Finding Comfort In Immutability

From the May 2005 issue of Voice of the Valley, a publication of Valley Bible Church, by Pastor Frank Emrich. Reproduced here with permission.

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The writer of Hebrews stated:

In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters with the veil.

Following my mother's funeral, Wendy and I spent a couple of days on the Oregon coast. While we were there God comforted me with His immutability. Let me explain.

The crashing, rolling waves of the Pacific Ocean matched my thoughts and mood. One by one the waves rose out of the sea toward the gray, darkening sky, bringing the wash and the roar of the sea, then folded back down on the sand and foam. The ocean seemed to spin with the mix of the tide and surf, all in a random motion, without any seeming meaning or purpose.

As I walked that beach, it seemed that life was somewhat like those waves. Life itself rose up, reached for the sky, and then came crashing down on the surf and foam of time and mortality. In a world of change, where life is too brief, who is God? How is He the anchor of life during these times?

In our lives it is easy to forget but worth remembering: few things are forever. Fads and fashions, notions and nations, passions and possessions, even life on this planet all come and go. But God remains constant. He is unchanging - His promises and purposes will not change.

Life is a lot like the shadows that pass with the rotation of the day. At first glance they seem stable and constant. But careful observation reveals that they move. That contrast is noted in James 1:17:

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

The fact of God's immutability, then, becomes the anchor or constant in a life of change. If God were to change, there would be only three alternatives: one, He could go from worse to better; two, He could change from better to worse; or three, He could change within Himself - that is, from immaturity to maturity. Yet none of these are true.

Moses wrote in Numbers 23:19...

God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Isaiah noted:

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, "My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure." (Isaiah 46:10)

The death of a beloved mother, or any family member for that matter, still fits into the purpose and plan of an unchanging God.

As I looked beyond the crashing waves and surf and upt to the moon above the sea, I noted that the reflection of moonlight came down across the water and up to the wet sand at my feet. Despite the crash and wash of the waves, that light still glistened and sparkled its brilliance from the heavens to my exact position. The wave action only enhanced the moonlight.

To a good extent, that is also the message of God's immutability. Despite our expectations and plans and the life spans given by God, which seem like bouncing waves, He remains constant. He is the unchanging anchor Who provides hope and encouragement, the light that burns through changing shadows. And He is the Savior and LORD Who meets us in compassion and grace, Who carries us through the waves of life as surely as He was in charge of the deaths of loved ones that have touched my life. For thousands of years, God's immutability has stabilized the saints of God in a world of constant change. May you, too, find comfort in God's immutability.