The Unchanging Heart of God
The Unchanging Heart of God
Malachi 3:6-12
“For I the LORD do not change”
Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament and the final of the minor prophets. He wrote during the return of the Babylonians exiles in a time when God’s covenant people had once again fallen into religious apathy. The book is set up as a dialogue between the people, priest, and Malachi; with the prophet asking asking a series of accusatory questions to the people and priest, then providing evidence for why their questioning of God is in error.
Major themes of the book include eschatology, messianic prophecy, proper worship, repentance, covenant faithfulness, and the immutability of God. It is this last theme that stands in the background for much of the book until Malachi 3:6 where it comes to the foreground. And it is there that the prophet reveals God’s immutability as the connector between all the other themes of the book.
Thus, the whole book is about God’s unchanging heart for sinners. It is God’s gentle, lowly, humble, merciful, gracious, and compassionate heart that reaches out to sinners and draws them near. It is His heart that yearns for His wayward sheep to come home, that rejoices at the salvation of sinners, and is a bottomless well of mercy given to those who trust Him.
Over the next few weeks I want to explore three themes of God’s unchanging heart for sinners that Malachi 3:6-12 illuminates. First, God’s heart for sinners is what saves them (v.6). Second, God’s heart for sinners is what calls us to faith (v.7). Finally, God’s heart for sinners is what provides believers with everything they need (v.8-12).
God’s heart for sinners is what saves them
Malachi 3:6 in the ESV reads, “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” Here we have one of the clearest evidences of God’s immutability which is one of God’s attributes that basically means God does not change. He is the same today, yesterday, and forever (Heb. 13:8). Meaning nothing outside of God has influence over Him nor internally does God change. There is no variation in God (Jms. 1:17), He always remains the same (Ps. 102:27), and He does not lie or change His mind (Num. 23:19).
The significance of this is that we can trust God and His promises. There is no bait and switch in the Godhead and the God revealed is the Bible simply is. God’s immutability stands in stark contrast to humanity. We are constantly changing. The lastest fads, social climate, political climate, etc. all effect how we live, work, and play. Not so with God. He simply is and the heart of Christ revealed in Scripture which is gentle and lowly (Matt. 11:29) and led him joyfully to the cross (Heb. 12:2), is the same heart that resides in the Godhead for our Lord is the radiance of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3). And that the heart of God which is the friend of sinners never changes.
Malachi 3:6 reveals this to be utterly true. The conjunctions in verse 6 are vital to this understanfing. The first conjunction “for” at the beginning of verse 6 connects the verse to Malachi 3:5 which is the close of the messianic prophecy where it is revealed that the messiah will come in judgment against the unrighteous. The second conjunction “therefore” highlights the result of God’s immutability. Taken together they show that God’s immutability is the reason that God’s covenant people (the children of Jacob) are not destroyed.
Therefore, we see that God’s unchanging heart for sinners is what saves them. God gave the promise to Abraham whom He called a friend (Isa. 41:8; Jms. 2:23). Since God does not change, His love for Abraham extended to Abraham’s offspring who became God’s covenant people. The whole of Scripture is about God’s redemptive plan for those whom He loves. In Ephesians 1:5 Paul explicitly links God’s love to our predestination as adopted children of God. Thus, if you are a child of God, if you have come to trust and depend on Christ alone for salvation it is because God loved you before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him (Eph. 1:4).
It was not luck, chance, or something you did or might do that saved you. It was God’s loving unchanging heart that reached down into human history through our Lord Jesus Christ that saved you. That same heart is revealed in story after story in the Bible as God guided history to bring about the messiah. And it continues to be revealed today in the lives of the those who trust Him.
My friends this ought to bring us great comfort and joy for we were saved by a God who’s love for us blossomed from His unchanging heart. God will never leave you nor forsake you (Deut. 31:8) for to do so would be against His own heart. You can persevere in this life no matter the circumstances because it is God’s love for you that chose you, sustains you, and will see you carried home to glory.