Daily Discipleship - Day 352: God Is Not Man, That He Should Lie

May 3, 2026

Daily Discipleship • Day 352 • Saturday, April 17, 2027

God Is Not Man, That He Should Lie

Numbers 23:19

Pleasant Springs Church • ps-church.com

Scripture
Numbers 23:19 (LXX / ESV) οὐχ ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὁ θεὸς διαρτηθῆναι οὐδὲ ὡς υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ἀπειληθῆναι· αὐτὸς εἰπὼν οὐχί ποιήσει; ἢ λαλήσας οὐ μὴ ἐμμείνῃ; God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Author & Audience

John Lennox — mathematician at Oxford and author of Can Science Explain Everything?, whose defense of divine faithfulness and rational intelligibility shows why God's unchanging nature is the foundation of both science and faith.

Word Study

διαρτηθῆναι

diartēthēnai · Greek LXX

“to lie / to speak falsely / to deceive”

The LXX uses diartaŏ (to utter falsehood, to lie) for what God categorically cannot do. Balaam, hired to curse Israel, finds himself unable to—not because of his own integrity but because God's word cannot be reversed. The rhetorical questions underscore absolute certainty: if God has spoken, it will be done.

Reflection

From the writers we read together

John Lennox

Mathematician; Oxford University

“The rationality of the universe reflects the faithfulness of its Creator.” — Can Science Explain Everything?, chapter 7

Balaam stands on a hilltop overlooking Israel, hired to curse them, but God's blessing cannot be revoked. The oracle he delivers instead is one of Scripture's most powerful statements about divine consistency: God does not lie, does not change His mind arbitrarily, does not speak without acting. His word and His act are the same.

Lennox notes that the reliability of the universe—the very foundation of science—rests on the faithfulness of God. The laws of physics hold because the God who created them does not contradict Himself. Every promise God has made to you rests on the same immovable foundation. He has spoken. It will be done.

Continue your study: Discipleship School — Explore the faithfulness and reliability of God's word in our Discipleship School curriculum.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, King of the Universe, Lord, You are not man that You should lie. What You have spoken, You will do. Let Your faithfulness be the rock under my feet today, especially where I am tempted to doubt. Amen.

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