UNCHANGING
GOD IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
Introduction: Recently, I had a
WhatsApp call with one of my friends from my teenage years in India after thirty
years. He remembers me only with my other name (Santhosh), which many of you
don’t know, and as a dashing young man, which many of you have not seen. Like
this! (photo). After seeing me, he made a comment I didn’t know whether to take
it as a compliment or something else. He said, “You have changed so much, what happened
to your beautiful hair?
My
only response to him was a faint smile and quickly moved the conversation to
something else. Whether we admit it and learn to embrace our current reality, we
humans change quite a bit, and all the time. That’s what makes us mere human.
Only one thing is quite constant in this life, and that is change itself. We are living in very troubling and uncertain
times.
This
morning I want to introduce you to someone who is ageless and never changes and
the steady anchor for our souls in a world that is so uncertain and rapidly
changing. That is Our God. We want to talk
about the Immutability of God or the Unchangeableness of God.
Immutable
is not a word we often use. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines it as “not
capable of or susceptible to change.”
What are we saying when we say God is Immutable? We are talking about the
perfection of God by which He is devoid of all change, in essence, attributes,
consciousness, will, and promises. In other words, God never changes.
John
Snyder notes, “Modern humanity desperately needs a God who cannot be modified,
altered, or adapted. The extraordinarily good news is that this describes the
very God to whom Jesus brings us. There is so much we can learn about this
incredible, indescribable, incomprehensible, and immutable God. However, I
would focus on three things about this God that never change. They are God’s
love, God’s Mercy, and God’s purposes that never change. Let’s explore the
scripture passage in Psalm 102: 1-11 & 24-28, to understand how we might
trust this “Unchanging God in Uncertain Times.
Unlike several other Psalms, it is
interesting to note that this Psalm is not addressing any one individual in a
particular time and setting. The commentators generally suggest that it is the
prayer of troubled Davidic King or a member of the Davidic royal house who was
perhaps experiencing a physical sickness of some sort while in Babylonian
exile.
In
the absence of such clear designation, we can call this Psalm, “A Prayer of One Whose Life Is Falling to
Pieces, and Who Lets God Know Just How Bad It Is.” Here is the
paraphrased version of this prayer. Vs. 1-11, “God, listen! Listen to my prayer;
listen to the pain in my cries. Don’t turn your back on me just when I need you
so desperately.
Pay
attention! This is a cry for help! And hurry—this can’t wait! I’m wasting away
to nothing; I’m burning up with fever. I’m a ghost of my former self, half-consumed
already by terminal illness. My jaws ache from gritting my teeth; I’m nothing
but skin and bones.
I’m
like a buzzard in the desert, a crow perched on the rubble. Insomniac, I
twitter away, mournful as a sparrow in the gutter. All-day long, my enemies
taunt me, while others just curse.
They bring in meals—casseroles of
ashes! I draw a drink from a barrel of my tears. And all because of your
furious anger; you swept me up and threw me out. There’s nothing left of me, a withered
weed, swept clean from the path.” (The Message)
What
an awful and painful state this person must have been going through. You and I
may not identify with all that is going on in this Psalm. Perhaps certain
aspects of it are quite real for you, and you are troubled, don’t know where to
turn or whom to approach for relief. Much needed help will come to you in your
situation when you cry out to God for His mercy like the person in the Psalm
did.
Vs.
24, “But I cried to him, “O my God, who lives forever, don’t take my life while
I am so young!” Then He remembered all God created, their brevity and God’s
enduring presence forever. Listen to his claim on God’s unchanging nature.
Vs.
26-28, “They will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old
clothing.
You will change them like a garment
and discard them. But you are always the same; you will live forever. The
children of your people will live in security. Their children’s children will
thrive in your presence.” This scripture is referring to the current world in
all its splendor and beauty one day will perish like an old garment wears off.
God will discard them.
On
the contrary, as the prophet Isaiah suggests, God will be creating new heavens
and a new earth, wherein which all His children and their children who will
follow Him will dwell in security forever. The offer of eternal life and
eternal security for those who love Him are reliable and will come to pass
because those promises were made by God, who is unchanging.
These
promises are trustworthy because God is trustworthy and never changes His
mind. Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man,
that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He
speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” No, God does not
change His mind.” Deut 31:8, “Do not be
afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be
with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
These
and several others indicate that God is unchanging and unchangeable. Whether we
recognize or not, we are living in troublingly uncertain times. We don’t know
whose words we are to trust. When we turn to people for help, we may be
disappointed, but we can trust God. Over
the years, I have learned to rely upon God for my needs and some particular
wants. Though he did not always give me what I asked Him for, He has always
assured me of His steadfast love, and his ever-abiding presence in me. Through the ups and downs of my life, God has
remained faithful and reliable. With absolute confidence, I echo these words of
the Psalmist. “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” Psalm 118:
8-9. Who do you trust, people, or God?
How
does this unchangeableness of God impact our lives? I suggest that it affects
our continual need for God’s love and mercy. God remains unchangeable in these two
areas.
I. GOD’S UNCHANGING
LOVE
One
of the inherent needs of all human beings is that we all need love, and we all
need to love. We search for love in all possible tangible ways, and we remain
unsatisfied until we find the pure love of our lives. That pure love is nothing or no one else but
God Himself.
When
we come to God in search of love, we will not be disappointed. He fills us with
His love. God’s love towards His people is unchanging because He can not go
against His nature. In the scriptures, we see this unchanging love of God over
and over again. For instance, God loved the nation of Israel over and over in spite
of their unfaithfulness.
God
expresses His deep and unchanging love for Israel through his prophet Hosea. “When
Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. But the more
I called to him, the farther he moved from me, offering sacrifices to the
images of Baal and burning incense to idols. I myself taught Israel how to
walk, leading him along by the hand. But he doesn’t know or even care that it
was I who took care of him. I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and
love. I lifted the yoke from his neck, and I myself stooped to feed him.” Hosea
11:1-4
Is
there anything that can separate us from the Love of God? Apart from our sin,
there is nothing that will be able to separate us from God’s Love.
Romans
8:35-39, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.
Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today
nor our worries about tomorrow, not even the powers of hell can separate us
from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below; indeed,
nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God
that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God’s love towards us is unchanging
and constant.
II. GOD’S
UNCHANGING MERCY
I
saw a movie with my youngest daughter called Just Mercy. A line by Michael B
Jordan, who was acting as Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the “Equal Justice
Initiative,” touched me. “The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme
levels of punishment, the more I believe it’s necessary to recognize that we
all need mercy, we all need justice, and perhaps we all need some measure of
unmerited grace.”[1]
Tell me, is there anyone who does not need mercy?
If
you want to know what mercy looks like, watch the movie based on a true story.
In the story Walter McMillian, a young man sentenced to die for a notorious
murder he did not commit. In the final scene of the movie, when the judge
dismissed all the charges and declared him innocent, you should have seen the
burst of tears of joy and shouts of relief.
Tara
and I, too, have cried and moved by that scene. That’s how mercy looks like. You
and I may never understand what mercy is all about unless we know what Christ
has done for us on the cross. The scripture tells us that we all have sinned.
The wages of sin is death. Instead of us dying on the cross for our sins, Jesus
took upon himself and died on the cross on our behalf so that you and I can be
declared free of the guilt of sin and death, that is, the Mercy of God.
When
you wake up in the morning and find yourself in need of God’s love and mercy,
don’t worry, God is there to show you His mercy and fill you with His love a
fresh. Lam, 3:22-23, “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies
never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”
How are we to live in the light of God’s immutability?
We
will rely on Him during uncertain times. We will trust Him to fill us with His
love. We confess our sins and receive His mercy. God has loved us
unconditionally and shown us mercy our fitting response is that we too want to
love and be merciful to others. Amen!
