Promise Bearer

We are all called to be promise bearers. But the calling comes with sacrifice.

Throughout history, there have been promise bearers - individuals whose faithfulness and devotion to God are used by God to bring forth a promise or a covenant. Jesus is the most significant of promise bearers who have walked the earth. He bore the promise of salvation and reconciled fallen creation with the Creator.

There have been other notable promise bearers. Take Abraham, for example. This man is considered the father of the promise. In Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, Abraham is a significant forebearer of promise. It was the promise of Isaac in Abraham’s old age that established the covenant between God and the Jewish people. Abraham’s faith in God is legendary. He was even willing to sacrifice the promise, understanding that God would make a way.  

In Abraham, God had a man with whom He could establish a covenant. From this promise bearer, God set apart a nation. Through that nation, God would complete His plan of salvation. Through that plan, involving the sacrifice of God’s only Son, billions of people would be released from their bondage to sin and death. That is why Abraham is considered the Father of Faith.

How about Noah? This promise bearer came before Abraham, but the promise he carried was just as vital to us all! Noah and the ark that God instructed him to build saved the human race from extinction through the flood. The promise didn’t stop there, though. It was through Noah that we received the rainbow and God’s promise to never again destroy the earth with water.  

Then there is Moses. This great leader bore the promise of freedom for the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt and the realization of the promised land. Through Moses, the Jews found a home and received a law that has become the bedrock for society in much of the civilized world.

King David carried the promise of the temple in Jerusalem, and Peter, Jesus’ disciple, carried the promise of the church. Mary carried the promised Messiah! And the list goes on and on.

What made these people promise bearers? God’s selection. There is no single, unique character trait to qualify them as bearers of promise. In fact, they all had sins in their lives. They all had failures - some of them major failures! But God chose them as peculiar vessels to carry a promise.

In each of our walks with Christ, we have an opportunity to be a promise bearer. As believers, we all carry the great promise of salvation and a right relationship with God our Father. But we also have a unique opportunity to be a promise bearer for God's particular purpose. It may be for your family. It may be for your community, nation, or even the world. You possess no particular trait or qualification. Nothing you have done gives you this privilege. It is God’s selection. But there is a question to be answered:

Will you bear the promise? It will come with sacrifice.