365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 82: Faithful God

Faithful God

"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments." (Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV)

Math is not my strong suit. I'm pretty good when it comes to using fractions to measure ingredients for baking, but other than that, math confounds and frustrates me.

God-math is another matter entirely, though. God-math is when we have the chance to see Yahweh's power, love, and patience displayed in quantifiable terms that nonetheless surpass human comprehension.

Five loaves of bread + two fish = a meal for 5,000 (and then some).

Or 99 safe sheep - one lost sheep = a Shepherd on the search.

And consider this divine equation from the Old Testament...the Old Covenant: “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands" (Deuteronomy 5:9,10 NLT).

Even under the Old Law, look at the beautiful disproportion here: the Faithful God said that He would, in His holiness, deal with the sins of those who rejected Him for three and four generations but that He would pour out His loyal love to thousands of generations. Three and four versus thousands.

I remember enough algebra to know that both sides of an equation separated by the "equal" sign are supposed to balance each other out, or the problem cannot be solved. But God-math follows its own rules. The love and mercy of the One who is Faithful are unequaled. They solved every problem when He wrote out the ultimate equation in the blood of His Son:

One death = life for all.

Great—so great—is His faithfulness.

"Great is Thy faithfulness,

O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with Thee.

Thou changest not,

Thy compassions, they fail not.

As Thou hast been Thou forever will be.

Beginning to end,

My life in Your hands,

Great, great is Your Faithfulness.

You never let go,

This one thing I know,

Great, great is Your Faithfulness."

("Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Beginning to End)"; One Sonic Society Featuring Mike Weaver; songwriters Jason Ingram, Mike Weaver, Thomas Chisholm, William Runyan; https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=82IsquVCPtU.)