The Nugget:
Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
My Comment:
This verse (Malachi 3:6) speaks of a very important attribute of God, attribute (3) in my extensive list of God’s attributes I am presenting in a series of very important Bible Nuggets. It is the attribute of God’s immutability or unchangeableness.
One way to look at God’s unchangeableness is to consider that God is perfect (Matthew 5:48). If He were to change, He could not get better, for if He could, then He could hardly speak of Himself as perfect now! God could in our imagination get worse, which would be to retreat from His present perfection, but since God is now perfect, He cannot do that either. There are some things God cannot do. He cannot act contrary to His character. Therefore, God cannot change or be changed. God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). This is a most important concept to grasp about God as you consider His attributes, His character. When you really understand God’s character, you will find you can trust Him fully (Psalm 9:10).
God argues His case in behalf of Israel in Malachi 3:6. God states that because He does not change, therefore the people and nation of Israel are not consumed. It is only a relatively small nation. Yet Israel has kept its identity for thousands of years in good times and bad.
God argues His case on the basis of His own faithfulness to the promises He has made to Abraham in the Abrahamic Covenant and to David in the Davidic Covenant. Nowhere in the Bible has God retracted the promises to Abraham, David, and Israel contained in these covenants. Most Christians, Christian pastors and theologians, think these promises now belong to the Church and are no longer valid for Israel. Nonsense. Malachi 3:6 alone is sufficient to demolish that mistaken view.
God claims in no uncertain terms that the Land He has promised to Abraham, and therefore to Israel, is His own (Deuteronomy 32:43). He has promised that the Jewish people likewise belong to Him and are His exclusively (Deuteronomy 32:43). God clearly states that He will be merciful to His Land and to His People (Deuteronomy 32:43). God tells us that our duty, by the way, is to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6).
Many foolish theologians of today, especially among Calvinists, would deny the truth and application I just made of Malachi 3:6 and Deuteronomy 32:43. They need to go back and do their homework in Bible study. They won’t dare come on this site and post comments contrary to what I assert. I have noticed a few of them have tried, but they soon give up and lose interest, because I do not support their mistaken views whatsoever, and neither does the Bible.
Remember my personal commitment to the truth of the Bible: If I am wrong about what I believe the Bible teaches, I will change my mind if anyone can provide sufficient Bible evidence to show I am mistaken. Will you?
The Jehovah’s Witnesses invited me to have them hold a study in my home, and I gladly accepted their offer to teach me more about the Bible. They think they know something about Bible prophecy. They do not. They do not understand Malachi 3:6 and the assertion God makes about His people, the Jews. If they would read even one more verse from the Hebrew Scriptures, what the rest of us call the Old Testament, and believe what the verse says, they would immediately see they must be wrong: take a look at Isaiah 41:9.
Lazy Bible believing Christians will claim Isaiah 41:10 as a promise they can bank on. I would imagine that verse would be a good candidate for placement on a card in a box of Bible Promises cards. But they would almost never think to read the verse that comes before it! God promises Israel in many places in the Bible, but especially very plainly in Isaiah 41:9, that He will never cast His people Israel away.
Now, we have ignorant followers of false religions like Islam, which is not a religion of peace, but a death cult, aptly so named within the past week or so by an official from Japan. Followers of Islam don’t believe Israel has a right to the land where they are, and threaten to push Israel into the sea (Psalm 83:4), to cut them off from being a people. Seven times the Bible tells us God laughs (Psalm 2:4 is one of them), and each time it is not a laughing matter. False religionists, such as Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Roman Catholics, most Calvinists, and many more need to wake up and start digging into their Bibles and learning what God has said about these things. They had better all get to know God through what He has revealed about Himself in the Bible. You cannot know God without understanding His attributes.
Now we also have fools for politicians (especially John Kerry and President Obama) who have no knowledge of the Bible. At this very moment we have five American officials in Israel trying to convince the people of the nation of Israel to vote their current leader out of office in a soon-coming election. From what I have read, the people in Israel are growing even stronger in their support of the current leader, the opposite effect our government aimed for. The United States of America and its leadership need to keep their nose out of Israel until they understand very clearly what the Bible has to say about what God will do to any nation that works against Israel. President Obama, John Kerry, and the rest of the mindless leadership need to come to this site and learn how to read and study the Bible. Then they could take intelligent positions with regard to the nation of Israel. Israel is our ally. Our current president is a Muslim in his worldview, not a Christian, who supports Islamic extremism, and before it is too late, he needs to get better informed before God takes some rather unpleasant action against him too (Genesis 12:3).
Whenever I visit a news website that has an article that makes reference to Israel, I notice that there are a group of posters who post on the comments below some very derogatory comments against Israel, and against Jews. Just now, probably no one is perfect. The nation of Israel is not right with God. Some Jewish people, individuals, may have done or may be doing some things that are not entirely right. That does not change the fact that they are God’s people, and that the land where they reside is God’s land. In the light of the Bible, the Palestinians basically do not have a leg to stand on. A so-called two-state solution is absurd and will not work. Gaza is mentioned in the Bible. It is mentioned in Bible prophecy. So is Damascus, Syria. You must not take a position that is on the wrong side of what God declares in the Bible. It is foolishness to make broad claims against Israel as if that nation is at the root of all our ills. But that is what these uninformed or misinformed posters do on other sites I read on the Internet. Of course, they won’t come here and enter into debate with me. I dare them to do so, based on the Bible. They don’t know the Bible, that may be why they won’t come here. But this is the place they need to be to learn something for once about what the Bible really has to say.
God’s whole history of Israel was written before it happened in a marvelous chapter to be found in the book of Leviticus, chapter 26. That chapter spells out in detail just what God has in mind for the people and land of Israel.
Has the pastor of your church ever taught you, line by line, just what Leviticus 26 has to say about Bible prophecy? I bet not. It is about time every pastor did.
For those who desire to DIG DEEPER into this subject:
(1) Consult the cross references given in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible on page 1006 for Malachi 3:6.
(2) Consult the cross references given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on page 1026 or in Logos 5 or 6 Bible software for Malachi 3:6.
(3) Consult the cross references given in the original Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on page 585 for Malachi 3:6.
(3) Most people today do not have access to those three resources, so I have posted cross references for this passage as I have developed them even more completely for your study as given below:
Malachi 3:6. I am. Ge 15:7, 18. 22:16. Ex 3:14, 15. 6:2. Le 18:5. Ne 9:7, 8. Is 41:13. 42:5-8. 43:11, 12. 44:6. 45:5-8. 46:4. Je 32:27. Ho 11:9. I change not. God the Father is immutable (Ps 33:11. %Mt 12:32. +*Mt 28:19n. He 6:17. %He 13:8). Ge 6:6. *Nu 23:19rp. 1 S 15:29. Ps 102:26, 27. +*Is 31:2. 59:1. Da 6:26. Ho 13:14. +*Ro 11:29. He 1:12. *He 6:17, 18. +*He 13:8. **James 1:17. +*Re 1:8. 22:13. therefore. Nu 23:27. **1 K 8:23. Ne 9:19. Ps 78:38, 57. 103:17. 105:7-10. Is 40:28-31. La 3:22, 23. Ro 5:10. **Ro 8:28-32. 11:28, 29. *Phil 1:6. **2 Th 2:13, 14. not consumed. +*Le 26:42. **Ps 89:34. +**Is 41:8, 9. +**Is 54:7-10. +**Is 55:3. 64:5. +*Je 33:20, 21n. **La 3:22. Ezk 16:60. **Zc 10:6.
Who is a Jew?
Romans 2:28-29 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
Who was the promise of Abraham to, the whole nation of Israel? No.
Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ.
Galatians 3:29 And if you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Jerry calls this replacement theology not knowing that it is really he that is trying to replace Christ as the true seed of the promise. Only true Christians are part of true Israel. This has always been true. God changes not.
Dear A. Way,
I am very pleased to have you post a comment here once again!
I very recently upgraded this site’s software as directed but it is not working correctly at this time. I hope it will let me post this comment. My son Dan said he would look at it later this evening and attempt to fix whatever the problem is.
Much has taken place since the last time you posted here. I have not forgotten your many helpful challenges, and I am continuing to study many issues. One of the most interesting challenges had to do with Revelation 1:10. Ironically, Mr. Ken Sagely who often posted here in the past shared a book with me on the book of Revelation, a commentary written by an author named Newell. Newell provided an excellent argument against what I had previously presented in my note at Revelation 1:10, so I have included material he gives that refutes the position I took before in my new project to increase the number of cross references available for Bible study. I completed the project last month, including proofreading anew from Genesis to Revelation.
I don’t know if you will be delighted or horrified that I have also upgraded my Logos 6 software to include the SDA Platinum level denominational package, which includes the complete works of E. G. White and other SDA resources. Some of my interest in such things is attributable to the valued discussions and challenges posed by Mr. A. Way!
You ask, upon citing Romans 2:28, 29, “Who was the promise of Abraham to, the whole nation of Israel? No.”
The Abrahamic Covenant contains at least 25 specific provisions. Among those 25 provisions is the 8th provision as I have enumerated them, “The land of Canaan given to Abraham’s seed, Genesis 12:7.” The Land Promise has never been revoked, neither will it be abrogated (Leviticus 26:42; Malachi 3:6; Romans 11:29).
You cite Galatians 3:16. That verse pertains NOT to Provision 8 of Genesis 12:7, but to Provision 23, “Abraham’s Seed to be the Messiah, Genesis 21:12.”
You also cite Galatians 3:29. Paul has reference by this statement to Provision 20 of Genesis 17:8, “God to be a God to Abraham’s seed as ‘their God.'”
Failure to connect Paul’s statements with the correctly corresponding provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant has led to considerable misunderstanding and misapplication of Scripture, sometimes in an effort to deny the application of provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant to Israel and the Jews. No one has the right to rewrite God’s oath-sworn Covenant provisions to suit a mistaken theology!
As for Romans 2:28, 29, surely when our Lord Jesus Christ returns in power and great glory, the only Jews who survive to inherit the Land Promise will be Jews who have true faith in God as “their God,” for as Paul remarks, “And so all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:26), when the “Deliverer shall come out of Zion.”
You are wrong on Revelation 1:10 and Newell is wrong too.
Romans 2:28-29 defines who a real Jew is.
Genesis 12:7 – the land was promised to Abraham and his seed. Did Abraham receive the land? No. Read in Acts where Stephen talks about this in Acts 7:2-4. But then read the next verse! Acts 7:5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
We learn here that although it is sometimes merely stated, “Unto thy seed will I give this land,” Abraham himself was always included in the promise. This is made very evident in the repetitions of the promise that follow in the book of Genesis.
But we learn more, and that is that Abraham actually received no inheritance of land. He had not so much of the land as to set his foot on; yet God had promised it to him and to his seed after him. What shall we say to this?–that the promise of God failed? Not by any means. God “cannot lie.” “He abideth faithful.” (2 Timothy 2:13) Abraham died without having received the promised inheritance, yet he died in faith. We must therefore learn from this the lesson that the Holy Spirit wished the Jews to learn, namely, that the promised inheritance could be received only through Jesus and the resurrection. This also is made very clear by the words of the Apostle Peter.
Acts 3:25-26 You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, And in your seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. 26 To you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
Genesis 12:7 is speaking of Abraham and Christ.
The blessing of Abraham comes on the Gentiles, or all the families of the earth, through Jesus Christ and His cross; but the blessing of Abraham is connected with the promise of the land of Canaan. That also was to be possessed only through Christ and the resurrection. If it had been otherwise, Abraham would have been disappointed, instead of dying in full faith of the promise.
Who is failing to connect Christ with the promise? I agree! The misunderstanding of the everlasting covenant God made with Abraham had cause much confusion and pain, and continues to do so. No one has the right to rewrite God’s oath-sworn Covenant provisions with Abraham and Christ to suit a mistaken theology!