Sermon # 7 - The Unchanging God And Changing Man Series

We read in Numbers 23:18-19, and Balaam uttered this prophecy: "Come, Balak son of Zippor, And listen to what I have to say. God is not like people, who lie; He is not a human who changes his mind. Whatever he promises, he does; He speaks, and it is done. (GNB)

These were the words of the Prophet Balaam to Balak who was the King of Moab. The first time when Balak asked Balaam to curse the people of Israel, Balaam blessed them instead of cursing them. For the second time when Balak implored Balaam to curse the Israelites this was Balaam’s response to him. Balaam said, “God is not like people, who lie; He is not a human who changes his mind. Whatever he promises, he does; He speaks, and it is done.”

God does not lie, and God does not change His mind like humans do. As we study the incident in the life of Balaam and Balak we can have a deeper understanding of God and his character as well as that of man and his nature.

Oftentimes when we have bad experiences with people, and are hurt by them, we get discouraged, angry and project them onto our relationship with God. We have great expectations of people, we love them, we trust them, and when they betray us or hurt us we turn all of this pains towards God. Sadly there are many who won’t pray, or read their bible because of these bitter experiences with other people. Especially this is true when it happens within the church and relationships are soured, many have withdrawn from the fellowship, have stopped praying, and have distanced themselves from the Lord. Remember that such thoughts are from Satan who uses this as a weapon to sever us from our relationship with the Lord, and the members of His family, the church.

It is man’s nature to lie, and also human beings have a tendency to keep changing their mind. That is why we will find that those who affirm their loyalty to us, and speak in our favour will sometimes turn against us. The mouth of men is such that it can speak differently at different times. However, we as human beings find it easier to trust people, depend on people and love people, but when there is any hurts in relationships, we jeopardize our relationship with God not realizing that God does not lie, He does not change His mind, and that He is a promise keeping God.

The nature of man

Peter’s claim

We read in Matthew 26:35, Peter answered, "I will never say that, even if I have to die with you!" And all the other disciples said the same thing. (GNB)

Peter the disciple of Jesus made this affirmation that he would never deny Jesus even if it meant he had to die for Him. Not only did Peter say this, but all of Jesus’ disciples made a similar claim. However, Peter was not able to keep his word in a time of trial and testing.

How often we too have declared, and told God that we would never deny Him, we would always be faithful to Him, and we will tell others about Jesus only because we were stirred in our emotions or touched by a message we heard. Nonetheless, later we forget all of these tall claims that we made, and change when circumstances change. God knows that we as human being will fail and be unfaithful, but God’s love for us is unchanging. Even when we are faithless, He still remains faithful.

Jesus’ trust in Peter

We read in Matthew 26:37, He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. Grief and anguish came over him, (GNB)

Though Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him, and though He perceived that the love that Peter had for Him was unsteady, Jesus took Peter along with Him for that crucial time of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane even though He was in much grief and anguish.

As I read this portion of scripture, I thought about God’s unfailing love for us in spite of all our short coming and inadequacies. How often we stumble and even forget the promises we made to God, but the Lord is still faithful to us. Never forget that the Lord has loved us with an everlasting love. The Lord never gives up even when we fail Him many time. We may not deny Jesus like Peter did, but how often we shy away from witnessing for the Lord. There are times when we feel diffident to share with others the wonders that God has performed in our lives. No matter what we do, God’s love for us never ever fails. God still trusts us, and believes that His children will come back to Him, and will testify to His goodness and faithfulness, though they stumble and falter in many ways. The Lord who promised that He will be with us even to the end of the age is faithful to His promises, and will never abandon us. If we have missed out or faltered in some way, let’s come back to God, and be true to Him.