God Always Keeps His Promises based on Isaiah 61:10-62:3

I. Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”

II. Bible and waiting on promises of God.

III. God was angry with Adam and Eve.

IV. God’s gracious favor is far greater than His wrath and anger.

V. Pattern of going astray and crying for help and rescue by God.

VI. A great deliverance promised in Isaiah 61:10a, 11, 62:1-3. Toward the end of the Book of Isaiah the prophet saw captivity in a far off land for the people of Israel, but the prophet also saw a great deliverance for the people of Israel. Isaiah 61:10a, 11, 62:1-3 states, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God. . . . For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up. . . . For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.”

VII. Promises, promises, the Becketts of the Old Testament would say. The people of God waited.

VIII. The waiting of Simeon.

IX. Read Luke 2:25-35 and comment. Luke 2:25-35 tells us how God kept His promise to Simeon, [Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”]

X. God works in unexpected ways.

XI. We still wait for the final return of Jesus. We wait by daily repenting in sorrow over our sins and wrongs, but trusting in the forgiving power of Jesus’ name. The Samuel Becketts of the world will say that waiting for God is a big waste of time. Christians believe that waiting for God is good, because God always keeps His promises. Just as Simeon waited for God’s promise in Jesus to come true and held the infant Jesus in his arms, so also we wait for God’s promise to return through Jesus on the Last Day. We soon start a new year and we say with other Christians, “Come, Lord Jesus.” Amen.