Anyone can say God keeps His promises. What makes the Bible different is that it lets you check. It names the promise, names the person, gives you the waiting time, and then tells you what happened.
Joshua had seen more of God's promises come true than almost anyone. He had walked out of Egypt as a young man, spied out Canaan, waited forty years in the wilderness and then led Israel into the land. When the land had been divided among the tribes, the writer summed up the whole story in one sentence:
There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.
Joshua 21:45 (KJV)
Not one good thing failed. That is the claim this page tests.
Two old men who looked back and said the same thing
Joshua, at the end of his life
Years after the land was settled, Joshua was old and knew he was dying. He called the elders, judges and officers of Israel together. He did not tell them how hard it had been. He told them to check their own memories:
And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.
Joshua 23:14 (KJV)
He said it twice in one verse: not one thing has failed. He was asking them to agree with what they already knew in their hearts.
Solomon, at the temple
Hundreds of years later, King Solomon finished the temple in Jerusalem and stood before the whole nation to dedicate it. In his blessing he gave the same report in his own words:
Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.
1 Kings 8:56 (KJV)
Solomon had just watched another promise come true, the one God made to his father David that a son would build the house. Different century, different king, same answer.
Promises God kept after a long wait
Here is what makes these words more than a nice idea. In each case below the Bible records both the promise and how long it took.
| The promise | The wait | Where it came true |
|---|---|---|
| A son for Abram and Sarah (Genesis 12 to 18) | About 25 years: Abram was 75 when he left Haran (Genesis 12:4) and 100 when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5) | Genesis 21:1 to 2 |
| Abraham's children brought out of a foreign land (Genesis 15:13 to 14) | The 430 years of sojourning ended to the very day (Exodus 12:40 to 41). Genesis 15:13 had spoken of four hundred years of affliction. | Exodus 12 |
| A return home from Babylon (Jeremiah 29:10) | Seventy years | Ezra 1:1, in the first year of Cyrus |
| The seed of the woman who would crush the serpent (Genesis 3:15) | From Eden to Bethlehem | Galatians 4:4 |
The selfsame day
The Exodus is one of the most striking examples. God had told Abram, long before Israel ever went down to Egypt, that his children would be strangers in a land not their own and would be afflicted there. Generations passed. Joseph died in Egypt still believing it, and made the children of Israel swear to carry his bones out when God came for them.
Then the book of Exodus records how it ended:
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
Exodus 12:41 (KJV)
Even the selfsame day. God did not lose track of the calendar while His people suffered. And Moses did take Joseph's bones with him, just as Joseph had asked.
Seventy years, then a king's proclamation
When Judah was carried away to Babylon, the prophet Jeremiah sent the captives a letter with a number in it.
For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
Jeremiah 29:10 (KJV)
Decades later, the prophet Daniel was still reading that letter. He wrote that he understood by books the number of the years that Jeremiah had spoken. Then Persia conquered Babylon, and the Bible connects what happened next directly to Jeremiah's words:
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
Ezra 1:1 (KJV)
A pagan king wrote a decree, and the reason the Bible gives is that God's word had to be fulfilled. That is how seriously God takes what He has said.
Why God can keep every promise
When people break promises, it is usually because they changed their minds or ran out of ability. Scripture rules out both for God.
He does not change His mind about what He has said. Balaam, of all people, had to admit that God is not a man that He should lie, and asked, hath he said, and shall he not do it? In the Psalms God says it Himself:
My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Psalm 89:34 (KJV)
And He does not run short of power. When Sarah laughed at the idea of a baby, God answered with a question: Is any thing too hard for the LORD?
Paul went further still in his letter to Titus. He described eternal life as something God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Before there was a world, God had already given His word. Nothing that happens inside time can undo it.
To a thousand generations
Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Deuteronomy 7:9 (KJV)
Moses spoke this to Israel just before they went into the land. A thousand generations is a way of saying that God's faithfulness outlasts every family tree on earth. Psalm 105 uses the same phrase about the covenant with Abraham, and 1 Chronicles 16 has David's singers praising it. Notice that the verse also says who it is for. God keeps covenant with them that love him and keep his commandments.
Does God ever go back on His word?
Some readers point to places where it looks like a promise was not kept. Look closely and two patterns explain almost all of them.
Some promises had a condition. The generation that left Egypt refused to go into Canaan when God told them to. God said they would not enter, except Caleb and Joshua, but that their little ones would. Forty years later those children walked in. The promise to Abraham's family was kept. The people who refused it did not share in it.
Some warnings were turned aside by mercy. Jonah told Nineveh it would be overthrown. The city repented, and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. That is not a broken promise. Warnings are given so that people will turn, and God is glad when they do.
A third thing is worth saying gently. Sometimes we feel God failed us because we held on to a promise that was never spoken to us, or we chose the timing ourselves. If that is where you are, our guide to the promises of God to us can help you sort it out without guilt.
What to do while you wait
Remember that slow is not slack
In Peter's day some people mocked believers and asked where the promised return of Christ was. Peter answered them:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 (KJV)
What looks like slowness, Peter says, is patience. God is giving more people time to turn to Him.
Hold on because of who promised
The letter to the Hebrews was written to believers who were tired and tempted to quit. Its advice is short:
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Hebrews 10:23 (KJV)
The reason to hold on is not how strong you feel. It is that the One who promised is faithful. The weight rests on Him.
One more practical step comes from Joshua. When Israel crossed the Jordan, he had twelve stones set up so that children would ask what they meant. Write down the times God has come through for you. On the days when a promise feels slow, read your own list of stones. For help with the waiting itself, see When God's Promises Are Delayed.
Read them one at a time
Book Two covers Numbers through Esther, the part of the Bible where you watch God keep His word: Israel enters the land, Joshua gives his farewell, Solomon dedicates the temple and the exiles come home. Each promise has its own page, with who heard it and how it reaches you now.