You may have heard the expression “an honest man’s word is as good as his bond”. This phrase comes from Spanish writer Miguel de Cervante’s famous novel Don Quixote. When a person is of good character, you can trust their verbal promises to be just as reliable as a written, signed, legal contract.

I know someone who can do even better than that. John 4:46-54 gives us the account of Jesus’ interaction with a royal official. The man’s son was dying, and he wanted the Lord to perform a miraculous healing. Without even going to see the boy in person, Jesus simply said, “Go; your son will live.” Later, the royal official heard that the boy had become well at the exact time Jesus had said those words from afar. God’s word is powerful. From His words at the beginning of creation (Genesis 1:3 – “Let there be light”) to the calming of the storm (Mark 4:39 – “Quiet! Be still!”) and episodes such as the healing in John 4, we see that when the Creator of the universe speaks, amazing things happen. And God’s word is also reliable – the most reliable you can ever find. Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?” So many prophecies in the Bible have already been fulfilled in history, especially in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, who is the Eternal Word. We can therefore trust in what the Lord promises for the future, as well as His promises to us today (e.g. Matthew 11:28 – “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” John 3:16 – “whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst…[it] will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Matthew 28:20 – “…surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”)

The royal official “took Jesus at His word” (John 4:50). Let us similarly trust the word of the Lord, which is infinitely better than a bond.