OUR UNCHANGING GOD
(Num 23:19; I Sam 15:29)
(Num 23:19; I Sam 15:29)
Dr. Paul Manuel—2016
Some people are always after the latest gadget. Others are quite satisfied with what they have and would rather keep things as they are. They find innovation, especially new technology, too confusing.
God has many qualities we admire, such as His righteousness, goodness, and love. One quality we depend on especially is His immutability, His consistency, that He does not change in His essence, attributes, or will.1 It is the truth about Israel's God that Samuel reveals to Saul and that Balaam affirms to Balak. These two incidents illustrate God's immutability.2
The first incident we will consider that illustrates God's unchanging nature is Israel's encounter with the Amalekites along with the interaction between Samuel and Saul. When God's people left Egypt, the people group Israel initially contacted was the descendants of Esau. Whereas the Israelites would have preferred to proceed uninterrupted to Canaan, the Amalekites' unprovoked attack against God's people led Him to declare: "I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven" (Exod 17:14b). God helped the Israelites to fend off the attack and continue on their way. But later, when Israel was about to cross the Jordan River into Canaan, God repeated His intention to destroy Amalek:
A young officer was working late at the Pentagon one evening. As he came out of his office, he saw a General standing by the classified document shredder in the hallway, a piece of paper in his hand. "Do you know how to work this thing?" the General asked. "My secretary has gone home and I don't know how to run it." "Yes, sir," said the young officer, who turned on the machine, took the paper from the General, and fed it in. "Now," said the General... "I just need one copy."Change can be confusing. While God is not at all troubled by change, it is good for us that He Himself does not change, that no matter how circumstances (even technology) may shift around us (or completely pass us by), the Lord remains the same. He is Our Unchanging God.
God has many qualities we admire, such as His righteousness, goodness, and love. One quality we depend on especially is His immutability, His consistency, that He does not change in His essence, attributes, or will.1 It is the truth about Israel's God that Samuel reveals to Saul and that Balaam affirms to Balak. These two incidents illustrate God's immutability.2
The first incident we will consider that illustrates God's unchanging nature is Israel's encounter with the Amalekites along with the interaction between Samuel and Saul. When God's people left Egypt, the people group Israel initially contacted was the descendants of Esau. Whereas the Israelites would have preferred to proceed uninterrupted to Canaan, the Amalekites' unprovoked attack against God's people led Him to declare: "I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven" (Exod 17:14b). God helped the Israelites to fend off the attack and continue on their way. But later, when Israel was about to cross the Jordan River into Canaan, God repeated His intention to destroy Amalek:
When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! (Deut 25:19)Years after Israel was settled in the Promised Land, God told King Saul to "attack the Amalekites and totally destroy...them.... Put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys" (1 Sam 15:3). King Saul did defeat the Amalekites3 but thought their total destruction was wasteful, so he made two revisions to God's plan.
- Saul spared the Amalekite king, perhaps as a bargaining chip for some future negotiations, and....
- Saul spared the best of the livestock as spoils of war, for sacrifice to the Lord and for payment to his troops.
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Such carnage may seem exceedingly cruel, uncharacteristic of a loving God, until we realize that the highest value in God's economy is not love (or life) but holiness, which is God's preeminent attribute, the one that best describes Him and the one His people must appreciate if they would know Him:- In Isaiah's vision of the heavenly court, the angels in attendance are not extolling God's love (although that is certainly important). They are calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty" (Isa 6:3).
- In John's vision of the heavenly court, the angels in attendance are not extolling God's love (or His righteous and goodness): "Day and night they never stop saying: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty" (Rev 4:8).
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The prophet Samuel confronted Saul on his return from battle with the Amalekites and wanted to know why he disobeyed God's order to destroy them all, including their livestock. Saul either thought God had not really meant what He said or thought that He would be amenable to a less wasteful course of action. Israelite soldiers captured the Amalekite king (a valuable prisoner) and spared the animals (as spoils of war). After all, why disregard a useful bargaining chip and destroy a good food source? Surely God would see the wisdom of this change in His original orders.
The problem was that God had given specific instructions that did not allow for such variance. What King Saul did not realize (or chose to ignore) was that God is immutable. When He says something He sticks with it. Had He been of the opinion that killing all the Amalekites and their livestock was wasteful, He would have given different orders, but He was not, so He did not.
The problem was that God had given specific instructions that did not allow for such variance. What King Saul did not realize (or chose to ignore) was that God is immutable. When He says something He sticks with it. Had He been of the opinion that killing all the Amalekites and their livestock was wasteful, He would have given different orders, but He was not, so He did not.
