God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act?Does he promise and not fulfill? Numbers 23:19, NIV
Heavenly Father, how grateful we are that we can trust Your word! Today may we rejoice in that reality. Amen
I am sure that all of us can relate to how much it hurts to have someone whom we trusted, break their promise to us. A broken promise can be so devastating, especially for children! How it pains me to remember the times I have broken promises to my children. They have long since forgiven and forgotten, but after all these years, I still remember, with pain. I am so glad that our heavenly Parent is trustworthy!
Many of us are acquainted with the story from which our text for today is taken. Balaam is being offered a reward by Balaak, the king of Moab, to curse the people of God. But every time He opens His mouth to curse them, instead of a curse, a blessing comes out! Why is this? I believe the reason is found in Isaiah 55: 11: “[S]o shall my Word be that goes out fom My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” There’s our answer! God had sent forth His word to bless Israel, and it could not return without accomplishing God’s purpose! Listen to the next verse : “See, I received a command to bless; He has blessed and I cannot revoke it.” Dearly beloved, isn’t that wonderful? God’s Word stands firm!
After meditating on Isaiah 55: 11, the following thought occured to me: the fulfillment of God’s promises are in the promises themselves. That is, once the Word leaves the mouth of God, it becomes reality! How marvelous! That means we can build our lives around the Word of God. We can stand with confidence upon His promises!
When we read incidences of God threatening to destroy humankind and then “repenting,” we tend to think of God as “a man, [or] son of man.” That is primarily because the only concept of repentance that many of us have is our human concept of a change of mind. My meditation has led me to the following conclusion which I humbly submit for your consideration.
God’s agenda is the salvation of His creation. Every message of warning, punishment, or threat, that goes out from God’s mouth, is for the sole purpose of accomplishing repentance, and therefore, salvation. When we repent, God’s original purpose, in sending forth His Word; is put in effect and the punishment is averted. Therefore, it has “not return[ed] to [Him] empty.” It has “accomplish[ed] that which [He] purpose[d].” Who has really had a change of mind is us, which led to our repentance.
If we observe closely, whenever the concept of “repentance” is used in reference to God, it is always because of a change in humankind, not in God.
Therefore, we can conclude that when God makes a promise God keeps His promise, for He “is not a man…nor a son of man, that He should change His mind.”