Does God Change?
Good Morning Friends,
It is helpful for me to see scripture as the story of how God intervenes in the lives of human beings in order that we all might know more of God’s character. To do this we need to learn how to read scripture in its genre and context and recognize Prophetic Hyperbole when we read it. You see it is easy to fall into the role of playing the fool or the cynic in carrying out what we think is God’s word. I hope we realize that a literalistic method of interpretation often does as much violence to the text as does a spiritualized interpretation that empties the text of objective meaning. I do not want to offend anyone but I do not think that Jesus really wants us to pluck out our eyes and cut off our hands. He is making a point that we need to take sin seriously. So when it comes to asking serious questions about God we need the serious help of God’s inspiration with discipline found in a community focused on Christ. Which brings us to today’s question. Does God Change?
Scripture: “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
Mark 9:23b (NIV)
If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,
Mark 9:43-47 (NRSV)
10When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
Jonah 3:10 (NRSV)
14And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Exodus 32:14 (NRSV)
6For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.
Malachi 3:6 (NRSV)
The Father of the heavenly lights . . . does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:17 (NIV)
In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us.
Hebrews 6:17-18 (NRSV)
but you are the same, and your years have no end.
Psalm 102:27 (NRSV)
Message: Because we have free will we have been given the power to change and maybe it is because we get fed up with ourselves and decide to follow Jesus that prompts this good thing in happening. But free will also seems to allow us to believe all sorts of crazy stuff. Some of what we believe is true and maybe some of it is not. Maybe that is why God gave us free will and gives up his own from time to time so that we might be able to learn about His ways. The chaos of our making mistakes maybe even fits into God’s plans. Friends, the great I AM that I AM, I think, knows what would happen with the different choices we might make before we make them. We cannot not see all the permutation across time for our actions. And if that is true God does not need to change. Still we want a God not made of stone. We crave things that are new and so too it is with our relationship with God. But what I think we experience for the most part is an unchanging God in a changing world. He is our anchor and sure foundation in the storms and sins of life, and yet still we crave something new. What is missing is the change in us. Sin never changes, the intention of His word never changes, the penalty for sin never changes, and the plan of salvation never changes. And yet if we see life with a purpose, if we see with a perspective and a position in God’s plan… in the middle of all this sameness we can become something fresh and new and lasting. Here we experience something new in us as God uses us to make things right for others. As we share the reality that Jesus was made the wrong to put us right we come into the presence of His love and when we live and share the love of Jesus, the experience is always new. When God says that He does not change, maybe it is about His nature and character. But this does not mean that He cannot change how He works with people throughout history. When we see God changing His mind, we are seeing it from a human perspective. Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Pray we rejoice when considering the ways in which God cannot change…and further rejoice when considering the ways in which He does change us!
Pray we believe that what God has promised that God can deliver. Pray we not misread scripture. Pray we experience the unchanging nature, character, plans, promises and love of God in a way that changes us forever.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 