God's Unfailing Faithfulness

The Faith Factor Series

God’s Unfailing Faithfulness

Emanuel W. Sultana

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The Faith Factor Series

can be obtained at Smashwords.com

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The titles are:

Once Saved, Always Saved?

Blessings of Faith

Unconditional Surrender

Have You Faith of God

In memory

of my parents

Joseph and Mary Farrugia Sultana

humble people

who walked with God!

******

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations

are from the New King James Bible copyright 1982

by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Those marked (NLT) are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation,

copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House

Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, IL. All rights reserved.

Those marked (GNT) are from the Good News Translation,

copyright 1992, American Bible Society, New York, NY

Those marked (MSG) are from The Message,

copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, and 2002

by Eugene H. Peterson

Those marked (JBP) are from The New Testament in Modern English

by J.B. Philips copyright 1960, 1972 JBP, Administered by

The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England.

Used by permission.

God’s Unfailing Faithfulness

Copyright 2016

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced

in any form without prior written permission from the author.

*****

Contents

Intro

God Versus gods

The True and Living God

The Faithful Creator

The Lord is My Portion

God, Merciful and Gracious

No Change is Possible

God is I AM

Divine Battle Plan

Jesus, Messiah, Redeemer

Your Faithfulness Surrounds You

His Redeeming Faithfulness

When You Are Tempted

Abram and Sarai

Kinsman Redeemer

Hannah’s Prayers

Great and Precious Promises

God’s Ultimate Yes

Faithful to His Covenants

Our Forgiven Sins

In View of His Coming

Guide and Teach Us

Salvation in Christ

Apostles’ Creed

About the Author

Endnotes

*****

Intro

Our God is faithful!

Our God is faithful!

OUR GOD IS UNFAILINGLY FAITHFUL!

Our Holy God is unique.

He is nothing like the powerless

hand-crafted god-idols resembling spirits of nature

or sculpted grotesque mutant concoctions.

These are all nonentities, insignificant things,

without any senses, without power,

and without the ability to save.

Our God is the Living God,

His faithfulness to you and me is unfailing.

Unfailing, that is a remarkable declaration.

It means that Almighty God is totally dependable,

certain, reliable, trustworthy, constant, consistent, abiding,

lasting, unshakable, infallible, inexhaustible, and the enduring One.

He is the personification of faithful.

And best of all, you will find as you read this short book,

that He is a loving and just God who wants to be a part of your life.

"And this is eternal life,

that they may know You,

the only true God,

and Him

whom You have sent

— Christ Jesus"

John 17:3

Give Him glory and honor and praise!

E.W.S.

*****

God Verses gods

Against the Gods of Egypt

You know the history of the Israelites in Egypt; they were slaves to Pharaoh for four-hundred years. Then God sent Moses to get their release, but Pharaoh would not listen. Moses warned him of the plagues that would come if the Israelites were not freed, but Pharaoh persisted and his heart was hardened.

The ten plagues God sent on Egypt were directed not only against Pharaoh and his people, but were also a direct insult against all of the gods of Egypt. The earliest Egyptians practiced a belief system that was part totemism (a mystical relationship), part polytheism, and part ancestor worship. James P. Allen, an Egyptologist, estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts.

The Nile was the heartbeat of Egypt—all trade, commerce, and crops depended upon the Nile. The first plague came against the great god Khnum, the guardian of the Nile River. Hapi was the god of the annual Nile floodwaters that recreated life each spring by depositing rich silt, fertile soil, on the river's banks allowing the Egyptians to grow crops. When Moses’ rod struck the river it became blood-red, polluted, and foul-smelling, and brought death to everything in it. All the waters in Egypt turned to blood, even their streams and ponds and water that was stored in people’s homes.

Next, the plague of frogs was directed against Heqet goddess of fertility. The frogs entered every home and bed; they ruined their food supplies, and even went into kneading bowls and ovens. The frogs literally covered all the land of Egypt. When the Lord spoke to Moses again, the frogs died and rotted and all the land stank profusely.

The third plague came like the wind and all the dust of Egypt became lice and blanketed every man and beast. This plague humiliated Geb, the great god of the earth. The Egyptians customarily gave offerings to Geb for the bounty of the soil—yet it was from the dust of the soil that this plague originated.

The fourth plague was swarms of flies to show the powerlessness of Beelzebub, the god of flies. Some scholars believe these swarms were the blood-sucking gadfly of the insect family Tabanidae, which can cause blindness. A plague of gadflies covered all the Egyptian people, their homes and all the ground bringing them and their livestock great suffering, and in certain cases death. The Lord also sent thick swarms of flies into the king's palace and the houses of his officials. The whole land of Egypt was brought to ruin by the flies. This is the first plague in which God made a distinction between His people and the Egyptians — the swarms did not enter Goshen, where His people lived, for He made a difference between My people and your people (Ex. 8:23).

The fifth plague, a disease was directed against Egyptian livestock, their donkeys, camels, oxen and sheep. Horses and cattle were not only highly valued in the land, but they were also sacred. The Egyptians worshiped many animals, and many animal-headed deities. The Apis bull was the living image of the god Ptah. When the Apis bull died the land of Egypt mourned for him as they would for the loss of the monarch himself. Hathor was the cow-headed goddess of the desert. The goddess Hathor was the symbolic mother of Pharaoh, and the king of Egypt was referred to as the son of Hathor.

The plagues are getting progressively worse they went from being a mere inconvenience to diseases that afflicted the body.

In the sixth plague Moses and Aaron were commanded to take handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and scatter it in the sight of Pharaoh. It became a fine dust throughout Egypt and caused boils, deep infected sores, to break out on man and beast. The sore is raised, red, painful, and filled with pus. Some say this plague was probably skin anthrax, an abscess that develops into a pustule. This medical problem was also an affront to Imhotep, the god of medicine.

The seventh plague is described in more detail than any of the other first nine plagues and it is the only time where the Lord explains to Pharaoh the purpose of the plagues (Ex. 9:14–17). It was a very heavy hail to storm down on all of Egypt such as never before. This would be a very unusual occurrence, for the region around Cairo normally receives only two inches of rain per year. Tefnut the goddess of water and fire was unable to protect them from the hail that destroyed flax and barley crops, and man and beast. Since this plague originated from the sky, it would have been an insult as well to Nut, the sky goddess.

The eighth plague was clouds of locusts. Moses tells Pharaoh, They will overrun your palaces and the homes of your officials and all the houses in Egypt. Never in the history of Egypt have your ancestors seen a plague like this one! And with that, Moses turned and left Pharaoh. In those times locusts could devour an entire village’s food supply in a matter of minutes. These locusts were going to finish off any vegetation that remained after the plague of hail. The locusts covered all Egypt and showed that the god Serapis was false and powerless. Where was Nepri, the god of grain? Joel described locusts as an army. What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

And so it went. The locusts settling over every square inch of the land; the place was black with locusts. There never was an invasion of locusts like it in the past, and never will be again. They ate everything, every herb, every blade of grass, every piece of fruit, anything that the hail didn’t get. Nothing was left but bare trees and bare fields—nothing green in the whole land of Egypt.

The ninth plague was literally, as Scripture says, a darkness which might be felt a severe, intense long darkness. It came without warning and had immediate consequences immobilizing the land of Egypt for three days! Nothing stirred, for they could not see one another. They all must have sat or lay down for seventy-two hours. But all the Israelites had light in their dwellings. The plague of darkness was an insult to Egypt's culture and religion. Throughout Egyptian history, the sun was worshiped as a manifestation of various deities, such as Atum, Re, Amun, and Amon-Ra; none were able to overcome the darkness God threw over the land.

The tenth and last plague was potentially more devastating than all of the other plagues put together. This plague was also very selective — it destroyed only the Egyptians firstborn males, human or animal. And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the maidservant who is behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the beasts (Ex. 11:4-5). This reminds us of how the Egyptians murdered the Hebrew baby boys to prevent the Israelite nation from growing.

The plague was directed against all of the gods of Egypt (Ex. 12:12) and would show the total inability of the gods of Egypt to protect their subjects. All the plagues were proof that no god of Egypt had power to stand against God. And so the gods of Egypt were judged and found wanting. There was widespread wailing that erupted all over the country. Lament such as has never been and never will be again. But against the Israelites—man, woman, or animal—there was not so much as a dog’s bark, so you know that God makes a clear distinction between Egyptians and Israelites. Pharaoh continued to be stubborn and hard hearted, as it says in Jeremiah: O Lord, are not Thine eyes upon the Truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock (Jer. 5:3).

On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the LORD! But the blood you smeared on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the [Israeli] houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.

— Exodus 12:12-13 NLT

This plague marked the beginning of the Passover celebration. The blood of the lamb would signify that they had listened to God’s commands. The unleavened bread would remind them that they were sent out quickly. The bitter herbs would symbolize the bitterness of their bondage in Egypt. In the years to come, every time they celebrated the Passover they would recall their former position as slaves and be reminded that God had redeemed them.

Today scores of near and far eastern cultures and religions insist that Jesus is not God, nor is He the Son of God. Even today, these are dangerous places for Christians, as the Gospel offends their country’s traditional animist, Buddhist, Islam, or Hindu spiritual practices. Conversion to Christianity is seen as a rejection of family tradition; it is believed to anger the spirits tied to ancestral and idol worship. Over there, Christians are often ostracized by their own families and evicted from their home and villages. They are denied education and work opportunities, and they are sometimes arrested and forced to deny their faith. They go through vicious beatings, stabbings, rape, even murder.

Our headlines today constantly remind us of the global spread of Islamic extremism. We even see main stream reports about the increasing persecution of Christians in Muslim countries. What we don’t read in the headlines, however, is the news about the ever growing number of Muslims coming to Christ. We hear reports of former Muslims who saw Jesus Christ appear to them in a dream. And other Muslims who have turned to Christ after witnessing violent acts committed in the name of Islam. Christ Jesus is the true and Living God, and ISIS is pushing many Muslims toward Him.

What good is a carved god so skillfully carved by its sculptor? What good is a fancy cast god when all it tells is lies? What sense does it make to be a pious god-maker who makes gods that can’t even talk? … Can they teach you anything about anything? There’s nothing to them but surface. There’s nothing on the inside. But oh! GOD is in his holy Temple! Quiet everyone—a holy silence. Listen!

— Habakkuk 2:18-20 MSG

*****

The True and Living God

I am the LORD; that is My name!

I will not give my glory, my splendor and awesomeness to anyone.

Nor will I share my praise with graven images.

— Isaiah 42:8

Our Holy God

From one end of the Bible to the other, God reveals Himself as absolutely pure, without flaw or blemish of any kind. The Bible says, Your eyes are too pure and holy to look at evil … I am God, and not man, the Holy One in your midst (Hab.1:13; Hos. 11:9). Admittedly we have a hard time understanding this. We are weak and imperfect, and we can scarcely grasp the overwhelming perfection and holiness of God. But God is!

God is light, in Him there is no darkness at all … that was the true light which gives light to every man who comes into the world (1 Jn. 1:5; Jn. 1:9). This speaks of the relationship that Christ sustains all men—He is their light. Every rational man is morally enlightened, they all show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness (Rom. 2:15). It is this light, which lightens every man that comes into the world, which signifies them responsible human beings.

We see that when Isaiah glimpsed a vision of God he was overwhelmed by God’s holiness. He saw angels