Today I find myself in a room that is different.
Last week, the room was bright. The lamps were on, light flooded in through broad, uncurtained windows. Joy. Peace. Trust. Life.
Today, the room has changed. Discouragement covers the windows. Defeat lurks in the corner. Disinterest fills the air, and it fills my lungs. The room that was bright is now dark. It has changed. But, why?
The “room I find myself in” represents my mind on any given day that I wake. Some days the room is bright. Some days are dimmer, some are dark. We all experience a room that is prone to change. Life circumstances, relationships, mental health, and more can all take part in the change. Whether we like it or not, we change. But how do we respond to this change and what does it tell us about God?
A Changing God?
The scariest part of the room is that, when it is dark, lies are easily bred and hidden within. Doubt slithers in and whispers that the change in light is a result not of closed curtains or flipped switches, but of a changing Sun. In other words, on the days when I share mental space with doubt, depression, discouragement, and the like, I might be prone to conclude that the varying condition of my mind indicates some truth about God. The scariest thing is not a room that is dark, but a God that changes.
The good news is that God never intended for our life experiences or mental space to be the primary means by which we understand His nature. If that were the case, then just as we change day by day, minute by minute, we would have a God who changes just as often. But that is no God at all, and it is certainly not our God. The God we find in the Bible is immutable, unchanging, and it is by looking to Him and the light of His Word that we can see outside of our room and understand Him rightly.
The Unchanging God
To say that God is immutable is to say that God never changes in His character, nature, or eternal purposes. He is who He is.
Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” God does not say a word that He won’t fulfill, and He doesn’t change his mind ever.
Likewise, we see in 2 Timothy 2:13 that, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful–for he cannot deny himself”. We may change in our qualities, but He does not. He remains. He cannot deny himself. He is stable. He must be who He is.
Finally, Malachi 3:6 adds, “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” God’s unchanging nature produces hope for the children of Jacob in the midst of their darkness.
These verses represent an expansive reality of an unchanging God. This reality is breathed all throughout Scripture as God continually reveals Himself to be the same across time and context. He is continually faithful to His promises and, as we know, maximally fulfills them in Jesus Christ.
So, what does this have to do with the room I find myself in? How does this help us as we sift through our ever-changing lives? Let’s look at two examples in Scripture where hope is found in God’s immutability.
1. Hope Through Trial
Job was afflicted like few others. He likely wrestled deeply with who he knew his God to be and the seemingly contradictory suffering he endured. Like us, Job found himself in rooms that challenged his view of God and was tempted to interpret God through his life experiences.
After weeks or months of loss, doubt, and despair, however, Job is found by God to have “spoken of me [God] what is right” (Job 42:7). On the contrary, Job’s friends were deceived and thought they understood God based on Job’s circumstances. Job, by faith, clung to the words that he knew were true of God. His friends did not (Job 42:8).
Like Job, we who find ourselves in dark rooms can ultimately understand that our suffering is not a reflection of God’s heart towards us or a punishment for our sin. We can trust the unchanging nature of our God as revealed through His Word, even when our personal cloudiness and life’s challenges seem to communicate otherwise.
2. Hope for Salvation
Malachi 3 allows us to see a large-scale picture of hope through the children of Jacob, the Israelites. They have been in exile and are now back in Jerusalem. Even as a people who had received blessing and promise from God, they showed their inconsistency by once again turning from Him. In light of their sin, it would have been just for them to be consumed, or destroyed, by a holy God. But God said they wouldn’t be, and it was on the grounds of His unchanging nature.
We may ask, “Why did He draw their attention to his immutability for hope? Why not His Mercy? Why not His power? God’s heart, as always, was for His chosen people to trust His Word. Because God had promised to their ancestors to redeem, deliver, and bless Israel, He would do it. Even in their sin, they were recipients of God’s grace because God never changes His mind.
Like Israel, we who are sinners have hope for redemption built on the foundation of God’s immutability. Even in lives of pure rebellion, we can look to God's promise to redeem and deliver His people (Genesis 3:15) and trust that He who said it will do it. We can look to Jesus, dying on the cross for sinful humanity, and see how God, being immutable, was always going to be faithful to his own heart and promise to redeem Israel.
The Light Outside of the Room
In Christ, God has given us an unfailing light. Like Job, God enables us to trust Him even when all His other qualities may seem absent in our lives. Like the children of Jacob, God calls us to hope in Him on the basis of His Word.
In revealing His immutability, God shows us where true steadfast hope lies. Unlike the light in the room I find myself in, the Light outside of the Room, the Sun, will never change. Knowing this, our hearts are redirected to seek this light, to understand our lives in the light of His Word.
And even when the room I find myself in seems to trap me, even when I can’t see outside, when the temporary roommates of doubt, despair, and discouragement threaten to stay, the steadfast Light outside will hold me fast. It’s who He is.
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