There was a time in this society when a man’s promise could be relied upon. Handshakes actually meant something, and a man’s yes meant yes. Increasingly as the years have passed, any agreement today must be accompanied by an oftentimes bewildering array of legal paperwork. Land transactions, business agreements, insurance sales, medical treatments, and even church associations cannot be made without documents, signatures, fine print, and a burdensome display of signatures, seals, and certifications.

Thankfully, we serve a God Who can be trusted. He is a faithful God Who keeps every promise He makes and Who is able to swear by Himself. His covenant is sure. His Word is true. His promises are assured. His oaths are bound in Heaven. His faithfulness is more everlasting than the timeless hills.

In the Book of Deuteronomy, the Lord gives testimony to His Own faithfulness. “Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

The Hebrew description of our God as the “faithful God” comes from the verbal root אָמַן (aman). Our English expression amen is derived from this same Hebrew root. In Deuteronomy 7:9, the word aman is given to us as a passive participle. God is the God Whose word can be “amen-ed,” implying that we can give a hearty and confident amen! to whatever God promises.

Whenever we say amen in church or in our prayers, we are making an expression of faith, giving our agreement that we rely entirely upon what has been said. To say amen to God’s promises is to believe that those promises are true. The only reason that we can ever say amen to anything is because we serve a faithful God.

It is significant that this revelation of God as “the faithful God” was given to the children of Israel in the immediate context of the great Shema of Israel only a few verses earlier. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4–9).

Along with the giving of these commandments, the Lord assured His people that He was “the faithful God.” They could rely entirely upon His promise, and they could say a hearty amen to His Law.

The relationship between faith and faithfulness is an important relationship that can be seen linguistically in English as well as in Hebrew. A faithful God calls for faith in His people. Our response to faithfulness can and should be expressed in humble faith.

Whenever our hearts are filled with doubt, fear, worry, anxiety, and murmuring, we should realize that these sins give evidence that we are subconsciously disbelieving the faithfulness of God. It is one thing to sing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” in church on Sunday morning. It is quite another to trust that same faithful God on Monday morning when the pressures and worries of daily life crowd in upon us.

While in the wilderness, the children of Israel failed to put their trust in their faithful God. This lack of faith was the chief cause of all their miseries. When they were fleeing Egypt and Jehovah brought them to the Red Sea, they feared the armies of Pharaoh.

Once they were in the wilderness, they murmured against Moses when there was no water. When God promised to provide manna for food, they lusted for quail. When Moses failed to come down from the mountain as soon as the people expected, they made a golden calf. When God promised them victory, they trusted the report of the ten pessimistic spies rather than the promise of God. In these tragic instances of unbelief, the Hebrew Bible uses the same word to declare how the children of Israel would not believe.

Deuteronomy 9:23 is one example of their persistent unbelief. “Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.”

There were consequences as a result of their lack of faith to trust the promises of their faithful God. For their unbelief, all the men aged twenty and older at the beginning of the Exodus (except Joshua and Caleb) died in the wilderness over the course of forty years of wandering.

If we take the traditional number of 2.5 million Israelites at the time of the Exodus, based upon the given number of 600,000 fighting men, and double it to include the women, and then calculate how many died over a period of 40 years, the result is the astonishing number of 7 funerals every daylight hour for 40 long years! What a ghastly, sobering reminder of the sin of unbelief.

All this that took place was in fulfillment of God’s pronouncement of judgment. “But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die” (Numbers 14:32–35).

The “breach of promise” described so ominously here in this text was not because of God’s lack of faithfulness; rather, it was due to His people’s lack of faith. May each one of us beware of the sin of faithlessness. More and more each day, may we learn to rely entirely upon God’s promises, knowing that we serve “the faithful God.”