Yesterday and Today and Forevermore
Theologian A.W. Pink once observed, "When we complain about the weather, we are, in reality, murmuring against God." With that in mind, I shall tread lightly when I simply say that I've never been well suited to the summer humidity, and I loath winter driving - both of which compose the twin poles of Canadian climate. Thus, I love autumn.
This being the first few days of October, doubtless we have all sensed the changing of seasons this past week. Commuting several hours a day for class through the countryside has impressed upon me that times are indeed changing. The mornings are crisper, the wind is sharper, and the forests are aflame - there is a new tune in the air. The green of summer has ebbed to a close; the countryside is now bathed in hues of gold and amber. Only, this change is by no means restricted to the realm of nature. As Tolkien observed,
“The world has changed. I see it in the water. I feel it in the Earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.”
The world itself is changed and ever changing. There is a great movement away from the truth, and from Him who is the fountain of all truth and beauty, the Lord Jesus Christ. However, this trajectory is nothing new. Ever since the Fall, all of humanity has been plunged into a deluge of darkness, a season of sin and sorrow that only seems to be worsening.
Perhaps worse still, men are blind and deaf to their plight. If men have never seen the Light, if the darkness is all they've ever known, the dark suddenly seems far less dark to them. For all the change in the world, this reality can be depended upon: "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil" (John 3:19). It is not only that men have ceased to see Him, they refuse to see Him.
In a world that is ever changing and changing for the worse, what a joy that we serve a God who does not change. Indeed, a God who cannot change. Why? Simply because perfection cannot be improved upon. If God changed for the worse, He would then cease to be perfect and by extension cease to be God. Alternatively, if God changed for the better this would then mean that He corrected some lack in His being that mandated moral improvement, suggesting He was at some time or another in a state of imperfection, and thus, no God at all. God is either perfect in all His glorious attributes and thus unable to change, or He is not perfect at all.
"For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6).
"Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God" (Psalm 90:1-2).
Life is full of seasons. Seasons of sorrow, seasons of joy, seasons of contentment, seasons of want, and seasons that fall somewhere along the middle. Your life, like the world around you, is in a constant state of change; moving from one season to the next, never truly settled. Whether in the best or worst of our days, seldom are we free from the whirling leaves of a new season beginning to gather around our feet, ushering in new days to come.
Why should our lives be settled? We certainly are not. Constantly we are tossed to and fro' by the winds and waves of emotion and circumstance. Even as Christians, our steadfast hope is fixed not upon ourselves, but upon Him who is steadfast and faithful. For our part, we are far less consistent than we'd like to think ourselves.
We taste the bitter drink of doubt and fear when we begin to suppose that our God is fickle and changing, given to the whims of emotion as we are. We stumble upon the waves of this world not because our Lord ceases to be who He is, but because we, like Peter, cease to see Him as He is.
O, what a mighty bulwark of the mind that our joy, hope, faith, and very salvation rest upon Him who does not change! For, "if we are faithless, He remains faithful - for He cannot deny Himself" (1 Timothy 2:13). Like a mighty mountain in the midst of the shifting sands of this world we find a sure and eternal foothold in the person of Jesus Christ, the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls who is the same yesterday and today and forevermore. See the Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed in Scripture and cease your worrying, or else you may cease to see Him altogether. See and cease, or simply cease to see.
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
