Deuteronomy 7:9 Text
"God, the faithful God"
When we read this quotation we must understand that it is taken from 2 passages of scripture that focus on describing to us one of the 8 characteristics of God which is Faithfulness or Loyalty in Exodus 20 we read: (v.6)
1 God spoke all these words: 2 I am God, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a life of slavery. 3 No other gods, only me. 4 No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. 5 Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me. 6 But I’m unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments.
In Exodus 34 Moses Makes New Tablets (v.6 and 7)
1 God spoke to Moses: "Cut out two tablets of stone just like the originals and engrave on them the words that were on the original tablets you smashed. 2 Be ready in the morning to climb Mount Sinai and get set to meet me on top of the mountain. 3 Not a soul is to go with you; the whole mountain must be clear of people, even animals - not even sheep or oxen can be grazing in front of the mountain." 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone just like the originals. He got up early in the morning and climbed Mount Sinai as God had commanded him, carrying the two tablets of stone.
5 God descended in the cloud and took up his position there beside him and called out the name, God. 6 God passed in front of him and called out, "God, God, a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient - so much love, so deeply true - 7 loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Still, he doesn’t ignore sin. He holds sons and grandsons responsible for a father’s sins to the third and even fourth generation." 8 At once, Moses fell to the ground and worshiped, 9 saying, "Please, O Master, if you see anything good in me, please Master, travel with us, hard-headed as these people are. Forgive our iniquity and sin. Own us, possess us."
The Covenant Renewed (v.10)
10 And God said, "As of right now, I’m making a covenant with you: In full sight of your people I will work wonders that have never been created in all the Earth, in any nation. Then all the people with whom you’re living will see how tremendous God’s work is, the work I’ll do for you.
We must understand that God the faithful God he alone is sovereign Lord,and He is reliable, trustworthy; what he said, he will do because He say’s He is the "keeper of the covenant and lovingkindness",he is faithful to His promise to be Lord of Israel, and to that promise he says he will be utterly loyal. God has a Steadfast love for His people Israel this is why He entered into a covenant of love with His people in Psalms 25:10 God says
"All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies."In Psalms 85:10 God says, "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."
When God talks about His steadfast love He is talking about the fact that He has a deep,lasting affection toward His people that is based on relationship.God only has a relationship with those in whom He is in covenenant with and he is faithful to those who are under His covenant.This is what the Hebrew word "Hesedh," speaks of it is a word that has a legal background in that it refers to the obligations involved in a covenant relationship.God’s loyalty to his promises in the covenant is His "hesedh",but since the nation of Israel was a breaker of the covenant there was no obligation whatever on God’s pat to continue his loyalty.Yet the remarkable thing was that He did so.So when "hesedh" is used of God, the word becomes one of the primary expressions in the O.T. to describe the undeserved divine mercy and grace of God. Yet God also shows us another aspect that if Israel "hate him" i.e. be disloyal to him as to disregard him or openly defy him God lets them know that "I am a Jealous God". To God He was betrothed to Israel i.e. Israel was his bride. In Hosea 2:20 in the Message Bible God says "Yes, I’ll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go. You’ll know me, God, for who I really am. " God wanted them to respond in faithfulness to him because he had acted faithfully to them through covenant. This is why he says in Proverbs 3:3 " Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart." Those who believe in God need to exhibit faithfulness and steadfastness in their lives. Because God is Faithful!
This quality is essential to His being , without it He would not be God. For God to be unfaithful it would mean that he would be acting contrary to His nature, which would be impossible:
Numbers 23:19 is plain enough: "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent."
This is one of the Divine perfections which is not sufficiently pondered. It is one of the excellencies of the Creator which distinguishes Him from all His creatures. God is perpetually the same: subject to no change in His being, attributes, or determinations. Therefore God is compared to a rock (Deut 32:4, etc.) which remains immovable, when the entire ocean surrounding it is continually in a fluctuating state; even so, though all creatures are subject to change, God is immutable. Because God has no beginning and no ending, He can know no change.
He is everlastingly "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (Jas. 1:17).
God is immutable in His essence. His nature and being are infinite, and so, subject to no mutations. There never was a time when He was not; there never will come a time when He shall cease to be. God has neither evolved, grown, nor improved. All that He is today, He has ever been, and ever will be. "I am the Lord, I change not" (Mal. 3:6) is His own unqualified affirmation. He cannot change for the better, for He is already perfect; and being perfect, He cannot change for the worse. Altogether unaffected by anything outside Himself, improvement or deterioration is impossible. He is perpetually the same. He is the only one that can say, "I am that I am" (Ex. 3:14). He is altogether uninfluenced by the flight of time. There is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity. Therefore His power can never diminish nor His glory ever fade.
So this tells me that God is God is unchanged in His stance,unchanged in His decision,unchanged in His Love for you and I.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:13 that "If we believe not, He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself". Faithfulness is one of the glorious perfections of His being. He is as it were clothed with it in Psalms 89:8 David asked the Lord a question he said , "O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee? or to Thy faithfulness round about Thee?" (Ps. 89:8). So when God became incarnate in the flesh it was said by Isaiah, "Righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins" (Isa. 11:5).
What a word is that in Psalm 36:5, Thy mercy, "O Lord, is in the heavens; and Thy faithfulness unto the clouds." Far above all finite comprehension is the unchanging faithfulness of God. Everything about God is great, vast, incomparable. He never forgets, never fails, never falters, never forfeits His word. To every declaration of promise or prophecy the Lord has exactly adhered to meaning that he has stuck himself fast to you.He has chosen to remain faithful and continue to give support to you. Just as he is sticking to the plan you must stick to the plan or course that God has given you.), every promise of covenant, every threatening He will make good, for "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?" (Num. 23:19).
Jeremiah proclaimed, "His compassions fail not, they are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness" (Lam. 3:22, 23).
Somebody needs to know that there is no shadow of turning with God; God changest not, His compassions, fail not; As He has been, He forever will be!
The Bible is full of illustrations That speak of God’s faithfulness. More than four thousand years ago He said, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Gen. 8:22). Every year that comes furnishes a fresh witness to God’s fulfillment of this promise. In Genesis 15 we find that Jehovah declared unto Abraham, "Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them. . . . But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again" (vv. 13-16). Centuries ran their weary course. Abraham’s descendants groaned amid the brick-kilns of Egypt. Had God forgotten His promise? No, because when we read in Exodus 12:41 it says, "And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." Through Isaiah the Lord declared, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (7:14). and so it was that "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman" (Gal 4:4).
God is true. His Word of Promise is sure. In all His relations with His people God is faithful. You can depend on Him. Your trust in God is not in vain. We find this precious truth expressed almost everywhere in the Scriptures, for His people need to know that faithfulness is an essential part of the Divine character. This is the basis of our confidence in Him. It is one thing to accept the faithfulness of God as a Divine truth, but it is another to act upon it. God has given us many "exceeding great and precious promises," but are we really counting on His fulfillment of them? Let me ask this question? How many of you are expecting Him to do for you all that He said he will do? Have you entered into the rest of the Lord with the implicit assurance of these words, that "He is faithful that promised" (Heb. 10:23)?
I know that there are seasons in our lives when it is not easy, to believe that God is faithful. Our faith is tried, our eyes may be darkened with tears, and it may seem that we can no longer trace the outworkings of His love. Our ears may be distracted with the noises of the world, and harassed by the whispering voice of the enemy, to the point that we can no longer hear that still small voice of God. It seems that your plans have been thwarted, friends in whom you once relied upon have failed you, a brother or sister in Christ has betrayed you. You are staggering at the promises of God . You want to be faithful to God, but right now it seems as if a dark cloud is hiding Him from you.Yes it may be difficult, yes, impossible, because the carnal reasoning doesn’t always want to be in harmony with God’s divine providence or His gracious promises. Don’t you dare falter. God said in Isaih 46:10 "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure." This why you need to take this stance and have the attitude that no matter what goes on in my life God is still in control because he is faithful.
1 Corinthians 1:9 in the AMPLIFIED BIBLE say’s "God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy, and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
When we look at the word "Faithful" it can be broken down and described as God being "faithful" or "full of faith" The greek word for this is "pistis" and defined speaks of God being fully persuaded. It speaks of trust,trust worthiness,an assurance. Listen God is so into you that He already made it up in his mind that based upon your conviction and your confession of faith. He has decided that the plans and the purposes that he has for your life, because you decided to walk in obedience to his word God is convinced that yes I can trust him or her with my anointing, yes I can trust him or her to carry my word.The question then that God asks is How big is your faith in me? My mind is made up! I need to depend on you! Can I find you faithful? My word will not return unto me void but it will seek out and accomplish that in which it has been called to do. Isaiah 55:11 say’s "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."
So when you are tempted to doubt the faithfulness of God because the enemy has told you to give up you need to , cry out, "Get thee hence, Satan." For some of you God is writing a sequal he’s writing a continuation to an earlier story. I can hear Jesus say in John 13:7 "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter". The sequel will yet demonstrate that God has neither forsaken nor decieved you. Isaiah 40:28 - Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
29 He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
