When God Repents

“Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind.”  1 Samuel 15:29

There are a number of Scriptures that speak of God repenting. For example, in the days before the great flood - “The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth” (Gen. 6:6). In the same chapter containing our text, God said: “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands” (1 Sam. 15:11). Yet the Scriptures plainly teach that God changes not. “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent” (Num. 23:19). Bible critics have made much of this apparent “contradiction” in the Bible.

There is no contradiction, of course. The words translated “repent” in both Old and New Testaments, are used of actions which indicate outwardly that a “change of mind” has occurred inwardly. It is precisely because God does not repent concerning evil, that His actions will change toward man when man truly repents (this human “repentance” can go either way; changing from good to evil, or vice versa), and God will respond accordingly, since He cannot change His own mind toward evil.

Thus, He said concerning national repentance: “if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it” (Jer. 18:8). That is, if the nation truly repents, then God will change His own projected course of action. He seems outwardly to “repent,” specifically because He cannot repent in His inward attitude toward good and evil.

God has greatly blessed America in the past, but America’s people have drastically changed in recent years. Can the time be long coming when God must say: “you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient” (Dan. 5:27)? Our God does not change, and a nation deep in sin can either repent or be judged.