Unfailing

“…not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.” ~Joshua 23:14

We all know the feeling of something important slipping out of our hands: a phone, a grandmother's casserole dish, a fly ball to left field. There's that awful half-second between the slip and the crash when you already know how it ends.

Joshua is “about to go the way of all the earth” when he gathers Israel for a final charge. But before he warns them about anything, he reminds them of everything. Not one word of God's good promises has failed. He says it twice in a single verse, as if once couldn't communicate all the comfort this truth brings.

Here's what's easy to miss in English. The Hebrew word behind “failed” simply means “to fall.” Joshua is saying, quite literally, that not one word of God's promise has fallen to the ground. It's the same verb used when the walls of Jericho “fell down flat” (Josh. 6:5). Walls fall. Kingdoms fall. Promises made by men fall all the time. But not one of God's words has ever hit the ground.

You may be thinking that's easy for Joshua to say; he lived to see the land conquered. What about the promise you've been waiting on for years? It feels like maybe it’s slipped through God’s fingers and dropped to the ground. But consider how long Israel waited: four hundred years in Egypt, forty more in the wilderness. More than one generation must have wondered whether the promise had slipped away. It hadn't. Delay isn't dropping.

Nor is this only a word about ancient Israel and a plot of land. Centuries later we read of young Samuel that “the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground” (1 Sam. 3:19). It's a form of the same verb, but notice who is doing the work: the Lord Himself keeps the words from falling. That's the confidence we bring to corporate worship every Lord's Day. When God's Word is faithfully preached, we are not hearing a man's good ideas, which can hit the floor by Monday morning. The Lord stands behind what He has spoken. His Word is as trustworthy in our pews as it was to Israel standing on the land.

And here's the personal payoff: God will never let one of His precious children fall either. Jesus says of His sheep, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). Yes, we hold on to God's promises, but our fingers are weak and our grip often feels like it's slipping. Thank God our salvation doesn't depend on our grip. The hand that has never dropped a word has never dropped one of His own.

So trust in God's promises, Christian. Cling to what God has said. But rest more in the One who holds you than in your own ability to hold. Not one word has fallen. Not one sheep has been lost. And not one ever will be.

Rev. Kyle W. A. Lockhart, Pastor