God Promises He Never Changes - (Malachi 3:6)
"For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob."
Bible Promise
I am the Lord your God and I never change.
Reading Notes
One of the divine attributes of God is His immutability, which means God does not change. Another of His divine attributes is His omniscience, which means God knows everything. He knows the end from the beginning. This should bring comfort to us as Christians because God not only knows our hearts, but His promises toward us never change. However, sometimes God's omniscience or foreknowledge can cause confusion for us, especially when reading various Bible passages. Because of the limitation of our language we can have trouble presenting the concept of God's foreknowledge and therefore, it can appear that God changed His mind. When in reality God has given choices to people in the Bible knowing ahead of time what their response would be.
This means God knows ahead of time those who, when presented with a trial or a choice by God will drop to their knees in repentance and prayer. An example of this is Hezekiah, who, when told of his pending death, he prayed to the Lord. As a result God extended his life. God knew Hezekiah would turn to the Him in prayer. However, for Hezekiah's sake God gave him the choice to help Hezekiah in his spiritual growth. What this means for us is that God can allow trials to touch our lives in order to perform a spiritual work in us. Moreover, God knows ahead of time if we will respond correctly in faith, or deny him because of a lack of faith. After which the Lord can bring the reward He planned from the beginning, or bring the growth that was desperately needed. Not because God changed His mind, but because God knew by allowing the trial and allowing a choice made by our own free will, that He would bring about spiritual growth in that individual.
Bibliography
Scripture taken from the Modern King James Version of the Holy Bible Copyright © 1962 - 1998 By AJay P. Green, Sr.
ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011. Print.
Publishers, Hendrickson. "The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge." Barnes & Noble. N.p., 30 Nov. 6719. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.
Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ezr 1:1–11). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.