|
Rochford Community Church Resources
Back to Difficult Questions Contents Page
Difficult
Questions?
Question:
Does God change His mind?
The
Bible seems to indicate that God doesn't change His mind, yet there
are situations where He does. How do you deal with this contradiction?
Answer:
It's
a fair question but one that can be answered simply by looking at Scripture
as a whole, seeing what it teaches us about God and about how He deals
with mankind.
1.
The Unchanging Nature of God 
Our
starting premise is that God is an unchanging God. In Himself, in His
personality, in the way He responds or works with His created world
He is unchanging. That is why the Bible teaches that He is a “faithful”
God because He will not change His ways.
This
is why again and again we find the statement that God will not change
His mind:
Num 23:19 / 1
Sam 15:29 / Psa
110:4
The
sense or idea being conveyed here is that God is not like man who by
whim or fancy may change his mind. When God makes a decision He makes
it in the awareness of ALL the facts and in the light of His perfect
wisdom and totally holy and pure nature. If the facts don’t change,
God will not change His decision.
2.
The One Thing that makes God Change
Although
God will not change if the facts of a situation remain unchanged, when
man repents and changes, then God will also often change what He said
previously, simply to fit the now, new prevailing facts.
In
that sense REPENTANCE is the one thing that causes God to make a fresh
statement that is contrary to His previous statement.
As
one dictionary puts it, “ God is described as repenting (using Hebrew
naham which always has the strong sense of changing mind in it), in
the sense that he changed his attitude to a people because of a change
within the people .”
An
Example : Relenting in respect of destroying Israel
Exo
32:14
The
circumstances here were that while Moses was on Mount Sinai, Aaron and
the people had worshipped the golden calf. God then threatened
to destroy them (32:10)
but Moses interceded and gave Him reasons not to. The Lord then changed
His mind.
We
need to be quite clear about this: God made a statement, “Now leave
me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy
them”.
The
Lord indicates that if He was left to it, He would simply destroy Israel
for what they have just done.
That
is one option open to Him. We should not, therefore, see it as a direct
statement of definite and unchangeable intent, although at first sight
it appears that. What God is looking for, is Moses' response.
He is hoping that Moses will respond in a righteous way.
When
Moses, as the representative of this people, answers, he gives the right
response.
As
one commentator puts it, “We are not to think of Moses as altering God’s
purposes towards Israel by this prayer, but as carrying it out; Moses
was never more like God than in such moments, for he shared God’s mind
and loving purpose”.
What
we are saying here is that God makes a statement of intent which perhaps
can be seen by the (careful) observer as being an option.
It does not mean that He is definite in that intent, although the undiscerning
observer may think that.
A
General Principle
Ezek
33:13-15 .” (Also Ezek 18) 
We
should note various things here:
First, God may say something, but the opposite is then seen to happen,
e.g. righteous will live, he then dies.
Second,
we should observe why that happens. It is simply because the person
has changed and his change brings about a change in response in God.
The
originally righteous man can incur the wrath of God, when he has turned
from his righteousness, and the originally wicked man can be spared
the declared wrath of God when he has repented.
The
Principle Stated Again
Jer
18:6-10
Here
it is again: God may declare a word of destruction but if the people
repent, then the Lord will change that word and not act against them.
A
Second Example : Grieving Over Saul
1
Sam 15:10,11 / 1
Sam 15:23
The
circumstances here are that God had chosen Saul, Saul had been disobedient
and God rejected him.
Again
we must be quite clear about this for it raises another significant
point about how God moves.
First,
God chose Saul (1
Sam 9:16 ,17).
Second,
God knows everything, even the future, yet when He speaks He speaks
as in the present, as if He only knows the present.
If
we had heard the prophecy, we might have thought this was God only decreeing
good for Saul, but He simply said that Saul will deliver Israel and
rule over them. He did not say he would do it successfully until the
end of his life.
The
lesson is that we need to listen carefully to prophecy and not go beyond
what God has said.
The
third thing to note is that the reason for God rejecting Saul (going
back on his appointing), was that Saul had not lived up to the responsibilities
of that office and thus disqualified himself.
A
Third Example: The overturning of Nineveh
Jonah
3:4 / Jonah
3:10
The
verses are quite clear. God proclaimed destruction for Nineveh. That
was the simple and straight forward word that came, they would be destroyed.
But then the king speaks, “Who knows, God may yet relent and with compassion
turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish”. And that
is what happened, God “changed his mind” and did not destroy them.
Why?
Because the people repented. They changed and therefore God changed
what would happen.
Note
again and again here, that when God speaks He speaks in the present,
to address the situation as it is, “Ninevehwill be overturned”.
We
can try to spiritualise “overturned” and make it mean morally but both
Jonah (the prophet!) and the people believed it meant physical destruction,
for surely that was what God would have done if they had not repented.
3.
Various Other Examples
There
are various other examples where God relents, or changes his mind, in
response to change in his people:
Gen
6:6-7
Note
here that God who knows all things, must have known what would happen
and therefore you would think this wouldn’t come as a surprise to Him
as it seems to do. Again, it is a case of God who lives in the
present, “I AM”
2
Sam 24:16 
Here
God intervenes after He has sent out the destroying angel and withdraws
the command to stop it going any further. Also 1Chron
21:15
Ps
106:44-46
Their
cry affected His heart and he relented.
Jer
26:2,3
The
intent was that the word would bring conviction, the people would repent,
and God would thus not need to bring judgement.
Joel
2:13,14
Again
the Lord offers to change His judgement if they change their mind
Amos
7:1-6
We
have here a sense of prophetic intent, and it is only when the prophet
pleads that the Lord relents and says He won’t do it.
Ezek
18:30-32
Declaration
of intent - but a way out. God will change His mind, if…….
4.
Examples of Those who failed to repent & received the judgement
Moses
Num
20:9-12
For
harshly and with self-centredness, Moses struck the rock instead of
commanding it, and thus forfeited his right to enter the promised land.
Surely
he could have sought God for forgiveness, but didn’t. Thus he died on
a mountain.
Yet
see that he didn’t forfeit his right to a place in heaven, for he appears
on the mount of transfiguration with Jesus.
Jephthah
Judges
11:30 -39
Jephthah
made a foolish vow. When his daughter appeared he could have sought
God’s forgiveness for it (and received it) or he could have offered
his life instead (as Moses did on the mountain) and received God’s commendation.
Instead
he foolishly went ahead and took the life of his daughter. As God said
elsewhere he is not blessed by the death of a person.
Young
prophet
1
Kings 13
The
young prophet allowed himself to be led astray by an older prophet.
When he was told what would happen, he did not repent and turn to God
for forgiveness. Thus he was killed by a lion.
5.
Examples of those who DID repent and live
Abimelech
Gen
20
He
took Abraham’s wife and was told by God, “You are as good as dead” v.3
and warned that if he did not return her he would die, v.7.
He repented and lived.
Moses
Exo
4:24
The
Lord was “about to kill” Moses when his wife intervened and did for
him what he ought to have done (i.e. be circumcised) When this was done
the Lord didn’t kill him.
King
Jeroboam 
1
Kings 13:4-6
The
king stretched out his hand against the prophet and it became leprous.
When he cried out in repentance and the prophet prayed for him his hand
was healed.
King
Hezekiah
2
Kings 20:1-6
God
clearly decreed “You are going to die, you will not recover”.
Hezekiah repented and God brought the word that He would extend his
life by 15 years.
CONCLUSIONS
•
God makes decrees
•
Those decrees can be changed by the response of men and women to them.
•
God does not want to bring death as judgement and although He will decree
it, yet He
will also “change His mind” and not bring it about
when that person repents.
•
When God speaks, even though He knows the future, He speaks as in the
present, and
when things turn out badly, He almost seems surprised
and grieves over the outcome.
.............................
If
you wish to discuss this question further, or ask similar questions,
please feel free to e-mail
tony.thomas@rochfordcc.co.uk
To
see the full range of resources on this site CLICK
HERE
|
Sunday Services