“God is not man, that he should lie, or 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.”
Numbers 23:19
The first man and woman, clothed in animal skins, leave their garden paradise under the watchful eye of a flaming sword. Home and perfect fellowship lay behind them. Heat and hard labor lay ahead. Despair rings in their hearts but for the sweet refrain of a promise for future redemption.
The world is spiraling deeper and deeper into god-forsaking chaos. Only one man continues to lift his eyes to heaven. He is warned of coming destruction, but is lifted up with hope. He and his family are promised safty from the flood of destruction in an ark. Humanity redeemed from deserved extinction.
A childless couple walk in faith to unknown lands, away from all they know, guided by a promise of future family and reward.
A barren woman conceives a promised miracle child.
A beloved son is sold into slavery after receiving dreams filled with promises of glory and fame. He is abused, hated, imprisoned, but never knows the loss of God’s providential protection until the sun, moon, and eleven stars bow down at his feet as promised.
A nation of slaves, abused, tired, and despairing, are taken by the hand out of their bondage and led to freedom, leaving in their wake an awestruck and fear filled multitude who have witnessed the clear and undeniable Hand of God. The prophesied bondage has ended with the fulfilled promise of redemption.
And the story continues from Adam to the Church: redemption, redemption, redemption. The entire story arch of the Bible is a story of God’s faithfulness to His promises. Reminder after reminder that God will not forsake his people, that he hears the voice of those who cry out to Him for salvation.
Like a young woman from New Jersey, who is called out of a home of deceit and abuse into the waiting arms of a God fearing husband and his family. She finds hope and learns the reality of a redeeming and faithful God that she has only seen in corrupted shadow for her childhood. A God who stood beside her through the wilderness of depression, loneliness, and lies and who now renews her daily with his steadfast love and mercy.
Our God is a promise keeping God.
“Your Promise is well tried, and your servant loves it.”
Psalm 119:140
Rachel Svendsen 
I absolutely love this! Such a beautiful treatise on God’s faithfulness through the ages!
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