Does God change his mind?
Does he have second thoughts?
Does he rethink or reconsider?
Does he ever about-face?
Does God change his mind?
Is he subject to flights of fancy,
whimsical ideas, violent mood swings?
Does he have qualms,
misgivings, doubts or regrets?
Is he ever sorry about
the things he has made?
Does God change his mind?
Does he suddenly decide to colour the sky grey
with rain, not blue and clear and cloudless?
Does he vow destruction on the pride of nations
only to go back on his word?
Does he place his love on the crown of a man
to remove it from him at will?
Does God change his mind?
The Lord is unrelenting—
“For this the earth shall mourn,
and the heavens above be dark;
for I have spoken; I have purposed;
I have not relented, nor will I turn back.”
(Jeremiah 4:28)“I am the Lord.
I have spoken; it shall come to pass;
I will do it. I will not go back;
I will not spare; I will not relent ...”
(Ezekiel 24:14)
And yet he relents:
A stiff-necked people—
he would have consumed them in his wrath—
but Moses' pleas stayed his hand.
(Exodus 32)In calling a census, King David sinned
and threw himself in the hands of God;
the angel, posed to strike Jerusalem—
the Lord stayed his hand.
(2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21)Jonah preached, a nation repented
in sackcloth, ashes and fasting;
the Lord relented from disaster,
mercy stayed his hand.
(Jonah 3)
The Lord is
not a man,
that he should have regret.
(1 Samuel 15:29)
and yet he says,
"I regret that I have
made Saul king."
(1 Samuel 15:11)
The Lord created man
to rule the earth—subdue it—
and yet
the Lord was sorry
that he had made man on the earth
and it grieved him to his heart.
(Genesis 6:6)
Does God change his mind?
Is he
inconstant
variable
irregular
unpredictable?
Is he
unfaithful
untrue
disloyal
fickle?
Would God change his mind
about me?
If God could change,
would he change for the better?
If God could change,
would he change for the worse?
If God could become better,
he wasn't the best at the start.
If God could become worse,
what evil would he become?
If God changes,
he is not the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, the God who
drowned Pharaoh's army in the sea or
flattened the walls of Jericho.
If God changes,
he is not the God who
brought the world forth from nothing,
set his promise on a nation,
sent his son to die on a Roman cross.
If God changes,
he is not the Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and
the end.
If God could change,
would he be faithless?
Would he stop
the world to turn
the sun to shine
the breath we take
in our lungs?
Would he cease
to speak to us
to change our hearts
to turn us back
to himself?
If God changes,
his love is no longer sure;
his providence is no longer certain;
his character is no longer trustworthy.
If God changes.
God is the Rock,
from “everlasting to everlasting.”
(Psalm 90:2)
Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
but you are the same, and your years have no end.
(Psalm 102:25-27)
In him there is no “variation or shadow due to change.”
(James 1:17)
I the Lord do not change;
therefore you, O children of Jacob,
are not consumed.
(Malachi 3:6)
His way, his work, is perfect.
He is the Rock
on whom we place our trust.
God the Rock is faithful—
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and upright is he.
(Deuteronomy 32:4)Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
(Psalm 36:5)
He will bring about
what he purposed;
he will fulfill
all his promises.
He who calls you is faithful;
he will surely do it.
(1 Thessalonians 5:24)
If we are faithless,
he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
(2 Timothy 2:13)
Does God change his mind?
God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
(Numbers 23:19)
And yet the Lord relents.
Israel stands.
Hezekiah lives.
Ninevah is not destroyed.
How can an immutable God
relent?
We change our minds.
Every day we choose one thing
over another and go back on
our choice. Every day
we decide, then scrap that
decision and decide again.
We are fickle and faithless,
contrary and capricious,
vacillating and variable,
inconstant and inconsistent.
Small wonder—
God works in us to
change our minds
about him.
We repent,
God relents:
if that nation ... turns from its evil,
I will relent of the disaster
that I intended to do to it.
And if at any time I declare
concerning a nation or a kingdom
that I will build and plant it,
and if it does evil in my sight,
not listening to my voice,
then I will relent
of the good that
I had intended to do to it.
(Jeremiah 18:8-10)
The character of the Lord is
merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
relenting from disaster—
(Jonah 4:2, Joel 2:12-14)
He seeks to change his people
and bring them to himself.
We repent,
God relents—
He adjusts to that which has changed
and he changes not.
We repent,
God relents—
He will not
change his mind.
Karen changed her mind about God a number of years ago. She's very glad that God has never changed his mind about her.
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