The Lighthouse That Never Moved

In 1698, the first Eddystone Lighthouse was built on a jagged reef fourteen miles off Plymouth, England. A wooden tower, it lasted five years before a storm swept it into the sea. The second, also wood, burned down in 1755. The third, built of Portland stone by John Smeaton, stood for over a century before the rock beneath it began to erode. Finally, in 1882, engineers completed the current granite tower — 49 meters tall, bolted directly into the reef. Ships have changed from wooden hulls to steel. Navigation moved from sextants to satellites. Wars have raged across those waters. Yet the lighthouse stands, throwing its beam across the same dark stretch of ocean it has illuminated for nearly 150 years.

Malachi preached to a generation that had every reason to doubt God's faithfulness. The temple was rebuilt but hollow. The priests offered blind and lame animals on the altar. Husbands abandoned their wives. Tithes went unpaid. Israel had drifted so far that they dared ask, "How have You loved us?"

Into that cynicism, Yahweh spoke six words that anchored everything: "For I, the Lord, do not change."

The ships change. The storms change. The sailors change. But the light on the reef never moves. That is the promise of Malachi 3:6 — not that God's people would remain faithful, but that the Almighty would. And because He does not change, even faithless Jacob is not consumed.