God fulfills what He promises
“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”Numbers 23:19
Reflection
We have all been disappointed by broken promises. Someone promised and did not fulfill; guaranteed and failed; swore and changed their mind. That very human experience ends up shaping, often without our noticing, how we see God’s promises — deep down, we distrust, expecting Him to fail, forget or go back on His word too. It is against that distrust that Numbers 23:19 speaks with force: "God is NOT a man, that he should lie". God’s faithfulness should not be measured by the ruler of human faithfulness, because He is of a completely different nature.
Notice the contrast the verse draws between God and man. Men lie — sometimes out of bad intent, sometimes out of weakness. Men "repent" (change their minds) — because circumstances change, because they cannot fulfill, because they lose interest or ability. God does neither one nor the other. He does not lie, because lying is against His very nature — He is the Truth. And He does not change His mind about His promises, because He is not limited like us, is not surprised by the unforeseen, does not lose the ability to fulfill. What God promises, He has both the intention and the power to accomplish.
The two rhetorical questions at the end seal the certainty: "hath he said, and shall he not do it? hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?". The obvious answer is: of course He will do it, of course He will make it good. With God, saying and doing, speaking and making good, are inseparable. There is no distance between God’s promise and its fulfillment except TIME — and time, as we have seen, is in His hands. This means every promise of God in the Bible is a guaranteed check, waiting only for the moment to be cashed. "I will never leave you", "I will heal", "I will be with you", "I will supply all your needs" — all of it is as certain as God’s immutable character.
This truth should transform how we pray and wait. When we lean on a promise of God, we are not leaning on the word of someone who might fail, like men; we are leaning on the word of the One who has never lied and never gone back in all of history. The delay may test us, but the delay is no sign that God will fail — it is merely the interval before the certain fulfillment. If you have doubted a promise of God, measuring it by the disappointment of the human promises you have already suffered, readjust the ruler: God is not a man, that He should lie. Lean the weight of your trust on this certainty — every word He has spoken, He will make good. God’s character is the guarantee that no promise of His will fall to the ground.
Prayer
Lord, forgive me when I measure Your promises by the ruler of human disappointments, distrusting that You too might fail. You are not a man, that You should lie, nor do You change Your mind like us. All You have spoken, You will make good — it is only a matter of time, and time is in Your hands. Help me lean all my trust on the certainty of Your faithful character. Amen.
Put it into practice
Choose a specific promise of God in the Bible that speaks to your current situation and take hold of it with the certainty of Numbers 23:19: "God is not a man, that He should lie — this He will make good". Refuse to measure that promise by the disappointment of the human promises you have suffered.
To reflect on
Have you measured God’s promises by the ruler of human disappointments — and how does it change to know that He "is not a man, that He should lie"?
Bible text: King James Version (public domain).