Changelessness and Being Changed

Good morning!

The text for this morning's contemplation is Malachi 3:6-7.

"I am GOD - - - yes, I AM.  I haven't changed.  And because I haven't changed, you, the descendants of Jacob, haven't been destroyed.  You have a long history of ignoring my commands.  You haven't done a thing I've told you.  Return to me so that I can return to you," says GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies.

Here, God uses His most holy name, YHWH, what theologians call the "tetragrammaton" - - - the name deemed by the Jews as a name too holy to speak aloud.  It essentially means "I AM That I AM."  Then, to emphasize the point, just in case we missed it - - - God states emphatically, "I change not." (King James Version)

Last night, several members of our church's college age group met at our home for bi-monthly Bible study.  I've mentioned in this blog that we are currently studying Focus on the Family's "The Truth Project".  Wow.  What a study it is too, promoting deep and earnest examination of the Christian walk.

One of the precepts we have examined is that of the nature of Truth and the nature of God, since the two are inextricably linked.  One of God's attributes studied has been His "immutability" - - that is, His "changelessness".   God's own testimony, in the passage for this morning, testifies to that aspect of His nature.

Many of us do not like change, per se, and resist it.  One common, prevalent mantra is "change is good".  This saying is often invoked to prod us to "go with the flow", even when we don't want to. Not all change is bad.  The Bible speaks of a transformation that occurs within the mind and heart of the believer in Romans 12:2, for instance.

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You'll be changed from the inside out.  Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

The Message

The word "changed" in this verse is the Greek word "metamorphoo", from which we get the word "metamorphosis".  So, this change IS good!  It is the type of transformation that God wants for each of His children.

This change is a gradual process of the renewing of our mind according to the Truth of God, which does.not.change.  Because God is immutable, changeless, ever the same, rock-solid dependable, His Truth is similarly changeless.  If our reality, that set of beliefs about the universe we have chosen to embrace, is changeless, then we have a constant, fixed standard against which to measure ourselves. God's unchanging Truth provides for us the basis for our ethics and morality.  We can take comfort in that.

God points out in Malachi 3:6-7 that we should be glad He never changes.  Otherwise, in His anger against the disobedient Chosen People, He would have destroyed them.  Hallelujah!  I am so grateful that God is changeless, that ---

His love endures forever  Psalm 136:26, Deuteronomy 7:9, 1 John 3:1, Ephesians 2:4-5

His mercy is boundless    Titus 3:5, Psalm 86:5, Ephesians 2:4, Hebrews 4:16, 1 Peter 1:3

His faithfulness reaches to the skies  Psalm 36:5

He holds on to me.  He has sealed me with His Holy Spirit, the downpayment of my salvation, because I, in my fickleness, my wandering and sin, drift away from Him on a regular basis.  Because of the ravages of the spiritual battle within me, my flesh warring with my born-again spirit, I am unable to hold on to Him.

The world, because it rejects God's Truth, has no basis for its reality.  It seeks to explain reality in the observable, in the world that we can see, rejecting the greater reality of the unseen.  Therefore, according to human whim, or "the majority", morality, "truth", changes.  It should not be so with the people of God.  God's Truth is revealed to us in His changeless written word, the Bible, which reveals to us His Word, His changeless Son.  

Good morning, Lord.  Thank you for never changing, for always remaining true to Your perfect character.  We can hang our eternal souls on that, and I am so grateful.  Change me from the inside out, Lord.  Transform me according to the truth revealed in Your Word.  Bring out the best in me by developing well-formed maturity in me. "See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" (Psalm 139:24) In Jesus' name, amen.