Building a tabernacle of meeting: God's Faithfulness

Faithfulness is a rare quality we often struggle to find in our human relationships. It's all to easy to walk away from things that disappoint or hurt on the one hand, and it is just as prevalent to serve our own selfish purposes in relationships and business etc. and in the process sacrifice faithfulness.

 But God... 

God's faithfulness is steadfast and uncompromising.  It is protective, safe and a shield to us.  It is NEVER changing.  He remains the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  Forever.  Even when we are unfaithful to Him, He is the one who remains faithful.  

Psalm  91:4-6

He will cover you with His feathers;
you will take refuge under His wings.
His faithfulness will be a protective shield.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night,
the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ the plague that stalks in darkness,

There are so many scriptures and pictures of God's faithfulness in the Word it is hard to choose which ones to highlight, but here are a few that stands out for me:

In Gen 24 we read how Abraham sends Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac.  How does it happen that Eliezer finds Rebekkah at the well? Does she just randomly give him and his camels water?  Just randomly appear on exactly the right day and time of day to do so?  Does she just coincidentally happen to be of the family of Abraham?  All this just happened randomly after Eliezer prayed specifically for that? No - God's faithfulness answered his prayers to provide the right woman and God does so supernaturally.

In Exodus 4:27 God tells Aaron "Go meet Moses in the dessert"  Have you ever wondered how did Aaron find Moses in the desert after Moses left Egypt 40 years ago to dwell in the Medianite desert? There were no email nor Whats-App to stay in contact with. So Moses just happen to be at "the mountain of the Lord" on the specific the day Aaron reached that particular mountain?  No - God's faithfulness in action.

And so we will be able to point out many stories from scripture that point us to God's faithfulness.  But God's faithfulness really stands out for me the best in the description of the moment He made covenant with Abraham (Gen 15).  Usually when covenants are cut both parties agree to the blessings and curses of that covenant.  In this case though, we see Abraham doing the following:

1) Abraham asks God how he will know that what God promises will be fulfilled (do I detect a slight doubt here?)

2) Abraham believed God enough to be obedient and start to prepare the sacrifice and the Word says it was counted to him as righteousness.

3) He chased away the vultures that came to steal away the sacrifice. (Are we chasing away the vultures of darkness that comes to steal our faith in God's promises to us?)

4) When the deep darkness and terror came to instill fear and oppress, God did not leave Abraham alone.  He spoke his promise in the presence of the terrifying darkness.  He appeared as a torch and a smoking oven so that the darkness who does not comprehend the light (John 1:5) will know that the light will overcome the darkness because God is faithful in his promises and to His Word.

Essentially God made a one sided covenant with Abraham.  God put Abraham into a deep sleep.  God knew neither Abraham nor us will remain faithful to the covenant.  God promised to keep both His side and Abraham's side of the covenant.  He kept His side of the covenant and sent his Son to take the consequences - the curses - of the broken covenant upon Him.  He died on the cross and became sin for us.  That is God's faithfulness - providing Himself for delivering both sides of the blessings and curses of the covenant He chose to make with us.   

When you think about God's faithfulness - what picture, story, scripture, analogy etc comes to mind first?  I want to encourage you this morning to think about that this week and to make time to write it down in your journal or dairy or write/sing a song or draw/paint a picture, should that be one of the talents God gave you.  

I would love to hear your stories

Lets us worship today with Brian Doerksen:

Your faithfulness