Seeing God - Faithfulness
QUESTIONS
What things make you feel that someone is trustworthy of your trust?
How important or determinant is faith/trust in your relationships?
How do you relate trust, truth and love?
What makes you trust God?
Meaning & Translations
“Emet” means trust, trustworthy, faith, belief. The meaning encompasses all of those ideas, but it’s rooted around the idea of trust or trustworthiness. Here some key verses:
Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, Your justice like the great deep.
—Psalm 36:5-6
The psalmist prays, “What profit is there in my death, If I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?”
—Psalm 30:9
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen.
—Psalm 4 1 :1 3
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
—Proverbs 27:6
This is a very important word in Scriptures not only because of the meaning (faith determines my understanding of God, myself, people and the world), but also because of how frequently it is repeated and emphasized in Scriptures.
Emet as Truth
Emet can mean both “truth” and “trustworthiness/faithfulness”, and these are related concepts. In this verse (Exodus 34:6), it is translated as “God is full of truth”. But, modern notions of “truth” tend to be more oriented toward scientific facts and principles. The word emet can function in this same way too, though it is not the primary meaning of the word. Here some examples of emet being used to mean “true fact”
Send one of you, and let him bring your brother while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.
—Genesis 42:16
[When the Queen of Sheba visits Solomon] And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom.”
—1 Kings 10:6
Just to make it clear: sometimes emet can mean “ a true statement”—with the implication that the statement is dependable—but more often, the word has a personal or relational connotation, and that’s the case of the verse of Exodus 34:6. Here emet is describing a characteristic of God: “God is full of truth”.
QUESTION
How does this meaning of trust make you feel about the way you see yourself, others and God?
Emet as Trustworthiness
When describing people, emet is usually translated to “trustworthy”, “faithful” or “truthful”. So if somebody is faithful, you can have faith in them. In the same way, if someone is trustworthy, you can trust them, and if something is true, it’s trustworthy. That means that emet also can mean “truth” and “truth-ful”.
Emet as a Human Quality
When it’s applied to people or when it’s used to describe a person, it typically means trustworthy, faithful, or reliable. You can also use it to talk about someone who tells the truth.
Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.—Proverbs 12:19
So part of being trustworthy is telling the truth. And that makes somebody worthy of trust.
It has a stable quality or a reliable quality. That involves more than just truth-telling. It also involves that faithfulness, reliability of a person that somebody can put their trust in.
And they did not ask for an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt honestly.
—2 Kings 12:15
Hezekiah was a coherent and honest man before God and man because truth was in his words and actions. In that way he proves true to God.
But emet involves more than just honesty. It involves faithfulness, reliability,and being a person in whom others put their trust. And that’s defined by the disposition of the heart and actions.
In Exodus 18:21, when Moses appoints leaders in Israel, we are told they are to be “people of truth.” In other words, people who won’t take bribes or distort justice—people who are faithful and trustworthy.
In Isaiah 8:2, Isaiah says, “And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”
In Joshua 2:14, when the Israelite spies enter the land and encounter Rahab, they make a promise to her and declare that they will keep their promise: “And the men said to her, ‘Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.’”
In 2 Kings 20:3, Hezekiah prays to Yahweh: “‘Now, O Lord, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart and have done what is good in your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.”
“[When emunah is used to refer to humans], it often refers to those who have the capacity to remain stable (i.e., faithful) amid the unsettling circumstances of life, realizing God’s truth has established them (Ps. 119:30).”
QUESTION
So, to be faithful implies to be honest, to say the truth, to be reliable and stable. All of that is determined by a disposition of the heart in what it is said and done. What is the next step you’re willing to take to become more faithful? What you’re willing to change in your heart, at your core, in order to grow in faithfulness?
Emet as a Quality of God
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 worthy of being trusted.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.
—Genesis 24:27
But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, In the abundance of your steadfast love Answer me in your saving faithfulness.
—Psalm 69:13
Into your hands I commit my very breath; Save me, O God of emet.”
—Psalm 31:5
The word emet can carry the connotation of reliability or stability. For example, when the Amalekites fight against Israel in Exodus 17, Moses holds his hands up to defeat their enemies, by holding up his hands and he’s trying to keep them steady or emet. And his friends are helping him. So they put a rock under him and they support his hands so that they remain emet, steady. So the idea is that emet has to do with constancy and steadiness.
When Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady [Heb: emet] until the sun set.
—Exodus 17:11-12
The word emet is also used to describe a political setting, once it carries the connotation of constancy or security. So to say the political situation or a kingdom is steady, it means it’s secure and it’s stable and constant; nothing is threatening it.
Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security [Heb: emet] in my days.”
—Isaiah 39:8
QUESTION
What are the things that lead us to experience God’s constancy and security in our lives?
How have you experienced God’s constancy and security recently?
Abraham’s Example
In the story of the Bible, Abraham is the first one to have trust in God, therefore it’s the first time that word is used.
God had promised to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a big family and that all the nations would be blessed through them (Genesis 12:1-3). But at this point in the story, it seems impossible because Abraham and Sarah don’t have any children and it seems like they’re too old to have a baby anyway. But Abraham trusts God, or he considers God to be trustworthy in the face of these challenges.
He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
—Genesis 15:5-6
Here emet is translated as “believe”. Because Abraham believed, God credited it to him as righteousness.
Paul reflects on this moment as the paradigmatic example of what faith in God looks like. To him this is the point in which the whole human family becomes part of Abraham’s family, united to God through this same faith.
Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. Against all hope, Abraham, in hope, believed, and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words, “it was credited to him,” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
—Romans 4:16-25
In verse 18, Paul summarizes the story saying:
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed...” - That’s the New Testament translation of this word.
“And so became the father of many nations just as heaven said to him, so shall your offspring be...” - Talking about the numerous stars in the sky.
“... without weakening in his faith...” - So that’s the same word there as well.
“... without weakening in his trust or his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old, and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.” - Despite the reality of their bodies and their age He kept choosing to believe God.
“He did not waver through unbelief or lack of trust...” - So that same word again.
“...regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith or trust, and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised.” - So Abraham considered God to be trustworthy.
According Paul this is how all people enter into the family of God through this trust or belief. Through this we clearly understand that trust is not blind trust.
QUESTION
How God has proven to you that He is trustworthy of your trust?
Have you had an experience in your life with God something like Abraham did?
NOT BLIND TRUST
The most common answer to “what it means to trust God?” would be “have faith in God or Jesus” or even “just have faith. Just believe”. DOES THAT MEAN THAT FAITH IS BLIND TRUST?
Unfortunately, today there are many many people who would say “yes, faith or believe involves trusting in something despite the evidence”. However, that’s not what we see in the biblical story. In Scriptures trust or believe rely on evidence of that trustworthiness. In other words biblical trust is inherently connected to trustworthiness or faithfulness and relies on evidence of that trustworthiness. Let’s look at more examples of emet in the Hebrew Bible to see how biblical trust is not blind trust.
Sometimes emet means “shown to be true”
“Bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified and you shall not die.” And they did so.
—Genesis 42:20
God offers evidence to the Israelites to help them believe
“If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
—Exodus 4 : 8 - 9
And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”—Exodus 19:9
God offers evidence to the Israelites to help them believe when He’s talking and giving Moses all sorts of signs so that the people would believe.
And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
—Exodus 4:31
Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
—Exodus 14:31
But then they encounter giants when spying out the land, and they fail to believe.
And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?”
—Numbers 14:11
We don’t need to have the same experiences that the Israelites did in order to believe God. We can just read the biblical story line and notice God’s consistency and faithfulness, and learn about His character from that and from each other's lives. Nevertheless, in our personal relationship with God, He will lead us to have the experiences in life that will challenge us to grow in faith.
Faith is not blind or abstract. It is concrete and it has a strong foundation. We can see God’s trustworthiness play out through the story because that does become the basis for trust when you see how He consistently fulfills his promises, and know His character.
Even today, we might not experience these events in history, but the truth is that they’re revealed to us in the same way that they were then. Therefore we still find our trust on the story or the character the way God is portrayed.
QUESTIONS
How has God been helping you to trust Him?
What evidence has God been given to you so you trust Him?
Emet as Covenant Word
Emet is a covenant word, like loyal love (khesed), faithfulness, trust, constancy. These occur in relational contexts and describe the quality of the commitment between God and humanity. This has implications for how we understand the quality of close relationships in our own lives–with God and others.
In the Bible, God makes this covenant commitment many times and he wants that faithfulness be reciprocated. He does it:
with Abraham
with the people of Israel
with the king
God is faithful to his people, and he wants that faithfulness to be reciprocated. Emet and related words have everything to do with the nature and integrity of a relationship of trust. This has implications for how we understand the quality of close relationships in our own lives—with God and others. These are characteristics of an ideal partnership.
QUESTIONS
What’s your understanding about the quality of close relationships (with God and others)?
What are the most important characteristics to you for a partnership?
How would you describe God’s covenant commitment to you?
How has God been fulfilling His covenant commitment to you?
In what ways have you been responding to God’s commitment/ covenant to you?
GOD’S COVENANT WITH DAVID
When we meet David, we realize something about him that makes him different from all the rest: his trust in Yahweh! David’s trust in God is so rooted in who God is that he dares himself to face the giant Goliath! This story of trusting in the face of the giant is meant to contrast with the previous story of the Isrealites who didn’t trust God when they encounter giants at the edge of the land (1 Samuel 17; Numbers 14:1 Kings 3:6).
Because David trusts God here, God also chooses David and says that He will be faithful to Him forever. What does that mean? It means that God makes a covenant with him, and God promises to remain faithful to David’s family line.
But my love [khesed] will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure [ne’eman] forever before me; your throne will be established forever.
—2 Samuel 7:15-16
So, in other words, God is saying He will always be faithful to this covenant to David and there will always be a Davidic King on the throne whose kingdom is faithful / constant forever. God will be faithful to his covenant. God even says that David’s descendants and kingdom will endure forever. When David is faithful to the one who is ultimately faithful, his kingdom will faithfully endure.
Remember that this is a covenant relationship in which He made a promise. That means God is desiring reciprocation on the faithfulness.So, what happens when His people aren’t faithful or His king isn’t faithful? Is God going to be faithful to His promise? Is He still going to be faithful to His end on the deal?
The answer is Yes, even though we’ll always have to deal with the consequences of our choices.
DAVID’S RESPONSE TO GOD’S EMET
And now, O LORD, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as you have spoken, and your name will be established and magnified forever, saying, “The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God,” and the house of your servant David will be established before you.
—1 Chronicles 17:23-24
God’s requirements to David were the same to the next kings, and they are still the same for us, today: faithfulness, reliability, truth-telling, and trust.
At the end of his life, David reminds his son Solomon that God desires covenant faithfulness to be reciprocated by the king. And because the role of the king is to set and example for the people to follow, God desires this from his people too.
Keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the Lord may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, “If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.”
—1 Kings 2:3-4
And if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.—1 Kings 11:38
Failed Emet
Even though Daid walked in emet before God, the kings that followed Him didn’t, which ended up leading the people to exile from the land. These people chose to trust in their own plans, their own wealth, in military power or even the power of other nations instead of God.
Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly. Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them. Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works.
—Nehemiah 9:33-35
Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land.—Hosea 4 :1
Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.—Psalm 12:1
So, now that they are hopeless, out of the land and out of a king, the only thing they have to hold on to is God’s faithfulness and His promise: that a righteous king from among his descendants would reign on the throne forever.
Psalm 89 is a reflection on God’s faithfulness and His khesed (loyal love) to His people and it recounts the covenant that He made with David.
I will sing of the steadfast love (khesed) of the Lord, forever; With my mouth I will make known your faithfulness [emunah] to all generations. For I said, “Khesed will be built up forever; In the heavens you will establish your emunah. You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever, And build your throne for all generations.’”
—Psalm 89:1-4
The psalmist also praises God’s past faithfulness and might (v.5-18), and then again recounts God’s promise to David (vv.28-37)
My khesed I will keep for him forever, And my covenant will stand firm [ne’emah] for him. I will establish his offspring forever And his throne as the days of the heavens. If his children forsake my law And do not walk according to my rules, If they violate my statutes And do not keep my commandments, Then I will punish their transgression with the rod And their iniquity with stripes, But I will not remove from him my khesed Or be false to my emunah. I will not violate my covenant Or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
—Psalm 89:28-34
But then midway through the psalm, the psalmist accuses God of violating His covenant, therefore promises (vv. 38-45)
Remember that thing that happened when Babylon came to town and poked up son of David’s eyes? For that the psalmist says:
You have renounced the covenant with your servant; You have defiled his crown in the dust
—Psalm 89:39
And he goes on to describe the desolation of Israel (vv.40-45), and then cries out to God by saying:
Where is your khesed of old which by your emunah you swore to David?”
—Psalm 89:39
The psalmist is saying because Israel has been destroyed and has been exiled from the land. It looks like God’s promise and His faithfulness no longer stands. The Israelits have no Davidic king on the throne.
So, evidence is now speaking to the contrary. The rock doesn’t seem so trustworthy anymore. So how can you place your trust in a God who doesn’t seem faithful or trustworthy?
Let’s just pause here! Breath in… breath out… breath in… breath out....
We need to recognize that the Bible is both advocating Yahweh is trustworthy, but then also acknowledging this moment in Israel’s experience, where it seemed like God wasn’t trustworthy. There’s a poem about somebody who is struggling to trust God. Isn’t that remarkable? Both of these things are in the Scriptures.
QUESTION
What does this make you feel and think–that God let be written down his faithfulness and our struggling to trust God?
This is a very human experience of our circumstances and how that relates to how we see God.
“I think for anyone who’s had the experience of being in a church community and they’re told to just believe, you can also kindly respond, “Oh, like the poet of Psalm 89?” He was quite vocal about his struggle to not believe. So is it okay if I am too? Is it okay if I am confused about whether or not I can trust God right now? The biblical story is very sympathetic for people who struggle to consider God’s trust”
It was a crisis of God’s trustworthiness.
Israel's exile was very tragic because of what happened to the nation and because of what they had to experience. It also was a tragedy as far as it was a reflection on God’s character and His faithfulness. I think sometimes we don’t think of it that way. And i think that we should use the freedom Jesus conquered for us to expose our hearts to God, to expose how much we are struggling to trust Him and His promises, because at the end, by doing that we’re still accomplishing our side of this covenant partnership by saying: “Hey, I am really struggling to trust you and your promises because of this and that.” Basically we would be staying that we still want to be in that relationship but we’re just feeling stuck, we’re doubty and insecure.
QUESTION
Why do we struggle so much to do that? Why does it seem so sadly easy to us to have our way in those moments instead of looking for truth in whom is The Truth?
God is Emet in Jesus
This story continues in the New Testament. The first page in the Gospel of Matthew, opens to show that God is trustworthy and faithful, that He will continue to be trustworthy to His promises. That is shown to us through Jesus’s genealogy: Jesus Christ or King, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
The claim here is that Jesus is the promised Davidic King to come who fulfills this promise to Abraham (and to all humanity) as well. Jesus is the promised king to come and the one through whom all people will be included in Abraham’s family. In other words, God is faithful through Jesus.
In Romans, Paul says that Jesus has come on behalf of God’s aletheia—that’s one of the Greek words for faithfulness—to confirm these promises made to Abraham and to Israel so that the nations would glorify God (Romans 15:8-9).
God shows us that he is still faithful to his covenant and to His character. Therefore through Jesus, God shows that He is trustworthy, consistent and reliable.
One good point to make it clear is that God's way to show us that he is trustworthy is through the fulfilment of His promises. It’s not just and only a great fact about Jesus fulfilling promises to show that He is the Messiah, but it’s actually more about the trustworthiness of God.
Jesus is the Faithful King
God invited David and his descendants to this covenant relationship, but all failed and didn’t show faithfulness to God time after time after time. So while the people followed man’s ways, or king's ways, Jesus is the true faithful king. He fulfills the Davidic role and is the one who will sit on David’s throne forever. The author of Hebrews makes this connection between 2 Samuel 7 and Jesus when He says
Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast to our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
—Hebrews 3:5-6
But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever, the sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness….”—Hebrews 1:8-9
That really echoes the promise made to David that there will be a descendant who reigns on your throne forever.
We thank Bible Project team for all the helpful resources provided to put this study together.