He'll Never Leave You?

How many times have you heard it? "He'll never leave nor forsake you." It sounds comforting right? God will always be there for you no matter what the circumstances. No matter what you do God will always be at your side and ready to help you.

This idea is found in the first chapter of Joshua where God is telling Joshua that He will be with him just as He was with Moses and that He will never leave Joshua or forsake him. The only problem is that this isn't where God stops talking. He goes on to say that Joshua will only be successful IF he obeys the commandments that God gave to Moses. He also states that Joshua will only be successful if he meditates on the word of God day and night and seeks God's face throughout his life.

The entirety of God's message to Joshua is an encouraging yet conditional covenant between the two of them. God basically tells Joshua that he will be invincible if Joshua seeks after Him and obeys His law. That is the side of the covenant that Joshua has to uphold, and is the condition under which the promise of God's presence is made. God will never forsake Joshua or leave him IF he hold up his end of the bargain.

If this reading of scripture is accurate then this begs the question, "If we don't hold up our end of the bargain, does that mean that God might leave us or forsake us?" To answer that we just have to go to the new testament to find out that God will eventually give us over to ourselves should we turn away from him enough times, and thus, I believe this is evidence that God will forsake us should we chose to forsake Him.

Now I know that God is everywhere and that technically He will always be near, but I believe, as with most things in scripture, God is talking about a spiritual forsakeness and not a physical one. Therefore, I believe we need to be careful how lightly we take God's promised presence in times of trouble. I know it sounds nice and it comforting to say that God won't forsake or leave us, but we must always ask ourselves if we've held up our end of the bargain. God is not obligated to do anything for us, and we need to remember that it's only by His grace that we even have a chance of His presence in our lives...even in hard times.