Sleepless nights can be long. Never does time pass so slowly as when we lie awake at night. It seems as though the darkness will never again give way to light. And it isn’t just the natural darkness that makes the sleepless hours of night seem endless. There is often also a darkness that pervades our thoughts during those hours, magnifying the mistakes of the previous day and making our problems seem hopeless.
At such times we take comfort from the certainty that dawn will come, relieving the dreariness and heaviness of the night. For there is nothing more certain in this world than that day follows night. Our God, the Creator, has decreed that the cycles of day and night will continue until He Himself brings them to an end and ushers in eternity.
In Jeremiah, God uses the dependable order of day and night to assure His people that He is faithful and will surely fulfill His gracious promises.
The prophet writes: “Thus says the LORD: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant may also be broken with David, My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne” (Jer. 33:20-21). Just as nothing can prevent the arrival of the dawn, so also nothing could prevent the fulfillment of the covenant God had made with David.
God Is Faithful
God had promised David that his throne would be established forever (2 Sam. 7:16). In the days of Jeremiah it was hard to see how this promise could be fulfilled, for Jerusalem was being besieged by the Babylonians, and Jeremiah was prophesying that the city would be conquered and Zedekiah the king taken captive to Babylon. It looked like the royal line of David was about to come to an end. But the LORD through His prophet assured His people that He had not forgotten His promise to David. The royal line would continue, and from it God would finally cause the Savior to be born.
The Scriptures record how God fulfilled His promise when Jesus was born to Mary. Jesus, the Son of David, established the promised everlasting kingdom when He died and rose again, taking away sin and defeating Satan. He ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God to reign forever.
God’s faithfulness in fulfilling His promise to David assures us that none of His promises will fail. The Savior who came from David’s line has delivered us from sin and death. His cross and death, His resurrection and ascension give us confidence in the promise that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.
God’s faithfulness gives us confidence and hope, even in the long nights of pain and sorrow that we have to endure in this life. And we know that the night of life in this world will not continue forever. Jesus, the eternal King, will come again to put an end to darkness for all who believe in Him. That is the dawn that we are waiting for, the onset of eternal day.
It is certain, as day follows night.
–Pastor John Klatt