Malachi 3:6

Context

Malachi is the prophetic book placed at the very end of the Old Testament canon. It is generally understood to have been written around the fifth century BC, after the return from the Babylonian exile and the rebuilding of the temple. The book proceeds as a series of disputations: God makes a statement, and the people respond by asking, "Wherein…?"

At the end of chapter 2, the people complain, "Where is the God of judgment?" (Malachi 2:17). Malachi 3:1-5 answers this complaint. The Lord will come to his temple and, like a refiner's fire, purify the priests, and he will judge those who oppress the widow, the fatherless, and the stranger. Verse 6 links this announcement of judgment to the call of verse 7, "Return unto me." It finds the reason Israel has not yet been destroyed, even though the nation has turned away from God since the days of its fathers, in the fact that God himself does not change: "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." The address "sons of Jacob" recalls "yet I loved Jacob" in Malachi 1:2, evoking election and covenant.

Interpretation

• As a basis for immutability: Classical Christian theology proper (the doctrine of God) cites this verse as a principal proof text for immutability, the doctrine that God's essence, character, and will do not change. Chapter 2 of the Westminster Confession of Faith likewise confesses God to be "immutable."
• As covenant faithfulness: Many commentators hold that, in context, the verse speaks less of an abstract attribute than of God's steadfast faithfulness to the covenant he made with Israel. The people were not consumed, not because they were righteous, but because God did not withdraw his promise. This reading is often held together with the previous one.
• As a contrast: Some commentators note that the Hebrew rendered "are not consumed" can also be read as "have not ceased." On this basis they discern a contrast: just as God does not change, so the people, like their forefather Jacob, have not given up their habit of turning away from God. Verse 7 is cited in support of this reading.

Questions of Application

This verse is rarely a point of contention between denominations. Scripture, however, also speaks of God relenting (Jonah 3:10; Jeremiah 18:1-10), and how to reconcile such passages with divine immutability is a long-standing question. The traditional view holds that God's essence and decrees (his foreordained will) do not change, and that his responding differently to people according to their repentance is itself an unchanging principle that God has revealed in advance. Open theism, which became a subject of debate in the English-speaking world from the 1990s onward, limits the verse to the immutability of God's character and faithfulness and argues that God genuinely responds to human choices; this view has drawn considerable criticism within evangelicalism.

The Korean Revised Version (Gaeyeok Hangeul) rendering byeonyeokji derives from the Sino-Korean word byeonyeok (變易), meaning "to change." The New Korean Revised Version revised it to byeonhaji.

In the Korean Church

The verse is frequently cited in sermons on the faithfulness of God. Because the passage that immediately follows, Malachi 3:8-10, is a text on the tithe, the verse is also sometimes read in tithing sermons based on Malachi 3.

Related Passages

• James 1:17
• Hebrews 13:8
• Hebrews 1:10-12
• Lamentations 3:19-26
• 2 Timothy 2:13