The Promise and Thanksgiving

We are studying Hebrews in our Sunday morning Bible Study (aka, 'Sunday School') and this week in chapter 6 God's promise to Abraham is recalled, and the word 'promise' is used over and over again. This emphasis on the promise of God to Abraham is not just here, but is also talked about by Paul in Romans. In the Old Testament, the first inkling of this promise occurs as Adam and Eve are evicted from the Garden, and recurs over and over in both the Torah and tbe Prophets. We are often told that the Old Testament is about Law and the New Testament about Grace, but Dr. Walter Kaiser has proposed that a better understanding would be that the Old Testament is about the Promise and the New about fulfiling that Promise. I like that. Law is a sub-plot of the Promise.

Does this matter? Kaiser insists that it does, and I agree. Too many folks have understood the Law versus Grace dichotomy to mean a fundamental difference in how God deals with mankind between the Old and New Testaments.  It almost looks as if the basic relationship of man with God is different, being accomplished by Law in the O.T. and grace through faith in the New. Not so says Kaiser. It has always been a matter of faith in God's ability to keep His Promise. During the O.T. the fulfillment of that Promise stood at a different place, but the issue was the same: will God keep His Promise, or not?

Thanksgiving marks the start of Advent. In the U.S. it stands as a day of thanks for our blessings, but as the start of Advent is ushers in the season of remembering the greatest blessing: the anniversary of God taking on flesh to make Himself known in the keeping of His Promise. He has kept His Promise. Let us give thanks!