Malachi 3:6

"For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore, ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed."

Some scholars are incredulous at such a statement as this. Smith revised it with the comment that, "Nothing less than a clear threat of punishment will satisfy the context."[17] Accordingly, he read the passage, "Therefore, ye sons of Jacob shall be consumed." However, Malachi, not Powis Smith, should be followed. Smith did not understand what the passage means.

The unchangeableness of God meant that, no matter what Israel did, God would preserve them until the Messiah was delivered to mankind through their flesh. What the passage is saying is, that if it were not for the immutable promises of God, Jacob would have been consumed in an instant, a fate which they fully deserved. If God had destroyed fleshly Israel, the Messiah would not have come; and all men would have been forever lost in sin. It was, therefore, with respect to God's eternal purpose of redemption, that he could not, and would not destroy Jacob. Adam Clarke properly discerned the import of the passage:

"Because of this ancient covenant, ye Jews are not totally consumed; but ye are now, and shall be still, preserved as a distinct people."[18]

The continuity of fleshly Israel upon the earth, despite their perpetual and persistent rebellion against the will of God is one of the great mysteries of all time. Paul revealed in Romans 11:25,26 that this continuity of the fleshly Jews will go on until 'the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," which many understand to be the end of the world. However, two things should be kept clearly in mind:

(1) The continuity of fleshly Israel does not mean their perpetual enjoyment of any status as "God's chosen people." That, they are not; nor have they ever been so since the days of the Minor Prophets. The unwillingness of God to destroy Jacob cannot be read as any approval of Jacob. It was only that he was a physical necessity until Messiah should be born.

(2) The continuity of fleshly Israel in the times subsequent to their official hardening and destruction by the Romans in 70 A.D. shows that some very good reason attaches to God's preservation of them until this very day. In the light of what has occurred, it is clear enough that the preservation of fleshly Israel has signally aided and encouraged the growth of Christianity. They stand mid-stream in human history, still hardened, still bitterly opposed to Christ; but the Jews themselves are the proof of everything their Bible says, as well as of everything in the New Testament. This too is a mystery of God. (See full comments on this amazing truth in my commentary on Romans, pp. 411-417. But the corollary with the pre-Christian Jacob is likewise true. This fleshly continuity of Israel does not endow fleshly Jews with any status as "God's chosen people." The only "Chosen People" God has ever had since the day of Pentecost is composed of that remnant of mankind (including Jews and Gentiles exactly alike) who are baptized into Christ.

It is distressing that many commentators read God's words about "Not consuming Jacob," here as a pledge that "God will save us, no matter what we do. Our confidence is in the unchangeableness of God." This thought is foreign to the passage. The people who will be saved are those who serve God; and the people who will not be saved are the ones who do not serve God, as Malachi himself stated in Malachi 3:18.