God Isn't Reliable

Faithfulness as Prohibition and Protection

Most of us, most of the time, believe God to be faithful.
But what many of us actually mean is that we’d like God to be reliable.
Predictably, mechanically reliable. Like an iPhone or a Toyota Camry.

We’d prefer a three-step God; a God who:
1. Hears our prayers
2. Accepts our requests
3. Delivers immediately

On the very rare occasion that things unfold in those simple three steps, we gratefully call God faithful. But when things don’t quite go as planned or prayed, we begin to wonder and worry and doubt. And we wonder, worry, and doubt a lot because things don’t quite go as planned or prayed much of the time.

Perhaps we’ve confused faithfulness with customer service.
But God doesn’t provide a service. God is committed to a covenant.

He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love. - Deuteronomy 7:9

The Israelites stand at the edge of the Promised Land.
Four decades of wilderness behind them.
A future they’ve imagined for generations, now right in front of them.
The book of Deuteronomy is a series of speeches give by Moses at this intersection of past and future. The speeches offer three key, interconnected invitations:

Remember who God is.
Remember who you are.
Remain faithful to the covenant.

Then Moses declares a profound name of God:
El Ne’eman. Faithful God.

To understand this name, we have to understand faithfulness.
And to understand faithfulness, we have to understand covenant.

The Bible Project’s Tim Mackie notes that, “In a covenant, God makes promises and in exchange, asks his partner to fulfill certain commitments.”

A covenant is an ongoing relationship built on promises and commitments.
A covenant declares, “I’m in,” and asks, “Are you?”
A covenant is not circumstantial customer service.
A covenant is a lifelong commitment of devotion built on trust.

When we say that someone is a faithful spouse or a faithful friend, we don’t typically mean that they’ve had sporadic moments of faithfulness from time to time.

We mean that they kept and keep on showing up.
We mean that they stayed and continue to stay true to their commitments.
We mean that they remained near when leaving would’ve been easier.
We mean that they told us the truth even when it was inconvenient.

We live in a world increasingly shaped by personalized customization.
Algorithms study our preferences and gives us more of what we want.
AI mirrors our personalities back to us, neatly packaged in blanket affirmations.
More of what captures our attention.
More of what confirms our assumptions.
More of what we already desire.

The algorithm says, “You want this? Here’s more.”
But covenant love says, “Here’s what you actually need.”

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations… and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. - Deuteronomy 7:1-5

These verses surrounding the name El Ne’eman are difficult.

The commands concerning Israel’s relationship with the nations occupying the land come across as severe and radically biased. But when we read these texts in light of God’s faithfulness, it becomes clear that God is expressing his deep desire to fiercely protect the covenant relationship between himself and his people.

Like a loving spouse protecting a marriage from anything that threatens it, God is confronting the potential idols and allegiances that might pull his people away from the life that only he can give. God’s faithfulness isn’t passive; it’s active, protective, and committed.

God knows where those gods lead.
Away from freedom.
Away from life.
Away from love.

So God warns Israel not to bind themselves to the very things that will eventually enslave them again.

God’s jealousy is not the insecurity of a fragile deity.
It is the fierce love of a covenant partner.

Sometimes, what we experience as God’s prohibition is actually God’s protection.
Sometimes, God’s faithfulness is the reason we aren’t getting what we want.

The relationship didn’t work.
The opportunity disappeared.
The plan unraveled.
The door stayed shut.
The prayer was met with silence.

This doesn’t mean every disappointment can be easily decoded.

We must guard against posing simple explanations for someone’s pain.
Not every tragedy is a prohibition.
Not every loss is protection. .

Maybe you have asked God for something good.
Healing.
Wisdom.
Reconciliation.
Provision.
Some small sign that you have not been forgotten.
And nothing has happened.
At least, nothing you can see just yet.

This is where our transactional understanding of faith begins to collapse.
We did our part.
Why hasn’t God done his?

But covenant faithfulness does not mean God gives us everything we ask when we ask.
Covenant faithfulness means God has not abandoned us to our confusion and pain.

God draws near when we stray.
God stays when life becomes hard.
God pursues when we wander.
God forgives when we fail.
God remains when everything else falls apart.

Faithfulness is not the promise that everything will go according to plan.
Faithfulness is the promise that we will never face the unraveling alone.

In November 2025, Michael O’Reilley asked Linda Feldman to marry him.
But they’d already been married for almost forty years.

Several years earlier, Michael had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. As his memory deteriorated, he stopped remembering Linda’s name. He often didn’t know she was his wife. But whenever Linda visited his memory-care facility, Michael lit up. He couldn’t always remember the covenant. But somehow, he still recognized the love.

So when Michael proposed again in November 2025, Linda said yes again. And in February 2026, surrounded by family, friends, and caregivers, they married for the second time.

Michael O’Reilley and Linda Feldman

“There are all kinds of crises that happen in life,” Linda later said. “This is one story of how love can endure.”

Alzheimer’s had taken so much from them. But Linda kept showing up. She kept loving. She remained faithful to the covenant.

Michael may not always remember Linda.
But Linda remembers Michael.

This is the astonishing promise of God.
Even when we forget the covenant, God remembers.
Even when we lose our way, God knows where to find us.
Even when our faith weakens, God’s faithfulness doesn’t.

“If we are faithless, he remains faithful.”
—2 Timothy 2:13

Maybe life has taken something from you.
Maybe things have not turned out the way you planned.
Maybe the doors have closed and the prayers remain unanswered.

Keep showing up.
Keep coming back.
Keep trusting.
And discover that God has never left you nor forsaken you.
God is there, waiting, faithfully committed for the long haul.

El Ne’eman. The Faithful God.

The God who may not always give us what we want.
The God who has given us Himself.