You’ve probably changed your mind on something; we all do, from time to time. But does that mean that God does as well? Is it fair for us to say God does something, just because we’re accustomed to doing so? If “His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways” (Isaiah 55:8-9), shouldn’t we expect better of Him, than for Him to operate on our level? Even so, many people do try to project our own failings on God, expecting Him to act just as we do.
A couple of common ways that we expect God to be like us is in changing His mind and lying. After all, we do both of those regularly, even though we consider ourselves to be good honest people. If we can do those things, than it’s pretty natural for us to think of God doing them as well. Whether or not He does is another matter entirely.
There are a number of different places in the Bible, where we see things that make it seem as if God has actually changed His mind. Some of what is said in those places helps to reinforce that idea. But there’s always the possibility that we’re interpreting things wrong; so, we need to make sure that we have the right understanding of things.
To start with, we need to see what the Bible has to say about God lying and changing His mind. That’s our foundation and we must take what it says about God into account.
God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. He has said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? – Numbers 23:19
How can we reconcile this verse with those passages which make it seem that God has changed His mind? Is it possible that both are right, while seeming to be in disagreement? Are we reading the Bible wrong or perhaps just interpreting it in a manner contrary to the message that it is trying to convey to us?
Sometimes What God Says is Conditional
The biggest basis for this apparent disagreement is that some of the things that God says are conditional. That means that He is declaring His plan; but that plan might change, depending on how people respond to it.
In order to understand this, we really need a grasp on Biblical prophecy. Not all prophecy in the Bible is the same. But one thing it all has in common; that is, it speaks to those who are not serving God as they should. God doesn’t use His prophets to tell people “You’re okay, even if you are in sin,” He uses them to tell the prophet’s audience that they are wrong; sometimes, he uses them to prophecy destruction on the people, as a warning of what might come. We never find the prophets in the Bible working when things are good and people are obeying God; we find them working when the people turn away from Him.
It’s not something that we expect, but these types of prophecy are always conditional. When God has a prophet tell a people that He is about to destroy them; it is not so that they can prepare to be destroyed or worry about what form that destruction is going to take. Rather, it is so that those people will repent, eliminating the need to destroy them.
One of the greatest examples of this is in the book of Jonah. The Prophet Jonah was a prophet in Israel, during the time of King Jeroboam II, the son of Joash. This was during the time after the nation of Israel had divided, just before the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians. God sent Jonah to minister to the people of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, something that Jonah didn’t want to do.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. – Jonah 1:1-3
I’ll have to say, Jonah took some pretty risky action in running from God, something that He, as a prophet, should have known would not turn out good. It didn’t, as the ship was almost swamped by a storm, losing all hands. But Jonah confessed to his shipmates that he was running from God and that all they had to do to get the sea to calm down, was to throw him overboard (Jonah 1:12). They did, and the sea calmed (Jonah 1:15). As for Jonah, God “had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah” (Jonah 1:17), giving us the well-known story of Jonah in the belly of the fish.
So, why did Jonah run from God’s call on his life? It was because he hated the Ninevites and didn’t want to see them saved. He wanted God to destroy them and was afraid that if he obeyed God and proclaimed their destruction, they would believe God and repent, stopping God from destroying them.
God eventually got His way with Jonah, which seems to actually have ended up being harder than getting His way with Nineveh, an ungodly people, who didn’t know Him. It took three days in the belly of that fish for Jonah to repent. Once he did, God had the fish vomit Jonah out on dry ground; but he was still more than 500 miles from Nineveh. He had a lot of walking yet to do!
Arriving at Nineveh, Jonah declared the message that God had told him. His message was short, but strong, warning them of the coming destruction:
And Jonah began to enter the city on the first days’ walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. – Jonah 3:4-5
While that might sound great to us, like the prophet was successful, that’s not the results that Jonah desired. He wanted God to destroy Nineveh and certainly didn’t want to be part of its salvation. We see the explanation that Jonah gave to God in the last chapter of the book.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.” – Jonah 4:1-2
Did God change His mind about destroying Nineveh? I would have to say no. He had the prophet say that, in order to motivate them to repent. Had they not repented, I’m sure that God would have carried out His threat, but that was not His plan. His plan, like always, was redemption.
It’s a little bit difficult to wrap our heads around, but God knew beforehand what the people of Nineveh’s reaction would be to the prophet’s message. He crafted the message to get the results He was after. Therefore, there wasn’t any changing of His mind, merely changing of the results, from what we might have expected. It appears that He changed His mind, from our viewpoint; but He didn’t.
Sometimes What God Does Grieves Him
Another way that it might seem that God has changed His mind is when the Bible contains statements showing that God was not pleased with His own actions. Again, we shouldn’t see that as God being surprised how things turned out. He knew beforehand how it would turn out and that He would not be pleased with the results. Even so, He decided it was necessary to do what He did and suffer the disappointment in the results. King Saul is probably one of the greatest examples of this.
When the people of Israel cried out to God that they wanted a king, “so that they could be like other people” (1 Samuel 8:4-5). That was a direct insult to God, but He gave them what they wanted, choosing Saul as their king, because he looked like a king – “There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people” (1 Samuel 9:2). But that doesn’t mean that he was a godly man. In fact, he wasn’t.
Most of the book of First Samuel deals with the kingship of Saul and the rising of David to become the next king. But the defining moment in Saul’s kingship was when God sent him to destroy the Amalekites for their sin (1 Samuel 15:1-3). Saul and the army were to kill all the people of the Amalekites, including their women and children, as well as destroying all their livestock. But Saul disobeyed God, only destroying the vile and ugly things, while keeping the good and beautiful.
And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. – 1 Samuel 15:7-9
It seems almost incredulous that Saul would behave this way, ignoring God’s commands to him, after God had chosen him to be king over Israel. But we get an inkling of why he did that, in his response to Samuel, when Samuel confronted him. He blamed the people for not destroying everything, telling Samuel that they brought the animals “to sacrifice to the Lord your God” (1 Samuel 15:15, 21, 30). Not only that, but he said it three times! Wasn’t God his God too? Apparently, He didn’t think so.
God was saddened by Saul’s disobedience and probably even more by looking at Saul’s heart and seeing that Saul wasn’t truly serving Him. He regretted His choice.
Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, 11 “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. – 1 Samuel 15:10-11
Once again, we must remember that God foreknew what Saul was going to do. Since He knew that Saul would not obey Him, it doesn’t make sense that He would put Saul on the throne. Yet we know that He had purpose in doing so.
It’s possible that the purpose can be found in who God chose to replace Saul. David, was a teenager when God had Samuel anoint him to be the next king of Israel. From the sounds of how he is talked about, when he battled Goliath, he was no great figure of a man, like Saul was. Not only wasn’t he tall, but the Bible describes him as having a “ruddy complexion” (1 Samuel 16:12). While he was good looking, the impression given is that he didn’t look like kingly material. We know that he wasn’t tall, because when he tried on Saul’s armor, it didn’t fit him.
Yet this is the young man who killed the giant, using nothing more than a sling and a stone. He became such a great warrior, that the women sang of Him, saying: “Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten-thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7), angering King Saul.
Could it be that God chose Saul to fail? Not that God wanted Saul to fail; but that He knew that Saul would, preparing the people for David to become the next king. If that were the case, then God would have gone ahead and chosen Saul, knowing that He would regret it; yet also knowing that it would work everything out for the good.
Sometimes God Says Something to Test Someone
The thirty-second chapter of Exodus opens with Moses on the mountain, receiving the law from God. Since he tarried with God so long, the people became impatient, thinking that something had happened to him. They demanded of Aaron, Moses’ brother, that he make “gods” (idols) for them (Exodus 32:1). Aaron did as the people requested, making golden calves from their earrings.
Seeing what was happening, God sent Moses back down to confront the people, calling them “your people” rather than “My people” (Exodus 32:7). He went on to say:
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.” – Exodus 32:7-10
The key in this passage is not that they had made the golden calf; God knew they would do that. Once again, He is omniscient, knowing all that is and that is happening. He had just had Moses lead these people out of Egypt, a land of idolatry. They didn’t know how to worship Him yet. So, there’s really nothing surprising going on. Even so, God acted outraged, telling Moses that He was going to destroy them. In the following verse, Moses pleads with God, telling Him why He shouldn’t destroy them. This leads us to the point:
So the Lord relented from the harm which He said he would do to His people. – Exodus 32:14
Please note that the word “relented” here (“repented” in some translations) is not the same word used, when talking about our need to repent. Rather, it is much closer to a sad sigh. It’s like God sighed and then said to Moses, “okay, I won’t destroy them.”
So, why did God do this? We could read a number of different things into this; but the most likely was to get Moses to try and talk Him out of destroying them. That sounds like God wanted to see what Moses would do; but since God already knew it, He was probably trying to get Moses to see what he himself would do. In doing that, God caused Moses to commit to those people, even in their sin. That would be necessary, as they traveled through the wilderness and the people caused Moses many problems.
God needed Moses as His man, leading the people of Israel. Although he is not openly called it in the Bible, he was actually the first of the judges. As such, he combined the spiritual leadership of Israel with governing them. Not just anyone could do that and God had invested a lot in preparing Moses for that task.
There are several key things that happened in this story, besides what God was doing with Moses. But these can be boiled down to three key points:
- God’s Purpose Never Changes – God had chosen Israel to be His people, all the way back in the time of Abraham. He was going to make that happen, regardless of what He had to do. If that included some hard lessons for the people of Israel, it would ultimately be to their benefit to receive those lessons.
- God Always Has a Plan – The conversation between God and Moses almost makes it seem like Moses was reporting to God about the people’s idolatry and then defending the people. Yet it was God who informed Moses about that sin. We could say that God set Moses up, not only knowing what the people would do, but getting Moses to intercede on their behalf.
- Our Prayers Are Part of God’s Plan – God needed Moses to pray, interceding on behalf of the people. Therefore, He told Moses what was necessary, in order to get him to pray. That might seem manipulative; but it was merely part of God ensuring that He could bless Moses and the People.
Do Our Prayers Change God’s Mind?
It would almost seem from the conversation between Moses and God, that God allowed Moses to change his mind. But is that true or are we being misled by appearances? Going back to our very first verse, from Numbers, it would be hard to reconcile Moses changing God’s mind, with the fact that God doesn’t repent. But if God doesn’t change His mind, due to our prayers, then why do we pray? It’s clear in the Bible that we are to pray; not only that, we’re to pray at all times. So, there must be something behind that prayer, rather than changing God’s mind.
Pray without ceasing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. – Romans 12:12
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. – Ephesians 6:18
The first reason why we are to pray, is that prayer changes us, aligning us with God’s purpose and preparing us to receive from God. Granted, for that to happen, we must be praying in accordance with God’s will. That’s not the same as people praying with the intent of getting God to do their will.
Perhaps this is the big secret about prayer. God is sovereign and knows what we need, much better than we do. For us to tell Him what we need is at best telling Him something He already knows and at worst ludicrous, especially when we are making our desires out to be needed. God knows the difference between our needs and desires and can easily discern the purpose of our hearts. We must remember that He knows what we need, even before we ask (Matthew 6:8).
This doesn’t just mean asking God for stuff. While there is nothing wrong with asking God to meet needs in our lives; that’s not supposed to be our focus. Based on the example of the Lord’s Prayer, we are to spend more time in praising Him and interceding for His will to be done, than praying for Him to give us stuff. We usually blow it asking Him to give us stuff anyway, as we pray for our desires to be met, rather than our needs.
A grave misunderstanding in the Body of Christ is our interpretation of Psalm 37:4, where it says “And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Most believers interpret this to mean that God will give them whatever they desire. But to arrive at that interpretation, they have to ignore the first part of the verse, where it says “Delight yourself also in the Lord,” as well as ignoring the following verse, where it says, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” Looking at that verse in context, it’s pretty hard to say that God will give me anything I desire, when that part of the verse is surrounded by phrases talking about our commitment to Him.
In contrast to just asking for things, true prayer, rather than “drive by prayers” requires getting into God’s presence. That’s beneficial to our spiritual walk, as God can work on us and change us when we are in His presence. Time in His presence will ultimately affect our prayers, bringing them into alignment with God’s will for our lives.
But there’s more to praying, than just aligning ourselves with God’s will for our lives, although that is important enough a reason to pray. Our prayers are an important part of God completing His will, here on earth. While He could work without us, He has chosen to limit Himself to only working with us.
When God created Adam, He gave Adam authority and dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:28). For anything to happen here on earth, other than natural processes which God created before creating Adam, man must be involved. Even though God Himself is a higher authority, He has chosen to limit Himself, only operating when His creation, man, whom He gave dominion and authority over the earth to, is involved. That means that we must pray for God to move, even on things that he wants to do anyway!
God will often move upon people to pray for things that He is planning to do. We can even see that in the example with Moses. Looking at the event through the benefit of hindsight, it appears that God never intended to destroy them anyway; but rather that He wanted to make a point to Moses, using the people’s sin as a teaching moment. This becomes clearer as we consider the fact that God not only knew that Moses was going to intercede; but exactly what He would say.
One could ask the question, “What if Moses refused to pray?” God knew of that possibility too. This gets towards the idea of predestination, to the point where we have no will. But God hasn’t taken our will away; rather, He has taken our will into account in His plans. Had the story worked out in a manner where Moses refused to pray, God would have had a plan for that too.
Regardless of the results, we are called to pray. We just need to have the wisdom to realize that God is sovereign, so at the end of it all, God is going to do what He decides to. We pray to work in agreement with God, not to direct Him or try to change His mind. Praying with the intent of trying to change His mind and His actions is ultimately futile.