HAS GOD CHANGED?

Written by Allison Sylvester-Conliffe

In the dispensation of God the Father as He appeared in the days of the Old Testament, we learn of His very Nature and Character as God!  As we read the Scriptures, we see a terribly awesome God who desired reverence!  This is documented as He appeared to Moses in the burning bush.

Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5

As God spoke with Moses, while introducing Himself as Father, the Scripture said that Moses was afraid to look upon Him.  Such describes the magnitude and power of God’s Presence! After seeing the Hand of God as He overthrew Israel’s enemies, Moses was compelled to exclaim… 

“Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders? Exodus 15:11 

God fights for His people – He is the ultimate Deliverer!  He is the ultimate Defender of His people … the people who are called by His Name!  This is God’s personality – His attribute!  He wants Christians to love, and He is the One who vindicates us when persons wrong us. Moses discovered and declared –

The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.  Exodus 15:3

Moses experienced the God Who won battles for him and as he saw God protect the Israelites from the evils that came up against them, he exclaimed –

“Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power;Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces.And in the greatness of Your excellence. You have overthrown those who rose against You;You sent forth Your wrath;It consumed them like stubble. Exodus 15:6-7

God did not fight for the Israelites in Moses’ day alone, but as we read the Bible we see God fighting for His people through King David, through Joshua, through Jehoshaphat, through all those who He had appointed to lead them and who did so in the fear of God.

You may wonder why would God only fight for the Israelites?  This is because those were His chosen people.  He made the earth and all that it consists and He chooses His creation to will and to do according to His pleasure.

…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Phillipians 2:13

So He chose Israel to be His people.

Whether they may or may not have known it, this mantle of being God’s chosen came with an awesome responsibility on Israel’s part.  God laid down some guidelines for Israel to follow.  These guidelines have been documented in the Holy Bible so that the generations that would follow would be in the know. 

God’s law stands for eternity.  He remembers His promises to His people and is Faithful to perform them.  If God’s chosen remain faithful to His Word then the benefit of the blessings will be theirs. On the flip side, God is also faithful to His Word if His chosen are unfaithful in doing what He says!

Read His promises to the Israelites in the Book of Deuteronomy chapter 28.  In short, God promised that if they kept His Word, meaning if they obeyed His Word, His blessings will follow them and even overtake them.  However, as you read on in that same chapter, you would discover that God also promised that if they disobeyed His Word, they will fall under some heavy curses. This law stands active for eternity.

He reminded Joshua as he walked in Moses’ stead –

Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. – Joshua 1:7-8

Should Joshua choose to do differently to what God had commanded, it stands to reason that his way would not have been prosperous and that he would not have good success.

God has a responsibility over His people to protect them and to nurture them but it does not stop there. His people also have a responsibility towards Him – to be obedient to His Word, observing to do it!

Jesus came as God’s Word, being God Himself, with a mandate to graft into the Kingdom of God people like us who are not Israelites. He came to perfect the law and to show us the way back to the Father after the Fall of Adam and Eve! Jesus is the Word of God.  Those of us who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour have automatically become a chosen people just like Israel is to God!  We now have the responsibility, as Israel has, to know or to observe God’s Word and to do it!  What we choose to do will determine whether we reap the blessings or the curses.

In the nation where I live, there is an outrageous spike in crime.  Murders occur on a daily basis. There are also strange deaths as well as gruesome carnage on the roadways, misbehavior in public office, the likes of which was never so evident in the society.  Multiplicity of prayers are continuously being prayed on behalf of the nation, but it seems that there is no end to violence.

This is not isolated to my nation, but across the nations of the world there is violence, unrest, murder suicides of different family members – in some cases entire families are killed by a family member in possession of a gun.  Believers in Christ may be very tempted to ask the question, “Where is the God of the Bible in the midst of this chaos?” 

My question is … Has God Changed?  Does this Great and Magnificent God still require for His people to live according to His Word?  Or does He require us to live by bread alone?  Does He require us to live by our rights, whatever right that is?

Jesus pronounced to believers –

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4

Are we walking in obedience to that Word so that we can reap the blessings of God?  Or are we rather

living in a manner so as to reap the curses that God promised?  Are we loving one another as God commanded?  Not by loving in the manner that WE believe love should be – but are we loving as God says that we should love one another?  Do we love our enemies enough to be praying for them as He has instructed?

Read the Book of Matthew Chapter 5 and then Romans Chapter 12 and finally 1 Corinthians 13 in order to get an idea as how God commands us to love.  If we are faithful to do as the Scriptures say, then do you think that we will be cursed or will we be blessed?  From what we can see in our nations in this day, are we being blessed of God or cursed?  We cannot be partakers of evil and expect God to bless us!  Also, we must not join with partakers of evil, because they are our friends, or because we can achieve some gain, and expect to be blessed.

I notice that many nations around the world are passing laws which God calls blatant abominations in His sight!  He destroyed two cities because of those same practices.  Is God expected to bless what He does not condone?  In the Book of Numbers Chapter 26 the same God that fought for Israel caused the earth to open up and swallow some Israelites (His chosen people) together with all of their families as well as all their possessions, simply because of their disobedience to His Word!  Has God changed?  I still hear of what we now call sink holes appearing in diverse places today!  What could this mean?

God has promised that if we repent AND turn our faces from evil, He will forgive us our sins and heal our land.  Let us observe to do the Word of God so that we will have good success and bring glory to His Name.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14