Our Unchanging God

In a day of darkness and declension the people of God received this message from God through the prophet Malachi,

I the LORD change not" (3.6). The message was relevant to the people's lukewarmness and hypocrisy, and no doubt was intended to assure the faithful of the rock beneath their feet. The message is needed today. Men challenge and defy the God of heaven with an arrogance reminiscent of the days of Noah. The daily newspaper reflects man's determination to solve his problems without reference to the Creator and to His laws. There is now little or no regard for Christian standards of morality but rather a determined abandonment of them. We deceive ourselves if we do not recognize that we now live in a society which is not even nominally Christian.

A discerning writer recently summed up the prevailing situation in Britain as follows

"The passage by Parliament of Bills dealing with homosexuality and abortion, and progress through the various legislative stages of Bills or measures concerned with Sunday observance, divorce and theatre censorship, serves to underline the secularization of British society. Like it or' not, we are living in a secular society.

"This situation faces Christians with new problems. Initially, it is hard to accept that our country is not at least latently Christian; that Christian standards (of marriage, language, behaviour, and so on) are not even nominally acceptable to many of our community leaders; and that slowly a very great heritage, won by the faith and discipline of our forefathers, is disappearing before our eyes. But to refuse to face facts is to refuse to act on them. Britain today is not a Christian country, and no amount of wishful thinking will make it so. Christians in Britain now share with the great majority of their fellow Christians in the rest of the world, and with most of their forefathers in the faith, the responsibility of being God's men in a God-rejecting society."

This forceful and challenging analysis raises questions which at present we have no space to pursue. What we wish to emphasize here is that as we enter the year 1969, with all its anxieties and uncertainties, it remains true, as in Malachi's day, " I the LORD change not". He does not change in His character, or in His purposes. His word abides for ever (1 Peter 1.25). He still loves the world (John 3.16) and continues to rule in the kingdom of men (Daniel 4.25). He moves forward to a grand consummation, and this age is being used by Him to serve the grand objective set before us in the prophetic word. "According to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter 3.13).

So then, in a world of change and decay, let our faith rest in our unchanging God - " I the LORD change not".

unknown | Jan 1969
Comment By Torchlight