Sometimes it’s easy to forget all that God is. After all, He is so majestic so all-encompassing that it is easy for our limited minds to emphasize one aspect of God’s character over another. When we are fearful, we focus on His peace. When we are wronged, we concentrate on His justice. When we commit the wrong, we emphasize His grace. It’s an unfortunate tendency, and has been the cause of much heretical preaching. When we neglect one part of God’s character, we are neglecting to fully worship Who God is.
This is one of the reasons that I appreciate how God describes Himself in Zechariah 8:8. He states that He will be Israel’s God “in faithfulness and in righteousness.” He articulates two aspects of Who He is so the Israelites can fully appreciate the depth of the promise that He has made. He will be their God in faithfulness – He will be trustworthy, steadfast and immovable. He will also be their God in righteousness – altogether different from any other god, a consistent standard for justice and holiness. Both of these are important. The Israelites needed to know that God, in His great love, would not abandon them. However, they also needed to know that God, in His holiness, would not having changing standards. He would be perfectly righteous – both in bestowing goodness upon them and in responding to their sins.
It’s a good reminder for His children today as well. God is our God in both faithfulness and in righteousness. His children never need to fear that He will leave them or that He will cease to be Who He is. At the same time, we should find solace in the fact that He is righteous – not only is He faithful to us, but He is faithful to Who He is and He will forever be perfectly holy and perfectly good. God is faithfully righteous and righteously faithful. And He always will be.
How have you seen God’s faithfulness or righteousness in your life?