Always Fulfilled

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

ALWAYS FULFILLED

1 Kings 12:12-17

12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days." 13 The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, 14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions." 15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. 16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!" So the Israelites went home. 17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.

NIV

This is history, yet there is an underlying truth that has always been and will always be true. Israel’s response to Rehoboam’s declaration that he would be even firmer on them than his father, Solomon, was. They left his kingdom, rebelled against him, just as Ahijah the Shilonite said would happen: the kingdom would be torn away from the son of Solomon. The truth that sits within this passage, which is true for all of time, even before time existed, is that the LORD’s word will always be fulfilled. We could list all the promises of the Lord, one by one, and know that every one of them will come to pass, just as He said. He promised, and that settles it in our hearts and minds. We say that our hope is in the Lord, but hope is in something that might happen, or we hope that it will happen, but when He promised, why would we continue to hope His promise is true, when we know the word of the Lord is always fulfilled? The proof that we can be confident, rather than hopeful, that whatever the Lord said will happen will indeed take place is the historical evidence that His word has always been fulfilled throughout the scriptures. Therefore, we can say with absolute confidence that the Lord Jesus is coming back for us to take us to the place He has prepared for us. We can also say, without any reservations, the Lord has given us eternal life. He promised that although we die, we would live. Although Jesus may not have said, “I promise, whenever He said anything, it was as though it was a promise because His word will always be fulfilled. We know, whatever the Lord said, will happen. We do not need to hope it will happen; we need to wait for it. We don’t run the race simply to be running, or to quit in the middle, but we run it because we will get to the finish line. We run to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We believe because He promised, and His word is always fulfilled.