One of the promises of scripture that comforts my heart on a regular basis is the promise that God will never leave me, nor forsake me even though I don’t always believe it. As embarrassing as that is to admit, it’s hard to feel like God is near when I feel so alone. This promise comes from the book of Deuteronomy. It came through Moses as an encouragement to the Israelites, God’s chosen people, as they prepared to enter the promised land without the man who had led them since the Exodus. Moses had been leading the Israelites for forty years, but the time God had ordained for him to lead them was coming to an end. As he prepared to transfer leadership to Joshua, Moses knew the difficulties that the children of Israel faced, and how difficult it would be for them to keep the faith. He’d watched their insurrection and disobedience for forty years. He witnessed their faithlessness, their sin, and their rejection of God play out over decades of consequence. Yet, here God was, promising them that despite all of this, He would never leave them nor forsake them.

God is faithful to fulfill His promises even when we are faithless.

Connecting to the God of the Israelites who parted the Red Sea, who rained down plagues on Egypt, who sheltered Noah and his family through a flood of judgement waters that eliminated all other life on earth, who became Immanuel -God with us- and healed the sick, lame, and blind, seems like a stretch and that this promise, that He will never leave me nor forsake me, must not truly apply to me. Especially when I’m feeling alone, neglected, rejected, hurt, abandoned, or hopeless.

Yet, this promise reaches into the spaces of my heart that prove faithless and despite my faithlessness, He is faithful to fulfill His promises.

I am not a child of Israel. I’m not a Hebrew woman, born into one of the twelve tribes of Israel. I am not of the people who wandered the wilderness for forty years before finally standing before the promised land. I am not of the peoples who were rescued by God from Egyptian slavery. On the contrary, I’m a Gentile.

The Jews of Jesus’ day looked on the Gentiles as far less than them, detestable, right for judgement, and unworthy of their God. Yet, hundreds of years before Jesus was born, Isaiah would prophecy that when Jesus came to Israel with the promise and offer of the kingdom, that He would be rejected by them. This was so that the promises of God would extend to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 49:6 states, “he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” God said it was too light a thing that Jesus would only redeem Israel. He came so that salvation may reach to the ends of the earth -to me. So when, during His ministry, the Jewish Pharisees claimed that His power for miracles and healing came as a result of a demon, and Jesus knew in the hearts of the people that they did not receive Him as Messiah, this prophecy was activated for the beginning of fulfillment. Jesus went to the cross because it was too light a thing that He would come for the redemption of Israel only, but so that His salvation could reach the ends of the earth. The fulfillment of this prophecy is still unfolding. Until the ends of the earth have been reached with the promise of salvation, until the last of those whose names were recorded in the book of life before the foundations of the earth were laid, have been born into the family of God, this prophecy will continue to unfold in fulfillment.

The promise of God to the Israelites in Deuteronomy is my promise too. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, my salvation by faith in the redemption that is offered as a result of this promise, means that I have been grafted into an inheritance that I did nothing to deserve. In Romans, Paul attempts to explain this mystery to new believers so that they may understand that there is no distinction between a Jewish believer and a Gentile believer, that the root, the faith in Jesus death and resurrection, is what makes a person holy. Paul writes, “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree” (Romans 11:17). Paul is also identifying that the Gentiles who were grafted in should not take a position of superiority over those who have walked away from truth {branches that were broken off}, rather, recognize that the sustaining, nourishing root of the olive tree is what defines the tree, the branches are simply a product of the root. Paul is teaching humility, acceptance, and obedience to the calling of the believer to represent Christ and assuring them that once they have been grafted in, the promise extends to all who believe.

When I am faithless, hopeless, and despondent, buried by the burdens of this world, afraid of future trials, suffering from the brokenness of sin and its effects in this world, the same promise that God gave the children of Israel to never leave them nor forsake them is a promise extended to me as a branch, grafted into the nourishing root of a tree that extends the faithfulness of God to each and every grafted in {and sometimes faithless} branch. As a result, I can rest in His promises, hope in His word, and look forward to the promise of eternal redemption from sin and death because of His life, death, and resurrection.

I am not a child of Israel, but because of the blood of Christ, I am a child of God.

Today is the day of salvation. If you have not been grafted into the promises of God, complete with the hope of an eternal inheritance because of Jesus Christ, receive the gift of salvation today, and rest in the faithfulness of God, Who will be faithful to fulfill His word even when we fall short.

God bless.