- [Carissa] If you tried to
describe what God is like, it could be difficult or daunting. But when the people who wrote the Bible pondered the mystery of God, they consistently described
God's character in this way. "Compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with loyal
love and faithfulness." We're going to look at this
last characteristic of God. It's the Hebrew word "emet,"
which can be translated as "faithfulness" or even "truth." It's related to another word
you've probably heard before, "amen," which is an
untranslated Hebrew expression meaning "that's truth." So emet can mean truth, and it can refer to
correct ideas or concepts. This is because emet has to do with stability and reliability. Like when Moses holds
up his hands for hours to defeat Israel's
enemies, the Amalekites, his friends put a rock under
him and support his hands so that his hands will
remain emet or steady. When emet is used of people,
it describes reliable and stable character or trustworthiness. Like when Moses appoints
leaders in Israel, they're to be people of emet,
people who are trustworthy, who won't take bribes or distort justice. So to say that God is full
of emet doesn't just mean that God tells the truth
or stands for truth, it means that God is
faithful and trustworthy. This is why Moses calls God a rock, saying that he's faithful, just, and upright. He's saying that he can trust God to be consistent to his character. And the Hebrew word for "trust"
is actually the verb form of the word "emet." It's "he'emin." It can be translated as "to
believe," or "to have faith," but most basically it means "to consider someone
trustworthy," or "to trust." The first person we meet in the Bible who considers God to be
trustworthy is Abraham. God makes a promise that
Abraham and his wife Sarah will have a huge family
and that through them all nations will
experience God's blessing. But Abraham and Sarah
are really, really old, and they've never been
able to have any children. And yet in the face of these challenges, Abraham he'emins God; he
considers God trustworthy to open a way forward. And God does show emet
to Abraham and Sarah. In just four generations their descendants form a
whole nation called Israel. And God invites Israel into a trusting and faithful relationship. And when God leads them
out of slavery in Egypt, Israel he'emins in God,
they trust and rely on him. But when they come to the
land God promised to Abraham and they find out it's filled with giant cities protected by giants, their trust in God's emet fails. But eventually we meet an Israelite who does trust God in the
face of giants. It's David. He yells at the giant, "You come with a sword and a spear, but I come with the name
of the God of Israel." David consistently relies on God. In fact, it's said that David
walked in emet before God. So David considers God to be faithful and responds with faithfulness. This is why God promises to
raise up a faithful descendant of David whose kingdom
will endure forever, or in Hebrew, have emet. This faithful king will become the source of trust and stability
for others forever. But when the kingdom later collapses, the Israelites find themselves without a home and without
a king and they cry out, "Oh God, where is your loyal love that you swore to David in your emet?" They're accusing God of
abandoning his promises to Abraham and to David. Is God trustworthy? Is he faithful after all? The first line of the New Testament is an answer to that question. "This is the lineage of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham." In other words, through Jesus,
God fulfills his promises. Or as Paul says, "Jesus came on
behalf of God's faithfulness." He is the faithful king whose
kingdom will endure forever, and who invites all nations to trust God. Now, trusting anyone is risky. It's hard to know if anyone
is really full of emet. But the biblical story portrays a God who's been faithful all along and whose promises were
fulfilled in the story of Jesus. And so as we look out at
the obstacles facing us and our world, we are invited
to take that same risk and join Abraham, David,
and the people of God in trusting that God is
overflowing with faithfulness. (serene music)
