Over the years I have heard well-intended Christians in distinguishing the Old and New Testament paint God of the Old Testament as a God of law and judgment and in the New Testament as being a God of mercy. The primary flaw in this argument is that it presumes that God changed. One of the things we know about God is that God is immutable.
Today's first reading from the prophet Micah reminds us that the mercy and love of God is as much a part of the covenant with Abraham as it is part of Christianity.
We hear in Micah,
Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, and will again have compassion on us,
treading underfoot our guilt?
You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins; you will show faithfulness to Jacob,and grace to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from days of old.
Would that we could imitate this aspect of God and cast into the depths of the sea every remnant from the times we have been wrong, or even just the times we have felt we were wronged.
In a world where every one and everything is constantly in flux, we can have confidence in the one unchangeable reality—God.
