March 27, 2012 … God Is A Promise Keeper

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Joshua, Chapters 19-21 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

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Highlight Reference Passage : Joshua 21: 43-45 … 43 So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD gave all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

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Highlight Reference Passage : Numbers 23: 19 … [God speaking through Balaam, the sorcerer prophet] 19 God is not human, that He should lie, not a human being, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

My Journal for Today: I’m forging on today in my chronological read through the Bible in a bit of darkness. The website at which I follow the reading plan is down this morning; so, based on past patterns of reading in the plan, I’m just leveling a guess that Day 87 of the reading plan will take me to Joshua, Chapters 19-21 - linked for your co-study above.

Actually, the fact that my internet shepherd seems to be darkened this morning presents an interesting word picture; because the internet, which we rely upon so heavily these days may be defective/broken for select websites; but God’s word is never broken or defective. Therefore, though my web shepherd may be down this morning, God’s word is always up. So, my moving on my own into more chapters of Joshua’s book, can not and will not lead me astray because I am reading the always true word of God; and He will always have something true and purposeful for me because I’m reading from and meditating on God’s very word. That’s His promise to me from Isaiah 55: 11 and 2nd Timothy 3: 16-17; and I believe it!!!

So, today in these three chapters of Joshua, right at the end of Chapter 21 – in verses 43-45, we read the highlight statement from God which stood out so much for me that I copied it in bold/underlined text above. And it’s worthy of repetition: “Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.”

And immediately, when I read that verse today, up from my memory archive of verses bubbled the other highlight verse I’ve quoted this morning, which was God speaking through a rather weird source, … Balaam, the sorcerer prophet, who was chosen by God to bring a message directly from God to a pagan king. And you may recall, in Numbers 22, Balaam became convinced of God’s power and truth when he had a speaking encounter with his own donkey. And then, we read of God using the witness and words of a pagan prophet to speak truth to a pagan ruler and to all of mankind as documented in God’s word. Amazing, isn’t it!!!

And when we take both of the truths spoken in those passages above to heart, we strongly realize that our God is a promise-keeper God. And when our God makes promises, He keeps them [!], … not necessarily the way we might want them fulfilled and in the timing we might arrange for them to be fulfilled. But God keeps HIS promises, … in HIS manner, … and in His timing.

Think about it. If you were God and you had promised to Israel that you would give them a promised land, would you have chosen a former murder and disgraced Hebrew who had become a lowly shepherd to lead your people out of slavery in Egypt? … Would you have marched these chosen ones through the desert wilderness for 40 years to purge all the bad apples from the twelve tribes? … Would you – as GOD - have taken residence in a tent as you led the people through the wilderness? … Would you, knowing that these people were going to fail – miserably – allow them to go onward into the land you had promised them? … And finally, would you – as their LORD – give up your only Son in the Godhead to save these pitiful, miserable sinners?

“No,” on all counts, right? Or maybe you’re saying, “I just don’t know what I’d do if I were God.” And that would be “RIGHT ON!” my brother or sister Christian. We can’t know what God will do; because God is God and we are not! (see Isaiah 55: 8-9) But God, being God, will do things HIS way in HIS time and by HIS will, as documented in HIS word, to accomplish what HE promises. And that’s the message we all need to take away from this trek through truth today.

God gives His promises; … DONE DEAL! He says, it … we believe it!! And it’s not our place, as His chosen ones, … to question the Master’s will and His way and His timing. If God promises that we are going to be completed in His image (see Phil. 1: 6), it’s going to happen … in HIS way and in HIS timing. What we need to do when we have the promises of God (and we do – in His word) is to seek them, to believe them, and to actively wait for them to transpire … as God meets them out in His time and in His way.

My Prayer Today: … My dear LORD, You are my promise keeper! Amen