God has always been God. That truth used to boggle my brain. The hardest to grasp was not the “God” part of that statement, but the “always” part was what would bake my noodle. We can’t comprehend life without time. For us everything has a beginning and an end and everything we use for reference and measurement involves time. My way through that deep thought dilemma is to realize that He created time and we were placed within it and are affected by it, but that He is outside of time and is not affected by it. I don’t have any idea what that must look like or feel like but I know it is true and it actually helps me to see His constant grace at work. He doesn’t change. A thousand years ago, He is. Two days ago, He is. Right now, He is. Fifty years from now, He is. At any point in history/on the timeline He created, we can ask God what His name is and He will answer, “I Am”. I know those are some big thoughts, but oh so comforting too to know that while everything around us changes, He never will.

I’ve know many people over the years, (I used to be one of them), that didn’t like reading or studying the Old Testament because God seemed mean and scary and capricious. I started to love to read about Him in the Old Testament when I realized He doesn’t change. He has always been constant love, constant truth, constant justice, and constant grace all at the same time. If He could change He couldn’t be God.

A familiar Old Testament story that many people struggle with is the destruction of the city of Jericho (Joshua 6). A casual reading could portray a cruel and judgmental God who orders His people to march into that city and slaughter every man, woman, child, and living thing within those walls. His grace is not hidden or skimpy but it won’t be seen clearly until we can believe that He is “I Am” in the midst of a bloodbath. The Canaanites, who lived in the city of Jericho, were an evil people known for every form of debauchery, witchcraft and child sacrifice to appease their gods. For hundreds of years God watched and waited, but did not destroy the people. Those people had heard about the God of Israel and rejected Him over and over again. Even when God sent Joshua and the Israelite army to destroy Jericho He waited for one week. The One True God, perfect and holy in every way, had His army march around the city and blow horns for six days. Did He do this so we would have a great story to act out in children’s Sunday School classes thousands of years later? Oh no! The unchanging God of grace was again waiting and hoping for the people to repent. He would have freed them all. I can only imagine how desperately He wanted to see scarlet cords hung from many windows (the sign for those who believed and would be spared).

On the seventh day only one scarlet cord hung from one window of one prostitute that surely couldn’t matter to a mean and capricious God. Rehab the prostitute and her whole family were spared that day as the walls of Jericho came crashing down. All other life was destroyed. The unchanging God had waited and watched and grieved for hundreds of years and seven days. His love was constant, His justice was constant, and His grace was constant because on the day of the Battle of Jericho, as in every day before and since, He is “I Am”.

Many question His existence today. They wonder why, if He was a God of love, He would allow all the evil that goes on in the world. He is waiting and watching. He is looking for anyone who would hang a scarlet cord from their window and declare that they believe and that they would put their trust in the scarlet blood of the Son who paid the price for their rebellion.

His constant grace and love are at work all around us. Let’s allow Him to send us into the city to tell His good news to everyone without questioning whether they deserve it and trust that many will hang those scarlet cords from their windows. Let’s march around the city and blow our horns like crazy even if people mock us for wasting our time. We must press on because He is also constant justice and one day the walls of this world will crumble down with the return of our Jesus.