Malachi 3:1-7b. "Our Unpredictable, Unchanging God Returns to Us."

In this sermon, Tim emphasizes the unchanging yet unpredictable nature of God, using the cycles of seasons as a metaphor for His immutability. While the seasons change predictably in broad strokes but not in specifics, God also remains consistent in His promises—such as forgiveness, sustaining the Church, and Christ’s return—though the details of how He fulfills them aren't fully known. This reflects God’s divine immutability.

Tim warns us against sin, highlighting issues like dishonesty, oppression, and idolatry, which anger God as much today as in biblical times. Despite human sinfulness, God’s love remains steadfast. He refines His people like a silversmith, using life experiences and His Word to purify them.

Ultimately, the message reassures believers that because God does not change, His forgiveness, provision, and promises are reliable. This certainty allows believers to trust in His Word and anticipate Christ’s return with confidence and hope.

This Sunday sermon, based on Malachi 3 verses 1-7, was preached at Grace of God Lutheran Church on December 8, 2024.  This sermon is preached by Pastor Timothy J. Walsh, a member of WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod). Scripture selections come from the New International Version.

Intro Music "On the Way" by Vlad Gluschenko https://soundcloud.com/vgl9
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

Outro Music "Divenire" by Ludovico Einaudi
copyright (℗) by: Ludovico Einaudi (in 2006)   

Transcript

Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, friends. Amen.

Does anyone know what’s happening outside? The days have gotten shorter It’s cold. And all the leaves fell off the trees! What’s going on?!

“It’s winter, pastor.” No one is truly surprised by this, right? We know that fall follows summer, that winter follows fall, that spring will follow winter. These changes are predictable. God says in Genesis chapter eight, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” As long as we live, we can expect these changes, in their regular rhythms.

But we aren’t very good at predicting the particulars of those changing seasons. How harsh will any one winter be? How much rain will come in any autumn? We can’t predict such specifics beyond a week or two. We just know that the changes will come.

Toward the end of our first reading today, God says this about himself: “I the LORD do not change.” There are a number of other Bible passages which also teach this truth. God tells us through the New Testament writer James that “the Father of the heavenly lights does not change like shifting shadows.” The writer to the Hebrews affirms that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” In theology, this is the doctrine of divine immutability. “Immutability” means “unchangingness.” God does not change. God has always been, and God will always be. 

Does that mean that God is predictable? Yes and no. Just as the cycle of the seasons is not perfectly predictable - broad strokes yes, details no - God makes promises, broad strokes, about what he will do in our world; among us. He promises that he will forgive the sins of those who are brought to repentance through his Word. He promises that he will maintain his Church against her enemies. He promises that Jesus will return one day to make all things new.

But we don’t know all the particulars involved in his fulfilling those promises. We don’t know when, or if, any particular person will be brought to faith through the Gospel message. We know that the Christian Church as a whole will stand against all her enemies, but we don’t know what will happen to any particular local congregation. And we don’t know when that day will be when our Lord returns “like a thief in the night.” 

Our God is immutable; unchanging. Our God is also unpredictable. C. S. Lewis acknowledged these two truths about God with his description of Aslan. “He isn't ‘safe’! But he is good. He is not a tame lion.” God is not safe. God is dangerous, like a soldier with his rifle, or a fierce guard dog. But God is also thoroughly good. Woe to those against whom he comes! Peace and joy to those for whom he comes; whom he comes to save and protect.

Who are those against whom God comes? Four hundred years before Jesus’ birth, God told his people, through the prophet Malachi, that he was coming against “sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice.” God was angered by the presence of such sins among his people.

Sorcery is an interesting entry on that list. Modern Westerners don’t often think of sorcery and magic as something we interact with. But every age of humanity has some interest in magic. In our area here, I can think of three businesses advertising palm readers and crystal vendors and manifestation coaches. This is sorcery; magic; just by another name. In the Bible, here and elsewhere, God repeatedly warns his people against dabbling in magic. To look to magical powers for help and guidance is to reject God as the source of all blessing.

Adultery also plagued God’s people. In Malachi chapter two, we learn that it was common for men to be unfaithful in their marriages. Perjury, too. Truthfulness and honesty were not easy to find among the people of Judah; not in their marriages, not in their public lives.

The last four points in God’s accusation - when he promises to come swiftly against “those who defraud laborers of wages, oppress widows and the fatherless, and deprive foreigners among you of justice” - God notes there that the people of Judah were unbothered when those who had power wielded it against those who did not.

God is angered by such things, and rightly so! It ought to anger him when vows are broken, when lies are told, when power is used to crush the powerless. It angered God then, and when such things take place in our day, it angers God still. God does not change.

Nor do people. Not as a whole. The human race has not changed since the days of Malachi. These things which anger God - oppression and greed, lies, unfaithfulness - humans still do such things. And some of you know that quite well, because people have lied to you. They have stolen what belongs to you. They have hurt you.

When God sees sin hurting you, he is angry for your sake. You are precious to him. He formed you in your mother’s womb. He has given you your daily bread each and every day. He sent his very Son, Jesus, who is God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, to overcome death for you.  And when sin harms you, he is angry. He loves you. This dangerous God - this untame lion - will not stand idly by when you are hurt.

But what exactly will he do? God is unpredictable. He does not always deal with sin in the same way. Sometimes we see sin quickly met with consequence. But not always. Notice that God does not say here that he will immediately smite every wicked sinner. He says that he will testify against all sin. We cannot always predict the consequences someone’s sin may incur. What we do know is that our unchanging God will always testify against sin.

It is good that we cannot predict what God will do - what consequences he will allow - for sin. Because there are really only two options if we would always know. Either God would always immediately punish sin, or he never would. If he never allowed consequences to meet sin, the world would fall apart. If sin was always met with its deserved consequences, you and I would be lost as well.

You and I - all of us - are sinners as well. God’s people have not changed since the days of Malachi, because we are people, human beings, just like everyone else. 

Along with this courtroom picture, where God comes into court as a witness testifying against sin, there’s this picture of a silversmith or a goldsmith, someone who works with precious metals, slowly heat-treating the metal to remove all the impurity from it, so that he can make something beautiful with it. God says, “That’s me. And you are my gold and silver.”

God refines us. He uses two tools to do so. One, he uses our daily lives, our experiences. The things that happen to us, the consequences of our sinful actions and the rewards for our faithfulness, God uses such things to shape us. But he is not perfectly predictable in these things. At times we suffer, not having sinned in any particular way. At times our faithfulness and love seems to yield no good outcome. God allows these things, too, that we might learn to trust in him and not in our own power and ability. 

Your day to day is not meaningless. I know it often feels like it is. But as you go through your every day, no matter what happens that day, God is sitting there, sitting like a refiner sits with gold and silver in the fire, with his attention fixed on you. 

The other tool God uses to refine us - along with our daily lives - is his Word. He tells us in the Bible what is good and what is evil. He points out our sin and he praises our faithfulness. We do not always know what experiences God will allow into our daily lives. But we do know that he will always speak to us through his Word. God will not change. His Word will not change.

Because God does not change, we can be certain that he has forgiveness for us. Because God does not change, we can be certain that he will provide for us, no matter what takes place in our lives or the lives of a country or of the whole world. Because God does not change, we can be certain that his Word will always be a lamp for our feet and a light for our paths. Because God does not change, we can have the same confidence as the apostle Paul: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” And we can be sure that there will be a “day of Christ Jesus.” Not Christmas, no; a day when we will see Jesus face to face, with our own eyes, and those eyes will be wiped free from every tear by his own hand. May God, by his Holy Spirit, grant us confidence in this promise and in every promise he gives us in his Word. Amen.