God is Only as Good as His Word

Centuries passed before the time of the birth of Jesus Christ in the small hamlet of Bethlehem Judah around the Year 5-7 B.C.[1]  Bethlehem was the place where David was born (1 Sam. 17:12), and also was the place where the Messiah would be born (Mic. 5:2).  Yahweh had pinpointed Bethlehem so no other birthplace would be right for Jesus Christ.  Not Jerusalem, not Rome, but tiny Bethlehem.  God means what He says.  And He would be born precisely at the time Yahweh had chosen (Gal. 4:4). 

          But what about the angel’s proclamation?  Didn’t he say,

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.  And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Lk. 1:32-33)?

          What happened?  After Jesus was born, He lived in obscurity until bursting onto the scene around the year A.D. 26,[2] heralded by the imposing figure of John the Baptist (Jn. 1:19-34).  He uttered words of wisdom which no one had heard the like of before (Jn. 7:46), and performed incredible miracles beyond what even Elijah and Elisha managed (e.g., Matt. 12:15; 14:13-21; Mk. 1:21-29, 40-42; 2:10-12; 3:1-5, 11; Jn. 5:2-9; 9:1-7; 11:38-44). 

          But He was rejected (Mk. 8:31; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:4) and they crucified this “King” who would supposedly reign forever (Mk. 15:25).  He rose from the dead (Rom. 14:9) and ascended back into heaven (Lk. 24:50-51; Acts 1:11), where He has been at the right hand of the throne of God ever since (Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1), where He is interceding for the saints, not reigning over them (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 8:1).  Although it is true that the spiritual powers have been made subject to Him (1 Pet. 3:22), there is yet no sign of the prophesied reign of shalom that was expected on the back of so many OT promises (e.g., Psa. 2:6-8; 110:2; Mic. 4:7; 5:2; Isa. 1:27; 2:4; 9:6-7; 11:1-10; 32:16; 42:1, 4; Jer. 23:5; 33:14-16; Dan. 2:44-45; 7:13-14; Zech. 2:10-12; 14:9). 

          The difference between what the covenant promises of the OT emphasized (and what was repeated by the angel Gabriel at Jesus’ birth – Lk. 1:26-33), and what has happened since has caused many Christians to look for different interpretations to the prophecies so as to confirm their fulfillment in “unexpected” ways.

          Well, if God is the kind of communicator who swears oaths to do specific things and then does them in unexpected ways then He is the kind of communicator it is very hard to put faith in.  Such a God did not do what He said He would do.  We don’t put faith in someone who has repeatedly shown that they don’t mean what they say.  We want them to be as good as their word.  I realize that here those who believe the “unexpected fulfillment” hypothesis makes God “better” than His word, but that is special pleading masquerading as piety.[3]   Holding to this view logically entails us remaining noncommittal in the face of God’s sworn testimony.  We dare not believe what God says because we believe God’s words might not mean what they appear to mean.  Hence, faith dies amid this uncertainty.

          To fill in the void left by not believing that God’s covenant words can be taken literally, many claim that Christ is to be seen in every text of Scripture.  The way they see Him, however, is via typology – an interpretive practice that too often acts as a ruse.  Not that some typological correspondences aren’t real, but many times they are read into the text rather than being suggested by it. 

[1] This dating is approximate but is very plausible.  See e.g., Ethelbert Stauffer, Jesus and His Story, NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1967, 6-8.

[2] See, e.g., Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1977, 30-31.

[3] In my opinion the same thing is true of supersessionism.  See e.g., Miguel G. Echevarria and Benjamin P. Laird, 40 Questions About the Apostle Paul, Grand Rapids, Kregel, 2023,302-305.