Foundations
In Malachi�s third chapter there is an interesting statement which many believe to be descriptive of Almighty God:
�For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.� (Malachi 3:6)
This description is not the discovery or judgment of man; it is Yahweh�s essential character as given to us by His own affirmation. It has no parallel; it stands alone, singular, impressive, unalterable. He is the only Person in the whole of creation who bears this astounding character. He is the only unchanging God.
Another place which is descriptive of Yahweh is when the prophet declares:
�Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.� (Isaiah 43:10-12)
All else is changing; the earth beneath our feet, the heavens above our heads, the world we live in, as well as the starry world above us, all are in process of change, be it a short time, or a long time coming.
We speak of �the everlasting hills,� but that is only a figure of speech. They change as we do, although they have a different clock to work by. Compared with our short life, they may seem changeless, but as the larger cycles of time resolve, even they are found to change. And the Word of our unchanging God tells us what will become of them.
�For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.� (Isaiah 54:10)
Yet with such a promise as this many of our people throw up their hands in despair; because it looks to us as if our people are being totally destroyed. Yet that cannot happen because Yahweh promised that there would always be a remnant of Israel.
I Have Chosen:
�BUT THOU, ISRAEL, ART MY SERVANT, JACOB WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN, THE SEED OF ABRAHAM MY FRIEND. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, THOU ART MY SERVANT I HAVE CHOSEN THEE, and not cast thee away. FEAR THOU NOT; FOR I AM WITH THEE: BE NOT DISMAYED; FOR I AM THY GOD: I WILL STRENGTHEN THEE; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. BEHOLD, ALL THEY THAT WERE INCENSED AGAINST THEE SHALL BE ASHAMED AND CONFOUNDED: THEY SHALL BE AS NOTHING; AND THEY THAT STRIVE WITH THEE SHALL PERISH...THEY THAT WAR AGAINST THEE SHALL BE AS NOTHING, AND AS A THING OF NOUGHT. For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. FEAR NOT, THOU WORM JACOB, AND YE MEN OF ISRAEL; I WILL HELP THEE, SAITH THE LORD, AND THY REDEEMER, THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL.� (Isaiah 41:8‑14; 43:10; 44:1-2; 44:21-23; Jeremiah 30:10; John 13:18)
So we can see that even the mountains (nations) strong, stable and everlasting as they may appear, will eventually change, decay and be removed.
In contrast with all that, and because they proceed from our God who does not change, there are three things at last belonging to Him which are absolutely unchangeable. What are they? The earth? No, that will decay, or, as Ferrar Fenton expresses it, be reorganized. The heavens? No, they will vanish away like smoke. The Sun? No, even this fiery mass is ever changing. What, then, is it? Day and night? No, even they will eventually merge into everlasting day:
�The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.� (Isaiah 60:9)
Amid all this uncertainty, this everlasting change, how glorious it is to feel that there is indeed one thing that never changes; the character of Yahweh. Next to His grace to our Israel people in Yahshua, that is the most charming thing and the most blessed thing for our contemplation. For whatever His excellences, they are fixed, unalterable, unchanging! If the Christian Church really believed this, what a revolution it would make in its theology, and in its beliefs as well as in its practices.
Although these verses are directed at the Jews in Yahshua�s time they also apply to our Judaized Christians today as well:
�But I KNOW YOU, THAT YE HAVE NOT THE LOVE OF GOD IN YOU. I AM COME IN MY FATHER�S NAME, AND YE RECEIVE ME NOT: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. FOR HAD YE BELIEVED MOSES, YE WOULD HAVE BELIEVED ME: FOR HE WROTE OF ME.� (John 5:42-47)
There is yet another thing equally unchanging, for He has told us so; the Word of God. Now we must realize that the Jews have changed, diverted, misinterpreted, deleted some of God�s Word while they were intrusted in translating God�s Words, His Word is like Himself, fixed, eternal. We cannot say �fixed as the everlasting hills,� for it has been shown that even they depart. The Scriptures give us the right description of it:
�The word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.� (1 Peter 1:23)
Have any of you ever heard of a �living� word before? Yet God�s Word lives; it lives to work, to act and to fulfill. But which Word? Ah, there is the test! Man says, His New Testament Word. But what about the Old? Is not that the word which abideth as well? Can you separate them? Can you make the God of the New Testament to be a superior One to that of the Old? For that is what it would mean, and what some of the Judeo-Christian clergy teach. Some people evidently think in this way, although perhaps they would not put it into so many words.
If this is so, see what follows (1) He is either a different God; or (2) He has changed. The one is as disastrous as the other and there is no escape from this dilemma. But God is actually and literally the opposite of all this. He is the one true God, the same yesterday, today and forever:
�Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.� (Psalm 90:2)
The second charge, that Yahweh has changed, meets its direct negative in God�s own words: �I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.� These very definite words are Yahweh�s own estimate and declaration of His own nature. If they are true; as they must be, then the man who denies them shoulders a dreadful responsibility and makes an awful charge. Further, let us remember that these words of God WERE WRITTEN YEARS BEFORE A SINGLE WORD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS PENNED.
Yet there is another way of looking at this statement. That singular word, �therefore,� shows the vital connection between the �changing-not� of Yahweh and Jacob�s sons not being consumed. Therefore, as long as Yahweh changes not, JACOB�S SONS REMAIN UNCONSUMED; THEREFORE WE HAVE NO FEAR OF THE ENEMY DESTROYING ALL OF OUR ISRAEL PEOPLE.
Furthermore, if ever they are consumed, then that would at once declare that God had indeed changed! So, then, all they who say that Israel is finally cast off declare by those very words that Yahweh has changed despite all they profess to believe about Him.
The third unchangeable thing is God�s love for Israel:
�Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The Lord hath appeared of old and unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel.� (Jeremiah 31:2-4)
The Judeo-Christian clergy say, �Israel is on the scrap heap.� Yahweh Himself, says that His love for Israel is an �everlasting love,� i.e., unchangeable. Witness the utter hypocrisy of man, even the religious man, who declares with all the solemnity possible that god is unchanging, yet at the same time asserts that He has cast Israel off. These two statements are diametrically opposed to one another. If one is true, the other cannot be. We must make our own choice as to which statement we regard as true.
Thou Art My Servant:
�Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, THOU ART MY SERVANT I HAVE CHOSEN THEE, and not cast thee away.� (Isaiah 41:9; 44:21; 49:3)
�REMEMBER THESE, O JACOB AND ISRAEL; FOR THOU ART MY SERVANT: I HAVE FORMED THEE; THOU ART MY SERVANT; O ISRAEL, THOU SHALT NOT BE FORGOTTEN OF ME. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I HAVE REDEEMED THEE. Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for THE LORD HATH REDEEMED JACOB, AND GLORIFIED HIMSELF IN ISRAEL. THUS SAITH THE LORD, THY REDEEMER, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.� (Isaiah 44:21-24)
The old hymns we have sung about Yahweh�s unchangeableness are indeed true, far truer than those who sing them think. One is well known:
�O thou who changest not, abide with me!�
Another hymn says:
�And make secure and sweet abode
With Thee who changest not.�
Still another:
�As full on us new life, still flows
From our unchanging God.�
The very fact of Yahweh�s unchangeableness is the great factor in Israel�s preservation, restoration and renewal; as it is also in the Christian�s hope of salvation through Yahshua our Lord. A God who is faithless in one thing is faithless, not faithful.
�Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.� (1 Corinthians 4:2)
If this must be true of stewards, what about the Master? Let us make no mistake; Yahweh is faithful. With Him there is no variableness:
�Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.� (James 1:17)
Balaam was given to understand this difference between Yahweh the God of Israel and the heathen gods he and his people worshiped. He was the one to make it clear to Balak:
�God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall be not make it good?� (Numbers 23:19)
In a certain famous borough not far from the city of London there was built many years ago a remarkable town hall by a very noted architect of that day. It was beautiful, spacious, lofty, and was a joy and a pride to the great architect when it was finished. But the city father, looking at the lofty roof and it great span, said it was not safe. So, after its completion, they ordered the architect to put pillars in the middle to support the roof. He, confident in his own work, was greatly annoyed, but agreeable to their command, he had pillars put in the center, and the civic fathers were content when they saw the great roof made safe, as they though, by their pillars.
However, years afterward it was found out upon examination that ll the pillars stopped short of the roof by two inches. The skill and confidence of the architect, as well as the fear and folly of the town authorities, were made manifest to all when this strange fact was discovered.
Is this an illustration of something else as a wholly different plane? It is, indeed, in our day. Yahweh has made wonderful promises and predictions in His Word concerning Israel, Jacob, Ephraim, Zion, Jerusalem. But the Judeo-Christian clergyman, looking at the vast span and majestic sweep of the Yahweh-Israel prophecies, and seeing no place for the great arch to rest upon, he, like he city fathers, thinks them unsafe and unreliable. In his ignorance and in his temerity he has had the presumption to erect man-made pillars for their support.
One he boldly names �Spiritual Israel,� another �Spiritual Jacob,� another �Spiritual Joseph,� another �Spiritual Ephraim,� another �Spiritual Zion,� and another �Spiritual Jerusalem.� Rearing these pillars, he has thought in his conceit that they had touched the sky and, like the city fathers f old, he rejoices that he has saved the structure; that the heavens are now safe.
If he could only see, he would realize that the pillars are thousands of miles below the sky, that Yahweh�s great rods of promise span right across them all and need no human props to hod them up. The heavens won�t fail; the Great Architect can do without our help. But, as strange to say man, thinks this is the only way to keep the sky from falling. And they are more than willing to listen to some Jew lie to them. What supreme folly!
Take away the pillars; they had the Architect; they discredit His work; they obstruct the light; they confuse the great plans Yahweh plans and purposes.
�Far, far above thy thought
His counsel shall appear,
When fully He the work hath wrought
That cased thy needless fear.�
Observing the powerful purposes of the Almighty God he worshiped, and scanning the vast panorama of His revealed plans for His Israel People, it is no wonder that Isaiah posed the question:
�Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path f judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?� (Isaiah 40:13-14)