{"id":3896,"date":"2024-04-25T13:23:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T13:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=3896"},"modified":"2024-04-26T14:57:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T14:57:36","slug":"not-one-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/2024\/04\/25\/not-one-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Not One Word"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Has anyone told you they would do something \u2013 then failed to do it?<\/p>\n<p>We all experience such disappointments time and again. Why?<\/p>\n<p>The person may have lied, making a promise while having no intention of carrying it out.<\/p>\n<p>Or perhaps they were not aware at the time that they could never fulfill the promise. (One of my children, after a discussion at age six of the nature and consequences of sin, stated with wide eyes and complete sincerity, \u201cI will never, ever sin!\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>Alternately, although sincere when stating their intentions, circumstances may have changed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They may change their mind and no longer want to fulfill the promise;<\/li>\n<li>They may have forgotten their promise;<\/li>\n<li>Or although they remember the promise and want to fulfill it, they may no longer be able to. Perhaps they have lost the money they planned to give you. Or their health has failed so they can\u2019t take you on the promised trip. Or they have died.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thus, people often fail us. Consequently, we learn to be skeptical about promises others make.<\/p>\n<p>We wrongly also become skeptical about promises <em>God <\/em>makes.<\/p>\n<p>Scripture gives us plenty of examples of <em>humans <\/em>failing to live up to their promises \u2013 promises made to one another, and promises made to God. But the Bible assures us: God <em>always<\/em> fulfills <em>every<\/em> promise.<\/p>\n<p>The book of Joshua underlines this point. The rescued Israelites have promised repeatedly to obey all that God says (Exodus 19:8, 24:3 &amp; 7). Yet they have made and worshiped a golden calf; they have grumbled and complained and have wanted to choose a different leader to bring them back to slavery in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>What about God? Joshua 21:45 provides a summary:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.<\/p>\n<p>Note that the identical Hebrew root underlies \u201cword,\u201d \u201cpromises,\u201d and \u201cmade.\u201d We get a taste of the way an ancient Israelite would hear this verse by rendering it: \u201cNot one word of all the good words that Yahweh had worded to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not one! Every word God spoke proved to be true!<\/p>\n<p>And that is still the case. God will fulfill His every promise. For God is not liable to the human weaknesses listed above that lead us to make promises we don\u2019t fulfill. Consider them in turn:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>God doesn\u2019t lie. <\/strong>\n<ol>\n<li>Numbers 23:19: \u201cGod is not man, that he should lie\u201d<\/li>\n<li>1 Samuel 15:29: \u201cThe Glory of Israel will not lie\u201d<\/li>\n<li>2 Samuel 7:28: \u201cO Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Titus 1:2: God, who never lies<\/li>\n<li>Hebrews 6:18: It is impossible for God to lie<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>God doesn\u2019t forget<\/strong>. We often feel as if He does, and Scripture records such feelings among those who are His (see, for example, Lamentations 5:20, Psalm 42:9, Psalm 77:7-9, and Isaiah 49:14). But God tells His people, \u201cYou are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me\u201d (Isaiah 44:21). Furthermore, He addresses their doubts directly in Isaiah 49: <em>Zion said, &#8220;The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.&#8221; &#8220;Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>God doesn\u2019t change His mind<\/strong>.\n<ol>\n<li>Numbers 23:19 again: \u201cGod is not \u2026 a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Romans 11:29: The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nothing can prevent God from fulfilling His promises<\/strong>\n<ol>\n<li>Genesis 18:14: \u201cIs anything too hard for the LORD?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Jeremiah 32:27: &#8220;Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Job 42:2: &#8220;I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Luke 1:37: \u201cNothing will be impossible with God.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Mark 10:27: &#8220;With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Mark 14:36 &#8220;Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Even <u>we<\/u> cannot prevent God from fulfilling His promises in us and through us <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">We see this in the Old Testament in the repeated failures of the people of Israel \u2013 yet God&#8217;s promises still prove true. Not one word of all God\u2019s good words to them fails! We see this similarly in Jesus\u2019 disciples: they fail Him, they desert Him, Peter denies Him \u2013 yet He indeed makes them fishers of men, and builds His church through such weak, fallible humans.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0So listen to God\u2019s Words. Every one is true. Every one is sincere. He will fulfill every one.<\/p>\n<p>When you are tempted to think of God as if He were a man, when you are beginning to doubt His promises, reflect on the Scriptures cited above. Consider the context of each. And have confidence: God\u2019s Word is more certain than anything in all creation: \u201cHeaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away\u201d (Matthew 24:35).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Has anyone told you they would do something \u2013 then failed to do it? We all experience such disappointments time and again. Why? The person may have lied, making a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[510,3011,3010,3009,3006,3007,1049,3008,3012,1218,1304,1626],"class_list":["post-3896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","tag-faithfulness","tag-god-never-changes-his-mind","tag-god-never-forgets","tag-god-never-lies","tag-joshua-2145","tag-joshua-2314","tag-my-words-will-not-pass-away","tag-not-one-word","tag-nothing-is-impossible-for-god","tag-promises","tag-regret","tag-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3898,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions\/3898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}