Breaking His Promise

Did God break His promise to Israel concerning how long He would continue to answer them when they prayed? The answer of course must be … NO! God cannot break any promise He makes.

Was answering prayer part of His covenant with Israel, or was His covenant only to bless Abraham's seed and make him the father of a great nation?

The following are just a few of the promises I found that God made with Israel concerning answering prayer.

Isaiah 30:19 … "At the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you."
Isaiah 58:9 … "Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer …"
Jeremiah 33:3 … "Call to Me and I will answer you …"
Psalm 89:34 … "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."

The only time I can find when God didn't answer His people when they prayed, was when He placed the nation of Israel under judgment.

I have found these scriptures in reference to God not answering …

Proverbs 1:28 … "Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer …"
Isaiah 1:15 … "when ye make many prayers, I will not hear …"
Jeremiah 11:11 … "they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them."
Ezekiel 8:18 … "though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them."
Micah 3:4 … "Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them …"

It has been said that for the last 400 years before Jesus was born; the period of time between Malachi and Matthew … God never spoke to Israel. As far as I can tell He still doesn't yet today, except through the Gospel.

I'm beginning to wonder about His dealings with America. Is this Christian nation at the same place spiritually that Israel was just before Jesus was born?

Many times when we pray, nothing happens, God stays silent, leaving us to operate totally … by faith, instead of actually seeing Him answer in the physical, natural world. It's as if He wants us to keep our eyes on Jesus and … trust Him. Huh??? Are you serious???

In the book "Disappointment with God," Phillip Yancey writes … "The kind of faith God values seems to develop best when everything fuzzes over, when God stays silent, when the fog rolls in."

Kind of like many times now. But …

We now have a new and better covenant today called grace and I'm glad because the other one under works … we couldn't keep. This new one will work because of Jesus and Him alone, not because of anything we have done or will do.

Hebrews 8:6-8 … "But now hath he (Jesus) obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, (Jeremiah 31:31) Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel …"

It's all God's grace and mercy. The old covenant didn't work out, but this new one will. Jesus has already said … "It is finished" … and I'm standing on that.

Matthew 11:13 … "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John" … meaning that John the Baptist introduced a new dispensation; the old one, under the prophets and the Law was fulfilled and closed when he preached that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

Am I wrong about God promising to answer the Jews when they called? Were their promises done away with and made void when the blood of Jesus ran down the cross He was nailed to? Was God's promise to Abraham only about his seed becoming a great nation? Was the covenant and God's promises two separate things?

On that note … in Genesis 21:18, God also promised Hagar that Ishmael would become a great nation and look how that is turning out. Ugh!!! God kept that promise. Of course my natural response in the flesh is … too bad.

What I am trying to say is this. If God, 400 years before Jesus came the 1st time, stopped speaking to His people and no longer honored His promise to answer them … if there even was a promise … could not God do the same today with His church just before the 2nd coming of Jesus? My question is not will He, but could He stop speaking to us or answering prayer in the same way that He did with Israel?

Jesus did ask the question … "will faith be found" on earth when He returns?

Yes, I know God is no longer angry at anyone. He poured out His wrath, all of it upon Jesus; but yet sin still has its own reward does it not? I don't believe He will ever leave us or forsake us … but could He not stay silent … if He so chooses?

He is sovereign you know; and we really have no idea what He is going to do next.


Comments welcome.