Human beings change. God does not. There is a simple logic to the differential. Mankind is imperfect and knows it, so searches for ways to better the human situation, sometimes addressing the condition but inadequately. This effort presumes change. The imperfection of the human race means that even in the desire for a rising slope to improved persons and contexts the changes will sometimes be beneficial and sometimes detrimental. Desire for improvement provides no assurance of it. Some theorists believed that it could be done during the late nineteenth century, but the horrors of the problems of the twentieth century ended the hope. It seems impossible to gain adequacy for steady improvement without aid from some intelligence outside nature’s orbit. The human race will blunder in searching for even human ideals, much less other worldly objectives related to improvement or rescue from forces greater than mankind can manage. Some persons have fallen into a life funk believing that human effort leads into a box canyon from which society and individuals cannot emerge to better things. Nothingness is common belief.
God never changes. That is logical, even in the human confliction, in that any normal person would acquiesce to the idea that if one is perfect, that one would not change. Any change would be downward – negative. Who would want to change perfection? Few would, but many prefer not to be drawn into that context that creates competition for imperfect lives, a competition that challenges the human being to a life guided by objectives outside the natural field. God, knowing the reluctance of the race, and understanding it, has gone out of his way to address it. Even so the humanistic population finds it an imposition to take so meaningful a redemptive plan as that described in Scripture, and make the changes necessary for the application of the plan to individuals and society. A search of Scripture, following the words perfect and change in the Bible (using the KJV Concordance) will clarify the above statements and interpret the presuppositions implied and proposed here. Various synonyms may be used for meaning in the numerous English versions. All this takes some search on our part. God compliments searchers of his Word.
Scripture records several societal changes even for people of God’s special attention. The transitions were sometimes rather smooth and constructive, and other times troublesome to the point of division, even bloody conflict. Twice in the Book of Judges (17:6, 21:25) the transition was left to the socially strong who could do that which is right in their own eyes. Even centuries earlier, in the days of Moses, the people were informed of the disorder that would appear – Deuteronomy 12:8. Israel is informed in the context of the passage that they should do that which is right in the sight of the Lord. This last phrase is repeated several times. We might gain even better grasp of the large problem in following the transition of the tribes of Israel over a number of events relating to moving from Egypt under Moses, entering the land under Joshua, developing Judges, beginning the kingdom, losing the land, returning from captivity, and the largest of all – the transition through John the Baptist and Jesus to the establishment of the Christian Church. The history continues. It is observed in every society, east and west, north and south, when the facts are reviewed. We have no reason to believe that the casting will be anended even as human beings change, but going in circles so to make the same errors that occurred in the first rounds. Systems may improve in efficiency, but the problems remain the same or similar. All arrive at the same end – a box canyon and death. In Christ the story of change becomes a different narrative. Earth becomes a transition. That which is the creation of God that is to be preserved will be as he determines in his plan. A person may find an analogy in the family. The parent may smile at the follies of a child, because of the limitations of the child. What makes the child cry may be cause for humor in the parent. The parent will not change. The child will – for good or ill. The ideal parent, as God defines the ideal parent, will serve the child so to find solutions. In Christ we are served. He covers for us in the redemptive plan that truly improves us. He provided the story of his way, a way that must not be changed. We ought to be persuaded, in part, because nothing else has worked. Genuine persons of faith rest in Christian context for fulfilled life. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020