Forever Faithful

When sin entered the world with Adam and Eve, so did unfaithfulness. It is a curse of
the fall. We as humans struggle with being faithful, be it in our relationships, in our
work, in our promises to others, or to God, we find ourselves in a constant struggle to
be faithful. When the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt, on numerous
occasions they showed their unfaithfulness to God. They would grumble and complain,
they would be disobedient, they even threatened to stone Moses, but it was when he
ascended Mount Sinai, and was gone for forty days and nights, receiving the Torah, they
showed how unfaithful their hearts really were. Even Aaron, the brother of Moses
partook, crafting a golden calf from the gold they melted down. Their celebration to this
false god was so great, its disrupted the conversation between God and Moses and the
gift of His word that was being prepared for His people. His anger was so intense, He
decided to just wipe them off the face of the earth and bring forth his nation through
Moses instead. Moses then reminded God of His promise to Abraham, and God chose to
remain faithful to His people, even if they were not faithful to Him.
Exodus 32:7-14
7 Adonai said to Moshe, “Go down! Hurry! Your people, whom you brought up from the
land of Egypt, have become corrupt! 8 So quickly they have turned aside from the way I
ordered them to follow! They have cast a metal statue of a calf, worshipped it, sacrificed
to it and said, ‘Isra’el! Here is your god, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” 9
Adonai continued speaking to Moshe: “I have been watching these people; and you can
see how stiff-necked they are. 10 Now leave me alone, so my anger can blaze against
them, and I can put an end to them! I will make a great nation out of you instead.
11 Moshe pleaded with Adonai his God. He said, “Adonai, why must your anger blaze
against your own people, whom you brought out of the lad of Egypt with great power
and a strong hand? 12 Why let the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intentions that he led
them out, to slaughter them in the hills and wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn
from your fierce anger! Relent! Don’t bring such disaster on your people! Remember
Avaraham, Yitz’hak and Isra’el, your servants to whom you swore by your very self. You
promised them, ‘I will make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky; and I will
give all this land I have spoken about to your descendants; and they will possess it
forever.” Adonai then changed his mind about the disaster he had planned for his
people.
As time marched on, so did Israel and Judah’s unfaithfulness, to the point God decided
enough was enough, and through His prophets, foretold the woes that would befall
them. Exile, captivity, famine, death. But with each prophecy of anguish, He always
showed His faithfulness and declared the promises He still had for them. There were
numerous things that God required His prophets to do, giving His people a visual
representation of His words. He chose the prophet Hosea for such a purpose. The book
itself lays out a love story, but not a conventional one, especially not for the time it was
written. It is the story of a faithful husband and an adulterous wife. The Lord
commanded Hosea: Go, marry a whore, and have children with this whore; for the land
is engaged in flagrant whoring, whoring away from Adonai. Hosea 1:2 The life of Hosea
and Gomer was a visual representation of God and Israel. There is beauty in the story
however, showing God’s faithfulness and it is found in Hosea 2:21(19) – 25(23): 21(19) I
will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you will know Adonai. 23(21) When that day
comes, I will answer,” says Adonai “I will answer the sky, and it will answer the earth;
24(22) the earth will answer the corn, wine and oil, and they will answer Yizre’el (God
will sow). 25(23) I will sow her for me in the land. I will have pity on Lo-Ruchamah
(Unpitied); I will say to Lo-‘Ammi (Not-My-People), ‘You are my people’ and they will say
‘You are my God.’”
Faithful means to be reliable, trusty, to sustain, to prop up, to build to be durable,
lasting, true and to believe. It is made up of the Hebraic letters Alef, Mem and Noon,
which add up to a numeric value of 91. When we look at other words sharing that
numeric value, it shows how faithful our Lord really is. These words include, amen (so be
it), to extend mercy, the temple of place of the Lord, The Lord God, The Lord Creates,
The Lord is He.
4 Yeshua (Jesus), who knew everything that was going to happen to him, went out and
asked them, “Whom do you want?” 5 “Yeshua from Natzeret (Nazareth),” they
answered. He said to them, “I AM.” Also standing with them was Y’hudah (Judas), the
one who was betraying him. 6 When he said, “I Am,” they went backward from him and
fell to the ground. 7 So he inquired of them once more, “Whom do you want?” and they
said, “Yeshua from Natzeret.” 8 “I told you, ‘I AM,’” answered Yeshua, “so if I’m the one
you want, let these others go.” 9 This happened so that what he had said might be
fulfilled, “I have not lost one of those you gave me.” John 18:4-9
He was faithful when the soldiers were looking for Him, and He said, “I Am (He)”. He
was faithful to fulfill the prophecies to the letter, showing that He is Messiah. He is
forever faithful. As finite beings, we truly have no concept of forever as it is infinite and
too big for us to grasp. There are a few things I want to share that I have recently
learned about forever. First is this, forever is what comes after the end. At the end of
our life, our body is going to die, but it is when we meet our end that we will step into
forever. The question is, will your forever be in Jesus or not? The second insight of
forever comes from the Book of Mysteries by Johnathan Cahn. In a mystery called the
east-west continuum, he talks about why the Temple of Jerusalem was built to face the
east, and it has everything to do with the forgiveness of our sins. This earth has a north
and south pole, meaning that distance is limited, yet there is no east or west pole,
meaning that there is no end in either direction. It says in Psalm 103:10-12: 10 He has
not treated us as our sins deserve or paid us back for our offenses, 11 because His mercy
toward those who fear Him is as far above the earth as heaven. 12 He has removed our
sins from us as far as the east is from the west. This means are sins are gone FOREVER.
Lastly, God’s Word is eternal, it is forever. It was in the writings Rabbi Jason Sobel that I
discovered an exciting truth; In Hebrew, the first letter of Genesis is the letter bet, and
the last letter in the book of Revelation is nun from the word amen. The first and last
letters of the Bible spell the word Ben, which means “Son.” From cover to cover, every
word points towards Jesus. He said at the end of Revelation in 22:13: “I am the Alpha
(Alef) and the Omega (Tav), the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” He is
also what comes after the end. He is Forever and He is Forever Faithful.