| Tony Cartledge
Adult
• 4 Lessons of Learner’s Materials
• 4 Lessons of Teaching Materials
• 4 Lessons of Bible Background
1. Genesis 28:10-22
2. Judges 11:29-40
3. 1 Samuel 1:1-20
4. 2 Samuel 15:1-12
Some individuals may feel that our promises couldn’t possibly mean anything to God. After all, what could we possibly offer to God that God doesn’t already have—or for that matter, that God didn’t give to us in the first place? So, perhaps the real question is this: under what circumstances should or do we make such promises? As we will discuss throughout this study, the Old Testament contains several examples of people making promises to God, using the unique form of a biblical “vow."
Believers today also make promises to God, and oftentimes our promises are just as conditional as their Old Testament counterparts. Are such promises an appropriate means of relating to God? The four lessons in this study will deal with specific vows made by Jacob, Jephthah, Hannah, and Absalom. During our study, we will focus on the motivations associated with making promises to God, the outcomes that tend to accompany such experiences, and the resulting consequences. We can draw on these biblical examples to examine our own relationships with God and to reflect on the promises to God that we either have made or should make.
A part of the NextSunday Resources of adult Bible studies, Old Testament Promises to God contains four lessons for use as individual study or group discussion. Each study contains lessons on the biblical material, combined with an additional commentary from an alternate, but complementary, viewpoint.
Tony Cartledge is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Campbell University Divinity School and has pastored churches in Georgia and North Carolina. He is the author of Telling Stories: Tall Tales & Deep Truths and co-author (with Jan Cartledge) of A Whole New World: Life After Bethany and Job: Into the Fire, Out of the Ashes.
Cecil Sherman is the commentary writer for Old Testament Promises to God. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, he has pastored churches in Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and New Jersey. He has most recently served as visiting professor of pastoral ministries at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. He is also author of the five-volume Formations Commentary series.
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