Hermeneutical Considerations

Before we go any further, we MUST address the issue of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is a fancy word for a very important area of study that has HUGE consequences. How we interpret the Bible and its promises makes all the difference! There are many considerations which must be weighed and examined: who is the author, to whom is it addressed, what is the context, what is the grammatical construction and verb tenses, etc.

We are interested first and foremost with those promises which are most straightforward and clear. And there are plenty of them! As we go along, we can get more sophisticated and detailed in our examination of various types of promises.

• Straightforward promises

As I first began collecting promises many years ago in my daily Bible reading, it was mostly by noticing the grammatical construction of God saying “I will ….”. In such cases, one can usually be sure that God, as the Author, is making a promise. One example would be when God said: “For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights…” (Genesis 7:4a). This would be an unconditional past promise. And of course it happened just as God said it would (according to the biblical text).

Sometimes the Bible translators use the word “shall” instead of “will”. How should we understand this? The choice between "He shall" and "He will" in English translations of biblical texts often depends on stylistic preferences of the translation committee and the nuances of English usage rather than differences in the original Greek tense. In Greek, the future tense used in this context does not distinguish between "shall" and "will" as English does. Historically, "shall" was used for simple future tense in the first person, and "will" was used for determination or willingness. Over time, in modern English, "will" has become more common for the future tense in general, but "shall" is still used in formal contexts, including many biblical translations, to denote future actions, sometimes to reflect a more formal or traditional tone.

The choice of "He shall" might thus be a stylistic one, aiming to convey a sense of solemnity or prophetic certainty rather than just a simple future prediction. It emphasizes the determined nature of God's plan and promise.

You might say that these are the most straightforward promises, where God says “I will/shall ….”. And this web-book will concentrate on these straightforward promises.

But not all biblical promises take this simple form. Some others to be considered are:

•Genres of Scripture

Then there is the issue of genres. The book of Proverbs, for example, is full of wisdom and of principles to live by. But (in my understanding), the books often called “Wisdom Literature” (Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes), give us principles to live by, but not necessarily absolute promises.

One good example is found in Proverbs 22:6 where it says “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” How many Christian parents have been disappointed after raising their child to the best of their ability in the ways of the Lord, only to see him go astray. They are tempted to think that God’s promise failed. But if instead you took Proverbs as giving us good principles to live by which are usually true, it makes complete sense.

This is why I make a distinction between absolute promises and biblical principles.

•Author and Recipient

It is quite obvious, when God Himself (or Jesus Christ) is the author of a promise, it is clearly something we can count on with 100% assurance. It is also important to understand who the promise is addressed to, and not necessarily claim a promise for yourself that was not addressed to you.

2 Peter 1:20-21

But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

• The prophetic perfect tense

God sometimes emphasizes the certainty of a promise by stating a future event in the past tense, emphasizing how certain it is.

Example: "Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst." – Isaiah 5:13

As Isaiah wrote this, the captivity had not yet even started. Such verses in the prophetic perfect tense are also legitimate biblical promises. It is just not in the form we are noramlly used to of God saying “I will ….”, but nevertheless just as valid as a promise.

• Truth statements

Statements of simple truth in Scripture can also be taken as promises. You may have heard the old adage: “God said it, I believe it, that settles it!” This statement reflects a heart to believe whatever God says. But it leaves open the question of properly understanding the context and application of the promise.

Here is an example of truth statements in scripture, that you could properly understand as promises:

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Romans 5:1-5

Here we find a number of truths, which God has told us are true about ourselves: we have been justified (notice the past tense), we have peace with God (notice the present tense!), we stand (present tense) by grace in this faith, and on it goes. These are truths which could legitimately be understood as promises from God. For the sake of our examination of God’s promises in this web-book, this kind will not (at least not yet) be included in our database. We are starting with the most basic and clear promises, which require the least amount of interpretation.

Another great example would be Romans 8:1. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” This is of course a conditional truth statement: for those who are in Christ Jesus. But if you qualify, you can know that there is no condemnation left for you, Christ took it all for you! We can bank on the fact that we are accepted in the Beloved and will not face condemnation. Hallelujah!

• Subjective promises

Another category which could possibly have its own validity is the area of subjective promises. But here we need to be especially careful. We know that God’s Word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). He can use it to guide us, even when that is not necessarily the primary intent or proper interpretation of the text.

You may have heard the story of the man who was seeking God’s leading, so he cries out to God to answer him and lead him to what he should do. Then he closes his eyes and just randomly opened his Bible and put his finger down using the random “point-and-read” method. He opens his eyes and his finger landed on Matthew 27:5, which reads, "Judas went away and hanged himself." Confused and looking for clearer guidance, he decides to try again. This time, his finger lands on Luke 10:37, which reads, "Go and do thou likewise." He can hardly believe it, but gives it one more try, just to be sure. This time his finger lands on John 13:27, “What you do, do quickly”!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that God can’t lead through His word in this way. But I sure wouldn’t make any major decisions using this method, especially not when we have solid, trustworthy and relevant promises to base our lives on. Use them!

• Faith in faith

Some say just believe anything hard enough and it will happen. When you see a verse and like the way it sounds or what it could imply and then take it as a promise from God without checking the context or genre of Scripture in which it is found, you can set yourself up for big disappointment.

It is worth mentioning here that even when it comes to truth statements, the area of hermeneutics (proper interpretation) is critical. For example, there are charismatics who claim verses as truth statements, which we would not agree are to be taken that way. One prime example might be Psalm 103:1-5.

1 A Psalm of David.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; 3 Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; 4 Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; 5 Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

There are people who take verse 3 to mean that Christ not only died for our iniquities and sin on the cross, but also for our diseases. We can therefore claim healing as a blessing promised to us by God through the redemption of Christ on the cross. I would disagree. That is in my understanding a misinterpretation of Psalm 103, and leads to trying to claim a promise which God never made. It would be like trying to cash a check which God never wrote.

We obviously do believe that God can and does heal people miraculously. We can recount many such cases and we should pray for that to happen. But it is not as though we have a right to claim healing as a promise of God.

Several years ago, we published a short paper (10 pages long) which goes into much more detail about this topic. Your can read it by clicking HERE. Hope you find it helpful. Thanks!

•God’s Timing

Hebrews 11 goes through a long list of people who trusted God’s promises. Many call Chapter 11 of Hebrews the Hall of Faith! And yet, have you ever noticed what it says in verse 13?

“13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

(Hebrews 11:13)

Wait a minute! WITHOUT recieving the promises?!?! Yes. But that doesn’t mean that God failed or that they didn’t believe hard enough. In some cases it is a matter of God’s timing. Abraham, the father of faith, is a great example. He is promised, UNCONDITIONALLY by the way, that he would be the father of multitudes of nations and descendants and would inherit the land. Yet at the end of his life, he had one son of promise (Isaac), and in Genesis chapter 22, he had to buy the field and cave at Machpelah to bury his wife Sarah in the promised land! So much is a matter of timing, and God is the One who is in charge of that.

It is also possible that the promise we are counting on was not an absolute promise of God but more a principle. It could also be that the promise will still be fulfilled in eternity.

All of these considerations need to be taken into account when deciding the interpretation and application of biblical promises.