All God's words are true
These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. Numbers 26:63-65
There is this amazing passage in the book of Joshua, after the conquest of Canaan had been achieved and the tribes of Israel had settled in the land of milk and honey. It is this: "And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass" (Joshua 21:43-45). From this we are meant to learn that God never goes back on his promises, and that every good thing which he had promised to his people they must and will inevitably receive.
But the text in Numbers 26 reminds us of a reciprocal truth; that God's threatenings of judgment are just as trustworthy and true as his promises of good. One is just as inevitable as the other. God does not threaten and then not follow through, just as he does not promise and then renege on his commitments. The Lord had promised that all who had failed to believe his word in the wilderness would die in the wilderness and not set foot in the Promised Land. And that is exactly what happened.
Let us always take God at his word; the words that we like as well as those that we find less palatable and pleasing. Let us fear his warnings of judgment and obey his word. And let us rejoice in his promises of blessing and obey his word. One thing is true: God keeps all his word all the time. And I am thankful for that in a world where truth is so often a casualty of power plays and politics.