Rooted Pre Season: Episode 6

Can I really trust God to keep His promises, or is faith just wishful thinking?

In this episode of Rooted, we turn to Joshua 21:43–45 and Hebrews 10:23 to explore what it actually means to say God is faithful. Scripture pauses at a rare moment in Israel’s story to look back and acknowledge that not one word of the Lord’s promises failed. Every promise was fulfilled, even after years of waiting, wandering, and uncertainty.

Transcript

0:00

welcome to Rooted with Emily Lento, where we explore who Jesus is through context, culture, and covenant. I am so pumped for today. I don't have any disclaimers, so let's just jump right in. The question for today is, can I count on God to keep his promises? And the answer is God is faithful. This is so unbelievably foundational and important. Everything we know to be true is built on God's promises. So if God's not gonna keep them, then. We can't really trust him, can we? Because if he's broken one he's not faithful. If he's broken one, he's not steadfast. It goes against who he is. It goes against his character. This is so, so important. Not just theologically, but how we view God, how we view his word, and how we view the world around us. Let's dive into the scripture, shall we? Today we have two passages. The first one is in Joshua 21, 43 through 45. Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there and the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed, all came to pass. Wow. Whoa. I'm speechless. So some basic off the bat takeaways from this passage This promise of God that the House of Israel would inherit the land, took generations to come to fruition. The original promise was made by God to Abraham about 500 years before. Does that mean in the middle of it, God wasn't faithful? No, of course he was. His faithfulness was in the process of coming to completion in his perfect timing. We know that because he is wise. So my first takeaway is just because we don't see the movement we want, doesn't mean that God's not working. There were so many pieces that had to be in place for the promise to come to completion. And it's the same thing in our lives today. Interesting point number two in verse 44, it says, and the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. When God keeps his promises, he keeps them in full. And I think what also is interesting is, He could have just done the bare minimum. this just shows how caring he actually is. And then the star of the passage, ready, I'll read it again, not one word. Of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed, all came to pass. Okay? Speechless. I, I just, I don't even know what to say. Of all the good promises, God's promises were good. They were all good. And not a single one of them. Not a single word of any of the good promises that the Lord made to the house of Israel had failed, all came to pass. Can you imagine living in those 500 years between God making the promise to Abraham, to it actually coming to fruition? Let's talk about it. So you have the promise made to Abraham, then you have Isaac, then you have Jacob, Jacob's name. God changed to Israel because he wrestled with God. You can read about that in Genesis 32. It's a weird story, but it, it's good. And then what happens? Then you have Joseph, who we know his brothers sold him into slavery because they were jealous of him. He ends up in Egypt. He ends up being the second most important person in all of Egypt which was so important because he ended up saving his entire family from starvation during a famine when they came to Egypt. That's a massive paraphrasing. Okay, so what happens next? We don't really talk about this. It's not really documented in the Bible. Basically, there was about a hundred years where the Hebrews lived in peace in Egypt, and then a Pharaoh came that didn't know Joseph or didn't remember Joseph's legacy, and that's when the slavery started. It lasted for about 200 years. Imagine being one of these Hebrew slaves, you know, the promises of God. They were passed down orally from generation to generation. And it's like, what the heck? God, you left us. You're not faithful. This does not look like faithfulness to me. Then, when all seemed lost, God sent Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt, Israelites, Hebrew. Basically interchangeable. We're still not even there. Then you have disobedience and wilderness wanderings for 40 years. Then they finally obtain the land but they don't get the land. They have to fight for it. This verse is right after they drove out all of their enemies, it says in verse 44, not one of their enemies was stood them. 500 years for God to show his faithfulness again. Does that mean he wasn't faithful in the middle? No, he was working it out. We're currently living in the middle of a story and oftentimes we act like it's over. God's still working. He's still got it. It's easier said than done. Please don't misunderstand me. There is quite a few things that I'm like, I don't think you're taking this into consideration. Obviously he's taking way more into consideration than I am. He knows. What he's doing. Not only does he know what he's doing, he's going to bring it to completion. So let's jump to our second scripture verses 10 23. It just affirms what we already read in Joshua. It says, let us hold fast. The confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. I love this Old Testament, new Testament connection. This is a through line. He is consistent. He's never not faithful. If he made a promise, it will be kept. That's all promises because guess what? And I said it before, I'll say it again. If he doesn't keep one promise, if there's one promise he doesn't keep, then you can't trust a single one of them. he's not faithful even to someone. How can you trust that he'll be faithful to you? So for our rooted moment today, we are going to talk about holidays. Not our holidays, but festivals that God gave his people in the Old Testament with the intention, the purpose that they would remember his faithfulness. So one of them, for example, is Passover. Passover was a festival that God gave his people in remembrance of him freeing them from Egypt. There was a certain order, certain way that they were told by God to, to commemorate, to remember. Because guess what? I mean, this is a much larger conversation. It could go for anything. If you weren't present for an event, then it's not personal. And so God, in his infinite wisdom, wanted to bridge that gap, right? So, yeah. Anybody who was born after slavery in Egypt wouldn't understand what the Exodus was truly like. So God created a way to commemorate it in a way that felt real and personal. Does it do it perfectly? No, his intention was that through these tangible actions, you would remember his faithfulness. Does that make sense? He created an order where people would almost relive these events through traditions kept from generation to generation. So a person wouldn't have to actually experience the exodus to be able to reflect on God's faithfulness in a tangible way. You wouldn't actually have to experience God's faithfulness in the wilderness firsthand to be able to reflect on his faithfulness during Sukkot. So Passover was for remembering the Exodus, Sukkot was for remembering God's faithfulness during the wilderness. Those are just two examples. We as humans are so quick to forget even things that we've experienced, let alone those who have never experienced it. God obviously knows this. He created an order to combat that forgetfulness, to combat the fact that at a certain point there will be nobody that's living present, and it carries on the memory of his faithfulness. So that's what I've got for today. I am sad that God's goodness is going to be our last day, but this is just the beginning. There is so many exciting things coming. If you liked this. If you enjoyed this, like, comment, subscribe, leave a five star rating. Really do anything you would do for any of the other podcasts you enjoy. If you haven't yet, follow me on Instagram at Emily Talento and at Rooted with Emily Talento. You could also subscribe to my YouTube channel at Rooted with Emily Lindo, where again, it's about to get a lot more active over there, so definitely check that out. I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you next time.