a condition? If so, the condition is part of how you receive it.
- What does it show about God? Even a promise that was not spoken to you shows you what God is like, and that never stops being true.
We walk through these questions with examples on both sides in Promises of God to Us.
Where the promises are in the Bible
Promises run through the whole Bible, from the early chapters of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation. Here is a rough map.
Genesis to Deuteronomy holds the first promises and the covenants: the hint of a Savior in Genesis 3:15, the rainbow, the stars shown to Abraham, the law given at Sinai with its blessings.
Joshua to Esther shows the promises being kept, and sometimes delayed, as Israel enters the land, asks for a king and goes into exile.
Job, Psalms and Proverbs turn the promises into prayers and songs. Many favorite verses live here.
The prophets, Isaiah through Malachi, promise comfort, a return home and a coming King.
The New Testament shows Jesus keeping the old promises and making new ones. The letters explain how they reach every believer.
What a promise is for
A promise is not a trophy to hang on the wall. It is something to lean your weight on. Paul described Abraham waiting for a son long after the natural hope was gone. Abraham was about a hundred years old, and Sarah was long past the age for children. Paul says he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. He held on because he was sure God could do what He said.
That is what the promises are for. They give your faith a solid place to stand. You read what God said, you believe Him, you do anything He asked, and you tell Him in prayer that you are counting on it. Start with one. If you would like a short place to begin, try 10 Promises of God With Bible Verses or the list of God's promises sorted by need.
Read them one at a time
The Every Promise of God series reads the Bible in order and stops at each promise. Book One starts in Genesis, where God first speaks a promise, and goes through Exodus and Leviticus. For every promise you see who it was made to and whether there was a condition, so you never have to guess.