Abounding Faithfulness

by Erin Bird

This post continues our God's Bio series from Exodus 34:6-7 which says,

The Lord passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

This week, we pick up the second half of the phrase we looked at last week, and that is the concept of God's faithfulness.

The New Oxford American Dictionary on my MacBook defines faithful as "remaining loyal and steadfast." We use this word when talking about sexual fidelity or perhaps when describing someone's adherence to a sports team or political party.

But God is far more faithful than the most committed husband, Republican, or Green Bay Packers fan you know. Why do I say that? Because in the very next phrase, God conveys the expanse of his faithfulness by saying He shows "steadfast love for thousands." And the "thousands" mentioned doesn't mean throngs of people, it means "thousands of generations."

Think about that! If a generation is roughly 20-30 years, God is loyal and steadfast for generation after generation for 20,000-30,000 years! This is a poetical way of saying God is so loyal you can't count it. His faithfulness is so vast, so committed, so loyal, it remains far after a hundred generations have passed away.

He is more faithful than the sun, which rises each day. He is more sure than the mountains that sit in their place year after year. And He is more consistent than the ocean's tide. God is and always will be faithful to you, for His image is in you, and He will not abandon creation.

We see this most vividly through Jesus. His willing sacrifice through the cross and His miraculous resurrection from the tomb reverberates through all of time. It was not a one-off event simply for the history books. It was a one-time event that changed history, revealing God's passionate love for us. And just as He had been promising this surprising sacrifice from the aftershocks of Adam & Eve's sin, the ramifications of that event two thousand years ago continue to impact humanity today.

Hopefully, this concept of God's abounding faithfulness is comforting and reassuring to you. When life seems chaotic, overwhelming, and out of control, God is with you, faithfully working. So may you find rest today and this weekend, knowing God has faithfully displayed His heart for you through Jesus. And may something as simple as tomorrow's sunrise remind you of his abounding faithfulness.