God’s Word will never fail (Luke 1:37)

I was recently contacted by a former classmate of mine from secondary school who was organising a class reunion and consulting with everyone about possible dates. Given that about a third or more of us live abroad, it is a tall order, and since I will not be able to make it, my classmate kindly gave me a quick update of news on various people that she is in touch with. As I was reading her email, about some who divorced, others who struggled with childlessness and one classmate whose husband died suddenly a couple of years ago, I could not help thinking of ourselves back when we were leaving school, with high hopes and life ahead of us. Of course, there are many in our group who are well-adjusted, happy and healthy as well, so that not all is doom and gloom, but the news made me reflect on how we all carry hopes that never come to fruition or regrets for choices we have made.

God’s people, of course, knew all about disappointments. They went into exile because they had abandoned God and although the Lord brought them back into the land, the restoration was only partial. Some five hundred years after their return, they had a temple but still lived under foreign domination awaiting the Davidic king, the Messiah, who would establish God’s reign among them. It is hard not to feel under these circumstances that perhaps God was too weak to finish what He had started. Into this unresolved situation comes the angel with the message about Messiah (Luke 1:30-33). His explanation concludes with the statement, ‘For nothing will be impossible with God’ (Luke 1:37), an echo of other passages where God’s power is affirmed (Gen 18:14; Jer 32:17; Zech 8:6).[1]

Strikingly, the New Living Translation renders the sentence in Luke as ‘For the word of God will never fail.’ In fact, the Greek, if translated very woodenly, reads ‘for not any word will be without power with God’.[2] Put in smooth English, God’s Word will never be powerless. When God created the heavens and the earth, He spoke all things into being by His powerful Word. What He promised He will keep. When He said to a barren and elderly Abraham and Sarah that they will have a child, He fulfilled His promise (Gen 18:10; 21:1-2). When Judah went into Babylonian exile, their land lost, their temple burnt, their king dethroned, they never thought they would see their home again, yet the impossible happened and the exiles returned (Jer 29:10-14; Ezra 1:1-4). And when God promised after humanity sinned and fell that the woman’s offspring will crush the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15), He spoke nothing but the truth. Jesus, the promised son to Mary and Son of God came to crush Satan and release us from the power of sin and evil.

Some things in our lives may be painful or disappointing; there is also much darkness in the world around us with wars and suffering. Nevertheless, in the uncertainties of life, we have a wonderful hope because God has stooped down to dwell with us, and nothing can derail His plans and will, not accidents, not tragedies, not even deliberate evil. As we come to celebrate His coming this Christmas, may our hearts be filled with the joy that God’s Word indeed never fails.

Wishing you all a joyful Christmas and God’s blessings for the New Year! I shall return with a post early in the New Year.

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[1] Translations do not consistently render these passages with the same wording, but in the Hebrew the word for ‘impossible, too hard, too wonderful, too difficult’ is the same.

[2] The majority of English translations go with the traditional ‘nothing is impossible for God’ and this is correct as well because the Greek rhēma that primarily means ‘word’ is sometimes used, as its Hebrew equivalent (davar), to mean ‘thing, matter’ (e.g. Acts 5:32). In such an impersonal context, the Greek adynateō (to be powerless) is usually translated as ‘impossible’.

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