The Unchanging Nature of God – Malachi chapter 2 verse 17 to chapter 3 verse 6
Change is an inevitable and necessary change for us for we are far from perfect. But God does not change. He is already perfect, He cannot, He need not change. What a contrast with faithless Israel, so often “doing evil in the sight of the Lord”.
Now, 100 years after the return from exile they are a small nation and asking “Is God still with us?” They lapsed into nominal, formal, religion, faithless marriages, oppressing the poor, just as before. “Why bother?” they say – “God is not faithful to His promise!”
Israel’s complaint: God is not faithful. Mal. 2:17
We’ve done our part (rebuilding, sacrificing). Why don’t you keep your promise? “Where is the God of justice?” “We demand justice!” They forgot that asking for his justice means judge me too.
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. ‘How have we wearied him?’ you ask. By saying, ‘All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’
Malachi 2:17
God’s unchanging justice: Mal. 3:1-5
God will send a messenger to prepare the way for for Him, but to come with His favour. (Judgment will come, but later).
3 1‘I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years. 5 ‘So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud labourers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,’ says the Lord Almighty.
Malachi 3:1-5
God’s unchanging grace Mal. 3:6
“So Israel is not destroyed.” So, do not despise God’s purifying work in our lives. We are not natural Israel, but spiritual Israel. His faithfulness binds us to him, for He cannot deny Himself.
6 ‘I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
Malachi 3:6
