FROM THE PRESIDENT
Shalom in His grace,
I know you would agree with me that God
is faithful! The hymn writer had it right when
he wrote, “Great is Thy faithfulness, oh God my
Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not…
great is Thy faithfulness Lord unto me.”
Faithfulness is not something God
does: Faithfulness is an essential part of His
character—it is His nature!
We celebrated Israel’s 70th anniversary this
year (2018), and next year, beginning in January
2019, we are going to celebrate the 125th year of
Chosen People Ministries (which means we are
much older than the modern State of Israel!).
There have been trials and challenges along the
way for Israel and for us, but we are both here
today because God is eternally faithful.
The prophet Jeremiah assured the Jewish
people that, although they would go through
hard seasons and at times come close to destruction,
God would preserve them for all time!
“Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for
light by day and the fixed order of the moon
and the stars for light
by night, who stirs up
the sea so that its waves
roar; the Lord of hosts is
His name: ‘If this fixed
order departs from before
Me,’ declares the
Lord, ‘then the offspring
of Israel also will cease
from being a nation
before Me forever’”
(Jeremiah 31:35-36).
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is
the verse that inspired the hymn writer to pen
the majestic hymn mentioned above.
The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never
cease, for His compassions never fail. They
are new every morning; great is Your
faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,”
says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in
Him.” (Lamentations 3:22-24)
The prophet Jeremiah, who was disheartened
to witness his beloved city of Jerusalem
destroyed by the Babylonians, most likely
wrote the book of Lamentations. Life can be
hard, and most of us know what it is like to
be disappointed by the circumstances of life.
Some of us have experienced the destruction
and dismantling of our lives—just like what
happened to Jerusalem. However, Jerusalem
endured because of the faithfulness and promises
of God! You and I are still here as well, and
that is why we can smile and praise God for
His everlasting faithfulness.
The timeless text of Lamentations 3 teaches
us that God is faithful by nature. That means
that God cannot make a promise that He
cannot keep. God cannot break His word and
cannot be unfaithful.
THE HEBREW TERMS DESCRIBING
GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
There are three wonderful terms that
are used in the Hebrew Bible to describe the
faithfulness of God. One is the Hebrew word
“chesed” (loving-kindness), which refers to
NOVEMBER 2018 / THE CHOSEN PEOPLE - 2
God’s unending loyalty
to the people He chose.
According to Jewish
tradition, the Lord went
from place to place, and
people to people, offering
the commandments. They
all declined for a variety
of reasons. But when
He came to the Jewish
people, they said, “Yes—
sounds good for a variety
of reasons!” Most of them are quite humorous!
However, we know that this was not the biblical
story. When God wanted to bless the world, He
created a miracle in Sarah’s womb, and a child
(Isaac) that should not have been born, emerged.
The Jewish people are not simply the chosen
people. The Jewish people are God’s especiallycreated
people, created to be His bridge of
redemption to a dark and broken world!
GREAT IS THY
FAITHFULNESS
God is faithful to
Israel and to us