CONDITIONAL PROMISES IN THE BIBLE

Prophecies are usually conditional.

Some prophecy "experts" make a big deal of the fact that certain promises of God toward the nation of Israel have no strings attached and therefore are certain to come true in spite of their response.  While it is true that conditions are almost always stated in these cases (“If you do this, then I will do that...”), we must also realize that they can sometimes be unspoken. Let me start by giving an example taken from my own career as a department manager at our laboratory.

One of my supervisors came to me complaining that an employee in her group was not at all working up to expectations. The problem was serious enough that I called him into my office, explained clearly where he needed to improve his performance, and told him that we would review his progress again in two months. After only two weeks, the same supervisor reported that this employee had shown absolutely no willingness to change his behavior. I called him in again and fired him.

It could be argued that I had promised this man at least two months more of employment, and therefore I had gone back on my promise. But the unspoken expectation was that he would immediately begin to improve his performance and attitude, not wait until the two months were almost over. I would not dare to compare myself to God in any way, but offer this only as a modern example of what we can also clearly see in the Old Testament. Here are four examples:

1. “The LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, by a route that I promised you would never use again and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as slaves.” (Deuteronomy 28:68, referencing back to Exodus 14:13 and Deuteronomy 17:16)

 2. The Davidic Covenant is established in II Samuel 7 without any conditions attached. But when it is restated in I Kings (2:1-4; 8:25 and 9:4-5), there are definite expectations of behavior that appear to limit that promise.

This principle can work in the opposite direction also. 

3. “'Forty more days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.' And the people of Nineveh believed God...When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” (Jonah 3:4-5,10) 

E. C. Lucas (New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, p. 234) says, “Even when the prophets declared what seemed to be a settled decision of God, the possibility of the hearers' responses changing things seems always to have been implied.”

4. Micah 4:12 predicted unconditionally that Jerusalem would be destroyed, but Jeremiah 26:18-19 says that it did not happen when King Hezekiah heard it and repented.