All of us have made promises before. Most of us have either broken promises, or have experienced broken promises. Unlike us, God is faithful. He never breaks His promises. Even when people break their promises to Him, He still keeps His promises to them. At the start of God's story of redemption, He started a mission to rescue and restore this fallen world through a promise...
As mankind flourished, they strayed further and further from the God who made them. In the ancient world, most cultures adopted multiple gods. However, God never leaves us; He continues to sustain man's heartbeat, and keeps creation going to provide them with food, rain, and gladness. He keeps us from many evils through speaking His law in our conscience. See, God's heart abounds in forgiveness and love. Despite the fact that we deserve His punishment, God finds a way to extend blessing to us. This God, abounding in love, called a man named Abraham out of a culture far from him, giving him this promise: through you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Through the line of Abraham, God would extend His love to the world, and offer a way out of judgment and death.
Abraham's family grew, and eventually his descendants, the "Israelites", found themselves in Egypt. Initially, they had established a friendship with the ancient superpower; overtime, as they grew more numerous, the Egyptians enslaved them to suppress them. When they cried out to God, God responded by sending a man named Moses to lead the nation out of slavery. However, this no ordinary rescue mission. God sent plagues, performed miraculous signs, and split the Red Sea to deliver His people. That's the extent God will go to in order to protect His people. That's how deep His love runs. And God delivered His people from slavery in order to point to a deliverance from slavery He would offer to the whole world one day.
Over hundreds of years, God built the nation of ancient Israel from him, and planted them right near the Mediterranean Sea. They were at the heart of many trade routes in the ancient world, allowing for seasons of prosperity. God, desiring to reach all nations with His love, set Israel up to be a beacon of light revealing who God is to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, Israel suffered from the same sickness that we all suffer from: rebellion against God.
During the times of figures meant to put Israel back on track called "judges", Israel would enter cycles of ruin and restoration. They would rebel against God and bring havoc and chaos on themselves. At the mercy of their oppressors, Israel would cry out to God. This God, though He could have destroyed them for their sin, lovingly chose to send judges to deliver and restore Israel. The cycle would continue, until eventually Israel rejected God as their king and opted for a king to rule them "so they could be like the rest of the nations."
In spite of their rejection of Him, God decided to save them through the monarchy--the very symbol of Israel's rebellion. He set up a king named David, and promised to establish David's rule forever. David, though a man after God's own heart, still murdered a man and slept with his wife. He was broken in profound ways too...just like us. God, however, still chose to use a broken man and bring beauty and life out of darkness and death.
Israel's story is our story. We rebel against God and decide to run our lives independently of His commands. This brings pain, suffering, and evil. And yet, through the history of Israel, God shows us that He is always willing to forgive, and always willing to deliver. Though He will act in judgment, He is slow to anger and abounding in love.