What does God mean when He says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5)?

What will take the carking care out of our heart, and keep us from discontent? If we realize that we have Him who is the source of all wealth, the living God as our portion — if He fills the heart, there is no room for covetous desire. If we have Christ — Him in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells — what more can we have? Is God's creation of more value than Himself? Suppose you could have everything that your mind can conceive of in all creation, would you be happier? Look at the men of wealth today are they distinguished for contentment, peace of heart and joy of soul? We know that the resources of this world are but trash, so far as feeding the soul is concerned. But when we have the Source and Author of all blessing, as the meal may reach the bottom of the vessel, and the oil in the cruse be so little that it seems almost worthless even to pour it out, we hear Him saying to our widowed circumstances, "I" — oh, blessed substitute for all the hoarded wealth of this poor world — "I," the living God, "will never" — not merely at this time of need, or in these circumstances of strait, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." As that precious assurance takes possession of the soul, we can look care, need, poverty, distress and everything else in the face, and rejoice, as the prophet Habbakuk does when he says: "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

There are two points of great interest about verses 5 and 6. The first concerns the way in which the Old Testament Scripture is quoted. It was to Joshua that the Lord said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." We might very properly say to ourselves, "But I am no Joshua. He was a very eminent man of faith, and I am a very insignificant and often a very feeble believer. Would it not be a rather forward and impertinent thing for me to calmly assume that a promise made to him is equally valid for me?" It is delightful to discover from these verses that such an application of this ancient promise is not the boldness of presumption but the boldness of faith. The fact is, of course, that what God is, He is towards His people in all time and circumstances. There is no variableness nor shadow of turning with Him. He will not be less towards His people in this dispensation than He was in a past dispensation. We may wholly count upon Him.

No doubt, Lot thought he was doing well for himself and his family, when he moved to Sodom; but the sequel shows how entirely he erred; and it also sounds in our ears a voice of deepest solemnity — a voice telling us to beware how we yield to the incipient workings of a worldly spirit. "Be content with such things as ye have." Why? Is it because you are so well off in the world? Because you have all that your poor rambling hearts would seek after? Because there is not so much as a single chink in your circumstances, through which vain desire might make its escape? Is this to be the ground of our contentment? By no means. What then? "For he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Blessed portion! Had Lot been content therewith, he never would have sought the well watered plains of Sodom.

The world is full of unsatisfied desire, which leads to covetousness. The word to us is, "Let your conversation be without covetousness: and be content with such things as ye have" (Heb. 13:5). "Satisfied with your present circumstances" (N. Tr.). Are our present circumstances then so very desirable; are they just what they should be? They are the very reverse of that. They are so undesirable that a clean sweep will be made of them immediately this age closes. Why then are we to be satisfied with them? Because as Hebrews 12 has shown, they are appointed of God to act as chastening and discipline for us, and also because He has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." That is it. We may be satisfied in the midst of present circumstances because there is guaranteed to us the abiding presence of the One for whom we thirst.

Then comes the call, "Let your course of life be free of avarice, contented with things present. For he hath said, I will in no wise leave thee, no, nor at all forsake thee; so that we say confidently, Jehovah [is] my helper, [and] I will not fear: what shall man do to me?" (verses 5, 6.) Avarice, sordid and unworthy of moral men, is peculiarly beneath those called to follow Christ in faith and love, with their eyes opened to their better and enduring substance where Christ is. Discontent with things is natural to unbelievers. It is good and due that we confide in His word to one, although no less meant for all His own. The vulgar text falls far below the impressive promise and challenge the O.T. furnished: and God as a Father only gives it more force.

Consider what the effect of the contemplation of this glorious Lord must have had upon these sorely harassed Hebrew Christians; and shall we be less affected? It is He who has said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." As He said of old to Jacob the wanderer (Gen. 28:15), to Joshua the warrior (Joshua 1:5), and to Solomon the worshipper (1 Chron. 28:20), so He says to us, and what strong consolation His word gives, for it is impossible for Him to lie. So that we may boldly say, as those Hebrews could say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do to me."

The second point of interest is not so much the application of this Old Testament text but rather the reasoning which is based upon it. The skeleton outline of the reasoning runs thus, "He has said … so that we may boldly say …" If God speaks we may accept what He says with all confidence. More than this, we may assert what He asserts with all boldness. And we may do even more than this. For if He asserts things concerning Himself in regard to His people, we may, since we are of His people, assert these things boldly as applying to ourselves. Indeed we may take it home with all confidence as applying to each individually; even as here we read, "The Lord is MY Helper, I will not fear." In our reading of Scripture let us form the happy habit of thus applying the words of God to ourselves.

(V. 17). If all others fail and forsake us, the Lord's words will ever remain true, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” So Paul found, in the day of his desertion by the saints, that the Lord stood with Him and gave him “power”. If, however, the Lord gives power, it is not power to crush our enemies, or power to deliver ourselves from trying circumstances, but spiritual power to bear witness for Himself in the presence of His enemies. So the Apostle can say, “The Lord stood with me, and gave me power, that through me the proclamation might be fully made, and all those of the nations should hear.” From the records of Paul's preaching we know that the proclamation was the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins “through this Man” — Christ Jesus, the risen Man in the glory (Acts 13:38). If Paul had power given to him to proclaim Christ, the Lord Himself exercised His power to deliver His servant from the immediate danger. So he can say, not, “I delivered myself”, but, “I was delivered out of the lion's mouth.”

Our loved ones pass out of our sight, but He remains. Blessed indeed for all saints at all times to realize that He remains, but never more precious than when in the deep sorrow of bereavement — amid the break-up of earthly homes, and the wreck of earthly hopes — we can look up into His face and say, "Thou remainest." And as He looks down into our stricken hearts, with infinite compassion, He answers back, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

Elisha, however, is not content to rest in quiet faith himself, nor seek only to comfort others. He would fain bring the young men to his own spiritual elevation. Realizing that only God can accomplish this, he prays to the Lord to open his servant's eyes. His prayer is answered; "The Lord opened the eyes of the young man." There was no need for Elisha to have his eyes opened. He had already seen the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof waiting upon Elijah as he ascended from earth to heaven. The faith of the prophet realizes that the same chariots and horses of God accompany him as he takes his journey through the earth. The young man has seen the horses and chariots, with the great host, that encompassed the city, now he sees the mountain "full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." The Syrian host may be round about the city, but what can they do if God's high host is round about Elisha? Paul may be surrounded with enemies who would kill him, and a raging storm that would engulf him, but what harm can touch him if the angel of the Lord stands by him? (Acts 27:23). The host against Elisha may be mighty, but the host of God is mightier. "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels." Good too for us if we take our journey, through a hostile world, in the blessed consciousness of faith that One is with us who has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee:" and that we are in the providential care of those angel hosts who have been "sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation."