The LORD's four-fold promise

“And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.”

Deuteronomy 31:8 [KJV]

I recently went fishing from a beach with relatively large waves. I am not a strong caster, so I would wait until a wave went out, then rush forward, cast the line, and sprint back to shore with my rod before the next wave came in. To the amusement of my sister (!), I didn’t always judge the timing correctly, or the wave was larger than anticipated. Several times, I was swamped by chest-high waves, or the pull of the undertow was strong enough to cut the sand from beneath my feet.

My experience with the waves is a metaphor for what sometimes happens in life. Sometimes we are swamped by circumstances that threaten to knock us flat. Or the things we depended on disappear from under our feet. Perhaps whatever happened was abrupt, severe, came from an unexpected source, or was one of multiple things occurring at once.

As I thought about how big and devasting some of life’s waves can be, I started reading some Bible verses I’ve stuck to my bedroom wall. One is Deuteronomy 31:8, where Moses says to Joshua, “And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.” Israel is finally standing on the border of the Promised Land, but their new leader, Joshua, has a formidable task ahead. Not only does he need to fight external enemies to win possession of the land, but he’s been charged with leading a people Moses describes as rebellious, stubborn and corrupt (Deuteronomy 31:27,29).

Deuteronomy 31:8 contains four related promises about God’s relationship with Joshua, and then two ways Joshua was to respond. These six points are true for all faithful children of God, so let’s look briefly at each of them.

The Lord goes before us. This speaks of the Lord leading us through life. There are two main pictures in the Bible that help us visualise how this works. The first occurs in Exodus. For forty years, “the LORD went before [Israel] by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire” (Exodus 13:21a). The second is the picture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, who leads us beside still waters, in the paths of righteousness and even safely through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23). In John 10:27, Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life”. The Bible is a God’s guidebook, given to us. As the psalmist rightly says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). May our prayer be, “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day” (Psalm 25:5).

The Lord goes with us. God doesn’t guide from a distance; He walks each step of the life’s journey with us. Jesus told His disciples that He would be with them “alway” (Matthew 28:20), and that the Holy Spirit abides with us “for ever” (John 14:16). Hebrews 13:5b reminds us that “he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”. Moses understood how critical this is, declaring, “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence” (Exodus 33:15). At different stages of life, we might not always be able to attend a good church. We may not have Christian friends on hand to encourage us. We might even be in a situation where we can’t pull out a Bible. But the LORD himself is with us. Always. For ever.

The Lord will not fail us. He keeps all His promises. Here are a few of these promises. He will never fail to provide guidance and counsel to those who seek it. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” The Lord will never fail to “supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). He will always provide a way of escape when you are faced with temptations (1 Corinthians 10:13). And He will always forgive repentant sinners, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

The Lord will not forsake us. King David stated, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up” (Psalm 27:10). Why do people desert us? Sometimes it’s our fault. Sometimes it’s that their priorities have changed, things became too hard for them to manage, or that they stop loving us. But God is the Lord Almighty, and He never leaves or forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5). Even when we sin and grieve the Holy Spirit, God provides an advocate in Jesus Christ (1 John 2:1). God is unchanging so His priorities do not change (Malachi 3:6). We will never face anything in life that is beyond His capacity to handle; there is nothing too hard for God (Jeremiah 32:27). And He will never stop loving us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:28-32).

These are four individually precious promises. But collectively they are facets of the same truth: that our relationship with our Heavenly Father is unbreakable. Jesus said in John 10:28 of those who follow Him, “they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” We will never be left floundering on sand, because the Lord is our rock (Psalm 18:2). It’s in the context of God’s faithfulness, that Joshua was given two commands – fear not and neither be dismayed.

Fear not. The command to ‘fear not’ is found throughout the Bible, from Genesis (15:1) to Revelation (2:10) and plenty of times in between. We need the reminders because we all tend to fear. Fear of consequences can be a good thing if it discourages risky behaviour or poorly thought through decisions. We’re also commanded to fear or reverence God (Proverbs 9:10). But fear of what others think, or potential future needs can be paralysing (Proverbs 29:25, Matthew 6:31-32). I’ve lost sleep in recent months worrying about worst-case scenarios or people’s motives. Yet the Lord tells us to fear not. The One who sees every sparrow fall to the ground knows all our current and future needs (Matthew 10:29-31), and can do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

Neither be dismayed. Don’t be dismayed covers the spectrum of emotions from mild disappointment to heartbreak, discouragement and depression. These emotions surface for different reasons, but particularly when our lives don’t match expectations, or we lack hope. Remind yourself how powerful our God is. Just to mention three things: He opened the eyes of the blind (Psalm 146:8), created the world with just His voice (Genesis 1), and is acknowledged by even demons as their rightful judge (Matthew 8:29). God cares about each individual. He is the God who sent Philip all the way to Gaza just to share the gospel with one man (Acts 8), and who gave Peter a second chance after his failures (John 21). Our God is a promise-keeping God, who works all things “together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

In summary, why should we have faith rather than fear? Why should we hope rather than be dismayed? Because “the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee”.