A KEY SCRIPTURE

Malachi 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob." (NKJV)

ARRIVING AT AN ANSWER

God Declares His Immutability

It is because He is the changeless one that these sons of Jacob are not destroyed so as to have no posterity. This evil generation would pass away and a God-fearing one would come that would inherit God's unchanging covenant promise. God is the almighty promise keeper. Israel will be preserved because God's word, like Himself, is unchanging (Romans 11:29 ).

He never alters His attitude towards sin. His judgment may be delayed but will surely be carried out. The generation being addressed would know fiery judgment, but the immutability of God is the guarantee of His grace that the people would not be utterly consumed.

James 1:17 "... with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." (NKJV)

There is no possibility that God could "mutate" from being one kind of God and becoming another. As He is in Himself so is His word unchanging, absolute, constant and dependable. His people can put their faith in His Word, and by obeying His Word build God-glorifying lives on it.

A KEY SCRIPTURE

Jeremiah 10:10 "But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble, And the nations will not be able to endure His indignation." (NKJV)

ARRIVING AT AN ANSWER

Jeremiah 10:1-16 affirms the glorious uniqueness of the "LORD" (Hebrew "YAHWEH.") A vivid contrast is drawn between the useless, false gods, the idols that are the work of human hands, and the only self- existent, immutable God. The pronouncement of God spoken to idolaters was that their false gods who had no part in creating the universe "shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens" (Jeremiah 10:11 ).

That God intended the idolatrous nations to hear this pronouncement is enforced by this being the only verse in Jeremiah written in what could be called the traditional language of that day, Aramaic.

The Jamieson, Faussett and Brown Commentary - Zondervan), quotes an old Greek saying, "Whoever thinks himself a god besides the one God, let him make another world".

(Psalm 96:5 ) YAHWEH is incomparable.

The majesty of YAHWEH is declared as manifest in His distinctive attributes in Jeremiah 10:10.

"But the LORD is the true God". He is truly, in reality the only God. He declared "There is no God besides Me." (Deuteronomy 32:39 ).

"He is the living God". As the immutable God He made the great affirmation "For I raise My hand to heaven, and say 'as I live forever' " (Deuteronomy 32:40 ). This phrase "I live forever" occurs in the song of Moses, intended to be sung constantly by the children of Israel to remind them of their living God, ever existent, unchanging God, and that He personally declares Himself the living God by the emphatic repetition of the first Person pronoun, "I, even I, am He" (Deuteronomy 32:39 ). He always was, He always will be, in His essence, unchangeable:

He is "the everlasting King". The King of eternity, His power can never be diminished, His reign can never end. Earth and all nature's powers submit to the Creator Potentate. "at His wrath the earth will tremble." The powers of nature are at His command, not momentarily but continually. He displays His glory in His handiwork of creation which looks to Him for its sustainment. The earth trembles before the majesty of His will.

"Though the nations should join together, they would be utterly unable to resist, or even to abide His indignation," Matthew Henry's Commentary

We cannot pray for the glory of the Lord to continue because His glory is absolute, therefore unchanging. We can pray as the psalmist did, for the glory of the Lord in renewing the face of the earth "May the Lord rejoice in His works" (Psalm 104:31, 32 ). We can pray for the culmination of redemption that includes earth (Romans 8:19-21 ). Present worship of YAHWEH who is unchanging in His sure purposes; like the psalmist, sing to the Lord, praise Him, meditate acceptably, be glad in the Lord, magnify Him as He one who will in judgment bring an end to sin and wickedness. Let your whole being praise the Lord (Psalm 104:33-35 ). God is the King eternal, unchanging.