The Forgotten Promise and John 3:16

by John A. Younts

Did you ever forget anything? Did you forget when your mom told you to take out the garbage? Did you ever forget to do your homework? Or sometimes maybe you forget about something really neat. Maybe Dad said last fall that when good weather came in the Spring he would take you camping. At the time he told you about it you were all excited. Then with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New YearÕs, winter and everything else you forgot about the camping trip. Then one day Dad came into your room and said that next week you were going camping. You had forgotten all about it!

Well, something like that happened to a man named Nicodemus, only for him the promise that he forgot about was not made six months earlier, it was made 2,000 years earlier. Now I know that 2,000 years is a long time to wait for something. But the promise was so wonderful that it was worth the wait. The promise was made to a man who was a distant relative of Nicodemus. The manÕs name was Abraham. One day God made a promise that all the nations of the earth would be blessed because of Abraham. Abraham repeated this promise to his children and they were to repeat the promise to their children. However, God knew that over the long 2,000 years the meaning of the promise might get confused. To make them remember, God told Moses, who lived 400 years after Abraham, to put the promise made to Abraham in the Bible. Then they would always know exactly what the promise was. But, AbrahamÕs descendants, who were known as Israelites, forgot to read the Bible as God had commanded. Over the years they did get confused. The leaders of Israel began to teach that the special promise was only for them and not for the whole world. By the time that Jesus was born almost no one remembered that the promise was for all the nations. They also forgot that God gave the promise to Abraham because He loved him, not because Abraham did good things. The leaders of Israel actually thought they were better than everyone else.

So, one day Nicodemus, who was one of the leaders of Israel, met Jesus, who was the Promise that Abraham had heard from God. Nicodemus was surprised that people did not have to do good things to be saved. John 3:3-8 tells you about this. He did not understand Jesus telling him that he had to be born again. In John 3:10 Jesus tells him that as a teacher of Israel he should know all about this truth. But Nicodemus, like those before him, had forgotten GodÕs special promise to Abraham, made 2,000 years before. So, in John 3:16 Jesus reminds Nicodemus that this special promise was not just for the Israelites but for the whole world. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that God would love people from Africa, from Asia, from places that Nicodemus did not even know existed. Jesus was reminding Nicodemus that nations all over the Earth would be blessed through this wonderful Promise. Jesus was the Blessing that was promised. People everywhere could be born again and know GodÕs blessings. But Nicodemus forgot. He thought the Promise, Jesus, was just for his people, the Israelites. He thought Jesus would conquer Romans. He had listened to the confused teachings of the Israelite leaders who forgotten the promise was to all nations. Sadly, some of the leaders may have wanted to forget.

Now, 4,000 years after the Promise was given to Abraham, we see that all nations have been blessed. God did keep His promise to Abraham! People from all over the world have known the love of God because of Jesus. Jesus was not telling Nicodemus that God would love everyone who ever lived. Jesus was reminding Nicodemus that GodÕs love was not just for Israel. GodÕs love would reach people all over the world. What a neat Promise! Because God would love people everywhere in the world, you and I, who are not Israelites, know about Jesus, the Promise! You can be glad that even though sometimes you forget, God never does.