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Malachi 3:6
“I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”
Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher, lived about five hundred years before the birth of Christ. His name might not be familiar to many people today, but one of his statements is more well known: “No one steps into the same river twice.” The philosopher’s comment reflects his observation that the world is in constant flux. We recognize this easily in rivers as water flows continually, riverbanks are eroded, and silt is deposited. The river itself changes. At the same time, the individual who is stepping into the river changes between the different times that he touches the water. From the moment of conception, our bodies are aging and changing every second, even if those changes are perceptible only over time. To be a creature is to be subject to change.
We know, of course, that God is not like that. As we see in today’s passage, the Lord does not change (Mal. 3:6). In context, God reminds His people of this truth to assure them that His promise of blessing is sure, that He would not curse them if they were to return to Him (vv. 7–12). In turn, Malachi’s words exist with God’s fundamental covenantal promises to Israel in the background. The Lord had vowed to preserve at least a remnant of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so all of them could never be destroyed (Jer. 23:3). Yet these words could bring reassurance only if our Creator is actually unchangeable. Only if the Lord cannot go back on His promises can such words bring comfort. Only if the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever and can therefore assuredly bring His words to pass are His promises secure enough to stake our very lives on.
The Lord’s unchangeability is the foundation of His truth, and it lies behind the incommunicable aspect of His attribute of truth—that He is the standard of truth itself. God can be the very standard of truth only if He is immutable—that is, unchangeable. We see this particularly clearly in ethics. A changeable ethical standard cannot define what is objectively right and objectively wrong, for such concepts must remain fixed to be eternal and objective. Creatures can and do change, but God is far different. In His very own nature, He is immutable, and this sets Him apart from us who change and can lie or fail. John Calvin comments on today’s passage that God, in declaring Himself unchangeable, “reasons from his own nature; for he sets himself . . . in opposition to mortals.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Some modern theologians have objected to divine immutability because they think it means that God cannot have a true relationship with us. Yet our deepest relationship can be only with a Being who is absolutely trustworthy because He absolutely cannot change. We can trust the Lord with everything and in everything because He is immutable. Even our closest friends may fail us, but the unchangeable God never will.
For further study
- Numbers 23:19
- Psalm 102:25–27
- Hebrews 13:8
- James 1:17
The bible in a year
- 1 Kings 16–18
- John 1:29–51