As I was reading through Numbers recently, I came across this phrase that really caught my attention:

“…and ye shall know my breach of promise.”

It was God who said that.

The context is Numbers 14. The spies, in chapter 13, had searched out the land that God had promised. All twelve spies found it to be a good land; however, all but two gave an evil report of the land, because its inhabitants were strong. Not being mindful of their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt and promised them the land of Canaan, they insisted that they were not able to go up and overcome the inhabitants. This generation was described as “a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith” (Deut. 32:30). Paul said in Hebrews 3:17-19, “they could not enter in because of unbelief”.

A promise (the “promised land”) was set before them. And yet, they were not allowed to enter. It looks like God broke a promise! He even said to them, “ye shall know my breach of promise”!

This prompted me to start thinking about God’s promises, and what the scriptures say about them.

1. God’s promises are to the faithful. In 2 Chronicles 6:14, Solomon says of God, “…which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto thy servants, that walk before thee with all their hearts:”. The sentence doesn’t end there; he uses it as an introduction to the next verse: “Thou which hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him…” What is he saying? God kept his promise to David, because he keeps covenant with those that walk before him with all their hearts, and David was such a man.
2. God’s promises can be breached. This is never because God is unfaithful, but because of man’s unfaithfulness. A promise is like a covenant: God keeps his end if we keep ours. If we break the covenant, it’s become defunct. If we depart from God, if we are unfaithful to him, he doesn’t keep his promises to us. (This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t keep his promises; he just doesn’t keep them to US.) God made promises to Israel; when most of Israel was unfaithful, God fulfilled his promises to the faithful remnant. There is always a remnant according to the election of grace; those few (Matt. 7:14) who believe him find grace in his sight, and they are the remnant whom God elects to receive the promises.
3. Promises are obtained through faith. Hebrews 11:33 says, “Who through faith… obtained promises”. If we believe not, the promise is breached and we are excluded from it. That’s what happened with the Jews. God gave a promise of the promised land, but those that believed not were excluded. The promise was still kept to the fathers; it was still kept to Joshua and Caleb; it was still kept to the children of the trespassers.
4. All the promises of God in Christ are yea, and in him Amen. (2 Cor. 1:20) If we abide in Christ, we receive the promises. If we abide not in him, we are cast forth as a withered branch, and cast into the fire. (John 15:1-7) There is no contradiction. The promises are in Christ. We must be in Christ to receive them.

I’ll be honest. I fear that there are many, VERY many, standing in churches at this present hour, holding a hymnal and singing “Standing on the Promises of God”; who will not receive the very real and true promises of God, because they are not in Christ! They have been deceived into thinking that being in Christ is the result of a moment of faith, a thing they did once upon a time, rather than a continuing, faithful abiding in him; and so, many of them have assumed that they will always have these promises, regardless of what they do or don’t do. This is not true. That is not what God does.

A verse frequently used in defense of this idea is Hebrews 13:5: “…for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Many regard this as an absolute, unconditional promise that God will never leave them nor forsake them. Actually, this is a quote from the Old Testament, something that Moses said to Israel on behalf of God (and which God later repeated to Joshua in Josh. 1:5):

• “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not *fail thee, nor forsake thee.” (Deut. 31:6)
• “And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not *fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.” (Deut. 31:8)

(*In these verses, “fail” is used instead of “leave”. “Leave” and “forsake” appear together in 1 Kings 8:57.)

Again, it looks like an unconditional promise that God absolutely will not fail them or forsake them. That is, until we read just a few verses later in the same chapter:

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?” (Deut. 31:16-17)

So just a few short verses after we read that God will not forsake them, we read that they will forsake God and then he will forsake them. What we see here is the truth of 2 Chronicles 15:2: “The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.” Why then, did God say that he would not leave or forsake them? It’s simple: when he said that to them, it was with the understanding and expectation that they would not leave or forsake him either. He was, after all, supposed to be their God.

Imagine a bride and groom, making their marriage vows of faithfulness to each other. The groom says that he will be faithful to his bride. The bride says she will be faithful to her groom. Now imagine that the bride also says, “I’ll be faithful… BUT I want you to sign this agreement to be faithful EVEN IF I’M NOT.” What an insult to the groom that would be! Yet this is the kind of covenant that many people want (and think they have) with God: a guarantee that they will be saved EVEN IF they are unfaithful to him.

God is faithful, but he also requires faithfulness.

The fulfillment of his promises to us IS contingent upon our faith and obedience.

This is the pattern throughout the Bible, and Jesus himself bears witness that it has not changed in the New Testament.

~

My brother Adam and I once went to visit an older Christian man, our friend’s grandfather. In our youth and zeal, we were excited to share with him what we “knew” about the Bible; but it was he who ended up sharing with us what he knew about God. I recall that we asked this brother, “Do you believe in eternal security?”. He thought for a second, and then replied, “I believe you can have eternal security… if you want it.” His answer puzzled me, as wise answers often do at first; but some 15 years later, it makes perfect sense to me now.

For eternal security, all one has to do is be faithful to God. And that’s something we will want to do, if we truly love him.