God Cannot Lie

Numbers 23:19 is a sentence that two kinds of people need for opposite reasons. It was first spoken in front of the man who wanted to hear it least.

The first kind is somebody who has been let down. A person said they would be there, and they were not. They were not being cruel; they meant it when they said it. Then life changed, and the promise changed with it. You have probably done the same to somebody else. For that person, this verse is a relief: "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent." God does not say a thing and then quietly change the deal when circumstances change.

The second is Balak, the king of Moab. He had hired the prophet Balaam to curse Israel, and Balaam speaks this line in the middle of that job. It is the second of three attempts. Balak keeps moving him to a different hilltop, hoping a new view will get a better result. So the sentence is a refusal before it is a comfort. Balaam asks, "hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" God cannot be talked round. He cannot be bought for a higher price, and He will not be worked from another angle. From where Balak stood, that was the worst news there could be.

This truth cuts both ways at once, and people usually leave that half out. Every blessing God has spoken still stands, and so does every warning.

So pray it today: Father, You are not like me. I have made promises and let them go quiet, and I have half expected You to do the same to me. Hold me to what You have said, including the parts I wish I could bargain over. And in the small promises I make this week, make me a little more like You, and less like the king on the hilltop looking for a better angle. Amen.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 212 is Whom Say Ye (Matthew 16:15).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna