How to Change Your Mind

I was at a food safety seminar recently, and the subject of how to get people to practice better sanitation standards came up. The remark was made that in many cases people know what good sanitation standards are and can easily pass quizzes on the most important points, and yet so many food-handlers don’t practice them. The speaker remarked that indeed we all do this sometimes – we know that we should wash our hands after going to the restroom, but sometimes we just don’t. Why is that, and what does it have to do with God?

Malachi 3:6 - "I, the LORD, Do Not Change"

God’s law is no exception to Malachi 3:6 – God does not change! Contrary to popular thought, Jesus did not come preaching a “new” religion of love. Instead, He came declaring that the Israelites had never truly embraced the love that God had commanded through the law and the prophets. This is clearly seen in the following passage from Zechariah:

Zechariah 7:9-11

 This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.' But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.