Just How is the Counsel of God Described in The Bible? (Part 2)

We’ve spoken quite a bit about the Counsel of God over the past weeks.  We’re taking some time to take a look at just how the Bible speaks for itself about those counsels.  The first thing we noted was that the Bible says that God’s Counsels are Immutable – they do not and cannot ever change.  They are ever the same just as He is ever the same.

A second quality¹ of these counsels is that they are Faithful. Isaiah 25:1 says:

Lord, You my God. 
I will exalt You, 
I will praise Your name, 
For You have done wonderful things; 
Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

William Elwell² defines God’s faithfulness as “maintaining faith or allegiance; showing a strong sense of duty or conscientiousness.” In biblical Hebrew, “faith” and “faithfulness” are grammatically related. Although both concepts are important in the OT, there is no English word exactly equivalent to the Hebrew terms. The most relevant Hebrew verbal root (related to our word “amen”) carries such meanings as “strengthen,” “support,” or “hold up.” In a physical sense it is used of pillars that provide support for doors.  See 2 Kings 18:16 for instance:

At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Moses used the word when he disclaimed any role as supporter of the Israelites.  Numbers 11:12, for instance uses the term:

Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child,’ to the land which You swore to their fathers?

The nursing mother is the sole support for the child until the child is able to eat and support itself.

God, however, is an eternally firm support for his people. and that is the connection between that ideas.  Deuteronomy 7:9 says:

“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments…

Likewise Isaiah 49:7

Thus says the Lord,
The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One,
To Him whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:
“Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the Lord who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You.”

So faithfulness is an attribute of God and it only makes sense that the purpose of God, His plan for His creation, would share that attribute as well.  They are the faithful expression of the faithful character and intention of God’s nature.

If we do a study of the Hebrew word for faithfulness we find that there are three “branches” of meaning for the word in the OT, as we have seen above.  Those branches give us a good rich idea of what God’s faithfulness mean for the believer.  He is a “doorpost” for His children, that is, He is that which gives a sense of solidity and solidness to life, which holds all of life and eternity together.  He is the “frame around which all it held. 

He “nurses” His children, giving them sustenance and all they need to live and walk in the world, seeing to it that they can live as children of God in a hostile world and be faithful men and women of God, witnesses to His goodness and to His power to call and bring men out of the nations.

And He is a Father, with all that implies in the best sense of the word.  A Father will love, command, instruct, guide and warn. He will train, rebuke, restrain, punish, chasten, nourish, and supply needs. A Father is responsible to not provoke His children wrath.  All of this God will do – Praise His holy Name!