Numbers 23:19  “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?”

One of the most consistently documented character traits of the God of the Bible is that He cannot lie.

Over a time span of 1,462 years with the same, consistent message – God Keeps His Promises.

1,400 BC: In this week’s verse, the Bible confirms that when God makes a promise, He will make it good.

1,000 BC: We see this truth again, 400 years later, when He promises to never lie to King David: “Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David” (Psalm 89:35).

700 BC: Through the prophet Isaiah, 300 years after His promise to David, God again promises that His word that He speaks will accomplish what He says: “So shall My word be that go forth out of My mouth. It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

62 AD: Paul, writing 762 years after God’s promise in Isaiah, gives the same message: “In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2).

We have a dilemma: when the Bible documents the following list of 113 promises God made to Israel, are they literal (do we take the words of God’s promises to Israel in their usual or most basic sense, without metaphor or allegory)? Or do we think these promises to Israel are meant today for the New Testament Church, which has replaced Israel as the inheritor of these promises?

John MacArthur gives his answer in his video ‘What is Dispensationalism?’:

“I have been accused through the years of being a ‘leaky Dispensationalist.’ I suppose I am. Let me take you down the part of Dispensationalism I affirm with all my heart – it is this: there is a real future for Israel.

That has nothing to do with some extra-biblical system. The reason that I believe there must be a future for Israel is because that is what God promised. Period.

You see it in Jeremiah chapter 30 to the 33^rd chapter – there is a future for Israel! There is a new covenant! Ezekiel chapter 37 – the Valley of Dry Bones are going to come alive! God is going to raise them back up. God is going to put a heart of flesh in and take the stony heart out and give them the Spirit. You have the promise of the kingdom to Israel, you have the promise of a King – of David’s line – a Messiah, with a throne in Jerusalem. You have the promise that there is going to be a real kingdom.

So, my ‘Dispensationalism’ – if you want to use that term – is only that which can be defended exegetically, out of the Scriptures. By a simple, clear interpretation of the Old Testament, it is obvious that God promised a future kingdom to Israel.

When somebody says, ‘All the promises of the kingdom to Israel are fulfilled in the Church,’ the burden of proof is not on me – it is on them! The simplest way I would answer an ‘Amillennialist’ or a ‘Covenant Theologian’ (which means they believe there is only one covenant and the Church is the ‘new Israel’ and Israel is gone – there is no future for Israel – ‘Amillennialism’ meaning there is no kingdom for Israel – there is no future Millennial Kingdom – my answer to them is simply this:

You show me in the Old Testament verses that promise a kingdom to Israel that it means ‘The Church.’ On what exegetical basis – what historical, grammatical, literal interpretive basis of Scripture – can you tell me that when God says ‘Israel,’ He means ‘The Church’? That is where the burden of proof really lies.

A straight-forward understanding of the Old Testament leads to only one conclusion: there is a kingdom for Israel.

One way to understand this is to ask yourself a question: in the Old Testament (which centers around God’s law and happens if you obey it – blessing, or disobey it – cursing), when Israel sinned and disobeyed God, what happened? Judgment, cursing, slaughter. Was it literal? Yes. Was it on Israel? Yes.

So, if Israel received all the promised curses literally, why would we assume they would not receive the promised blessings literally?

Some of these are in the same passages! How can you say that in this passage the cursing is for literal Israel, but the blessing is for the Church? There is no exegetical basis for that. You have arbitrarily split the verses in half, giving all curses to Israel and all blessings to the Church.

If you take a literal approach to Scripture, you cannot conclude anything else but God has a future for Israel.

What that means is the Church is distinct from Israel, and when God is through with the Church, then He brings that time of ‘Jacob’s Distress,’ where He purges and redeems Israel, and the Kingdom comes. Once we are not literal (in or interpretation of Scripture), then who is to say (what the text means)?”

113 Selected Scriptural Promises from God, Broken Out into 6 Headers

#1. ABRAHAM (8)

• God’s Unconditional Promises to Abram (2)
• God’s Unconditional Promises to Abraham and to give the Promised Land to Israel (2)
• Forefather #1: Abrahamic Covenant (1)
• The Promise to Abraham Not Granted Through the Law (1)
• The Promise to Abraham Granted Through Faith (2)

#2. ISAAC (1)

• Forefather #2: Isaac Covenant (1)

#3. JACOB (1)

• Forefather #3: Jacob Covenant (1)

#4. NATION OF ISRAEL (83)

• God’s Unconditional Promise to Deliver the Jews out of Egypt (2)
• God’s Conditional Promise to keep His Promise to Israel’s Forefathers (1)
• God’s Unconditional Promise to Love Israel and keep His Promise to Israel’s Forefathers (14)
• God’s Unconditional Promise to Give the Land to Israel (4)
• God’s Conditional Promise to Give the Land to Israel (1)
• God’s Unconditional Promise to Return the Land to Israel (4)
• God’s Promise to Punish Israel for Her Sins (5)
• God’s Promise to Punish – then Redeem – Israel (6)
• God’s Unconditional Promise to Redeem a Remnant of Israel by His Grace (36)
• God’s Conditional Promise to Redeem a Remnant of Israel by His Grace (2)
• God’s Unconditional Promise to Return the Promised Land to Israel AND Redeem a Remnant of Israel by His Grace (7)
• God’s Conditional Promise to Return the Promised Land to Israel AND Redeem a Remnant of Israel by His Grace (1)

#5. ALL BELIEVERS (13)

• God’s Conditional Promise to Believers (13)

#6. HATERS OF ISRAEL & GOD (7)

• God’s Unconditional Promise to Destroy Those Hating Israel (4)
• God’s Unconditional Promise to Destroy Those Hating Him (1)
• God’s Conditional Promise to Kill Egypt’s First Born (1)
• God’s Unconditional Promise to Destroy Satan (1)

This is by no means an exhaustive list of promises from God Himself that He cannot break.

“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance”_Article #654