Wednesday: A Repenting God?
Daily Lesson for Wednesday 5th of February 2025
Can God “repent”? If so, what would that mean? We have seen that God’s character never changes. However, some biblical texts speak of God as “repenting” or “relenting.” At least for humans, repentance involves recognition that one has done something wrong. How, then, can some biblical passages depict God as “repenting”?
Read Exodus 32:14 and compare it with Jeremiah 18:4-10. What do you make of these descriptions of God’s “relenting”?
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
In these and many other passages, God is depicted as relenting of judgment in response to some repentance or intercession by people. God promises that, if the people will turn from their wickedness, He will turn from the judgment He planned. God’s turning from bringing judgment in response to human repentance is a common theme throughout Scripture.
Read Numbers 23:19 and 1 Samuel 15:29. What do these texts teach with regard to whether or not God “relents” or “repents”?
These passages explicitly declare that God “ ‘is not a man, that He should relent’ ” (1 Samuel 15:29, NKJV) and “ ‘God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?’ ” (Numbers 23:19, NKJV). Read in light of the other passages, these texts cannot be taken to mean that God does not “relent” at all, but instead they convey the truth that He does not “relent” or “repent” in the ways that humans do. Rather, God always keeps His promises, and while He will change course in response to human repentance, He does so always in accordance with His goodness and His Word. God relents from judgment in response to repentance, precisely because His character is good, righteous, loving, and merciful.
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What is the significance of the biblical depictions of divine “relenting”? What does this convey about the constancy of God’s character alongside the fact that God enters into genuine give-and-take relationships that actually make a difference to Him? |
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The Bible says God is a spirit and not a physical being (John 4:24). It is interesting to note how the Bible describes God with human features, emotions, and actions (anthropomorphism). Since God is a spirit and we are not, the Bible uses human language to help us understand God better and how He relates with us as human beings. Here are a few examples.
Human features - God’s Hands ((Isaiah 48:13), God’s Eyes (Proverbs 15:3), God’s Ears (Proverbs 15:29), God’s Face (Numbers 6:25), God’s Arm (Psalm 136:12), Etc.
Human emotions - God’s Anger (Numbers 12:9), God’s Grief (Genesis 6:6), God’s Joy (Zephaniah 3:17), God’s Jealousy (Deuteronomy 4:24), etc.
Human actions - God "Writes" (Exodus 32:16), God "Laughs" Psalm 2:4), God "Remembers" (Genesis 8:1), God "Hides His Face" (Isaiah 59:2), God “Repents” ( Exodus 32:14), etc.
Today (Tuesday) we are examining God “repenting”. It is profoundly interesting to note that God can “repent”, not to feel sorry for sinning but for change in action due to our deeds as human beings. God’s character and nature never change but adjusts how He deals with us depending on our deeds. God does not make mistakes, but we do as human beings. His relationship with us depends on how we respond to His unconditional love. For instance, obedience and disobedience will make God adjust his relationship with us. God loves sinners but relates with them in a redemptive way. God's “repenting” is a reflection of his love, mercy, and responsiveness towards our deeds but not regret for wrongdoing.
What spiritual lessons do we learn from God’s “repenting”?
1. God loves mercy more than judgment. God wants to give everybody an opportunity for salvation (Jonah 3:10, Lamentations 3:22-23).
2. Prayer “moves” the heart of God. When Moses prayed, God “repented” from destroying the Children of Israel (Exodus 32:14, James 5:16).
3. Our actions will make God step back to give us another second chance. If we repent God will hold his punishment (Jeremiah 18:7-8, 2 Chronicles 7:14).
4. God’s promises are conditional. Obedience brings blessings and disobedience curses (Deuteronomy 28:1-2).
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” - 2 Chronicles 7:14
I remember a time when we kids were being a right royal pain in the neck to our parents. It was probably when a bit of sibling rivalry had developed into shouting match and Mum had tried to quell our bad tempers. In the midst of all this my mother wailed, "I don't know! Why did we ever have kids?"
That was a sobering thought for us. Mum repenting that she had ever had us, her own children. I would like to say that we never fought again, but my memory over 70 years later is good enough to remember that we were slow learners.
Mum's questioning was born out of anguish over our behaviour. She was disappointed in us, but she never stopped loving us. She was still a good mother when she was 100 and we kids were reaching our late 60s.
We sometimes have this notion that seeing God knows everything, he cannot be surprised by anything. We make a god for ourselves who is an emotionless machine, infinitely powerful, present everywhere, and knows everything.
Yet in the Bible we hear of God's emotions. I will start with the easy one:
Luke repeats the phrase after the next parable too. And I don't think that joy in heaven was limited to just the angels. The Bible uses language we understand to show us our God who has feelings and emotions. If God can be happy and rejoice, he can be sad and disappointed too.
God's repentance is an expression of disappointment in our behaviour. We are his creation and yet so often we make our own wrong decisions. God's omniscience does not stop him from experiencing joy and sorrow.
I like that idea - that God's emotions come through in the way He relates to us. Perhaps to some that makes God seem weak, but it conveys His love strongly.
Concerning 1 Sam 15:29 - if you read the preceding verse (v28) where God is passing judgment to Saul because of his disobedience doesn't the text actually say the opposite of Jer 18:4-10 where we learnt that God can change His judgement in response to human repentance? Why wouldn't God change His mind on Saul should he have fully repented?
"Why wouldn't God change His mind on Saul should he have fully repented?"
'Should' is the operative word here. There's no indication that Saul fully repented. Sure, he admitted fault in disobedience (1 Sam 15:24, 30) and one could argue he was even ignorant of his sin (15:13, 20). Though Saul may have been sorry for being disobedient, he didn't repent (he 'should' have). I submit that God 'may' have changed his judgement had Saul showed some remorse - perhaps by hacking Agag into pieces before the Lord and Samuel, then asking for forgiveness. Demonstrating obedience and repentance might indeed cause God's judgement to change. And so for our application: Recognize disobedience, exhibit remorse, ask for forgiveness, and showcase repentance in an unmistakable fashion in the hopes of appealing to God's loving justice 'should' trigger a change in the course of God's judgment. Thoughts...?
All relationships face the reality of give-and-take. We are lucky because we received the Gift of Life before choosing death (or sin). Today, it is up to us to choose what we are giving back. May we give Him all; even so, it will never be enough to equal what we already have been given.
Today we have the word repent in a different meaning then what we are used to. For God to repent is different than we normally think of repentence. For God to repent is for God to change his plans, and mind you not His charactor, just His plans, because we repented. Would God change His plans to destroy the world with a flood, if they would have repented? Yes, Noah spent 120 years preaching that. Yet they mocked God for such an idea as a flood. God repented and changed His plans with Nineveh. Makes sense to me. The wages of sin is death. That is what sin is death. Yet God gives us another chance. This was my take home for today.
How to repent of your sins, seems is also on the docket for today.
I will try to put all this in the simplest possible terms. If you enter into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and continue in that relationship with Him from now until He comes again, He will do the rest. That’s the simplest answer to the question of how to obey Philippians 1:6 says, “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until [carry it forward to] the day of Jesus Christ.” Forgiveness is a gift." Page 113 "To Know God, A 5 Day Plan.
And then there is also Genesis 6:6 where it indicates God "Repenting" that he had created man and then sends a flood to destroy him. Yet, he chooses Noah to build an ark and save his family along with the animals to start a "New Earth" so to speak. And then several milleniums later sends His very own Son to spill His Blood for all of humanity's Sin and sins and then continued on till now and here we are at the very end of time and God still bears and suffers long with us and plans to end all suffering, sin, and death, soon and very soon by sending His Son again but this time to just save those who "Keep His Commandments and exercise their faith in His Son Jesus to empower them to keep those 10 commandments to the best of their abilities until he does show up to claim His rightful Kingship for this earth.
Concerning 1 Sam 15:29 - if you read the preceding verse (v28) where God is passing judgment to Saul because of his disobedience doesn't the text actually say the opposite of Jer 18:4-10 where we learned that God can change His judgements in response to human repentance? Why wouldn't God change His mind on Saul should he have fully repented?
If Saul had truly repented of his sinful heart and actions, and not just sorrowed over his punishment, I believe God would have changed the outcome...because we see at least two other Israelite kings where God switched out from judgment mode to mercy. But King Saul did not truly repent. I read in 1 Sam. 15:30 where he says, "I have sinned, honor me now, before the elders....and return with me that I may worship the Lord your God." Wow, he asks for honor for himself to save face with his peers...rather than asking for honor for God and for approval only from God. Also He calls God Samuel's God, rather than His own God.
Here are the 2 instances I'm thinking of where God relented for truly repentant kings...
(1) 2 Kings 20:1-6: Isaiah told King Hezekiah that he should put his house in order and prepare to die. Hezekiah immediately wept in prayer and begged God to change this future and God listened, giving Hezekiah 15 more years of life.
(2) 2 Samuel 24:10-25: King David sinned by conducting a census of Israel. God sent a plague to punish him, but when David listened to his conscience, prayed and repented, God stopped the plague.
Thank you so much for such a wonderful revelation. I've been answered.
Amen
I think sometimes too we need to accept God's punishment or consequences. God had rejected Saul as king for reasons that He understood. If Saul was truly repentant, he would have accepted that, recognizing that he deserved it. God could still have used him in other ways. The fact that Saul descended more and more into evil shows his repentance was more regret than true repentance.
I feel the same way when some leader is stripped of their church office because of a serious misdeed. Sometimes they are quick to try to find a way back in, claiming to be sorry and forgiven. And they may be, but that action speaks of not comprehending the severity of their actions. Same thing for abusive spouses who want their partner to forgive and move on. If they are truly sorry, I feel they would humbly accept their spouse's choice, give them space and prove their changes from a distance.
God's mercy is like lightning, always trying to reach down to us by whatever path possible. Psalm 84:11 says, "No good thing does He withhold from the upright"...think of tall trees or other upright objects that are beacons for lightning strikes. God is eager to save and to restore, we could say He is "charged and energized" to make contact with us. Just like lightning charges flow rapidly from heaven to the ground once a channel of energy is complete. Our prayers of repentance and intercession are like the conduit pathways reaching up that give Him permission to connect His energy to ours in the redemptive process. He draws us into a saving relationship with Himself, and waits for us to say "yes" to complete the circuit. I love how the prophet Samuel called God "the Strength of Israel" (1 Sam. 15:29). God is determined in His purpose and strong in His will...He WILL reach us.
I think the use of the word "relent" or "repent" is more like when we use the word "sorry" in this way..."I'm sorry your grandmother died." If I say that, I'm not taking personal responsibility for your grandmother dying, but expressing sorrow over the situation where someone you loved has died and caused the pain of loss. God does not sorrow over His own choices and behavior, and sin is not His fault....the wages of sin is death, that is just the way it is... but He does sorrow over the existence of sin and our choices to remain in sin, which causes separation from God and each other... and therefore pain, to Him and to us.
Would not you say, I have a contrite heart?
Psalm 51:17.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.