In our last class, a student asked me something along the lines of “How is it that God can regret or repent of something that He has done?” Since I didn’t have the time to give a substantive answer (we were just about to dismiss), I took up the question as a homework assignment for myself. This Sunday was the delivery of my answer. The answer itself is pretty short and simple, but in the interests of “teaching one to fish” rather than “giving one a fish,” my answer is going to be preceded by a whole lot of introduction.

The Problem

Before we dive into an answer, it’s always good to make sure we’re on the same page with respect to the problem before us. There are two texts that are typically brought into this question—Genesis 6 and 1 Samuel 15:

The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” — Genesis 6:6, 7 (NASB, emphasis added)

N.B.: Instead of “sorry”, the Legacy Standard Bible uses “regret”

and

“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.” — 1 Samuel 15:11 (emphasis added)

 And the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel. — 1 Samuel 15:35b (emphasis added)

Why is this problematic? Well, because when we think of repentance or regret, we think of an admission of wrongdoing, an expression of sorrow over our own sin; we have in mind that it means agreeing with God about our sinful condition and our rebellion against Him, and we think of abandoning a course of action or mindset that puts us at enmity with God. But we know things about God from His Word that make it impossible for Him to do this…

Clear Teachings About God’s Nature

Of God’s incommunicable attributes, there are two that seem to be in tension (if not directly contradictory) to this notion of God regretting or “repenting” (the KJV uses the latter term in both of the passages cited above).

God is Omniscient

Scripture is abundantly clear that God is all-knowing—there is nothing that can be known that God does not already know, and nothing can be hidden from his sight:

• 1 Chronicles 28:9

• Psalm 139:2, 4

• Ezekiel 11:5

• Isaiah 46:10

• Matthew 10:30

• Ephesians 1:3, 4

• 2 Timothy 1:9

• 1 John 3:20

But this goes way beyond just being all-knowing. Not only does God know everything, He actually declared the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Do you understand the ramifications of this?

• The fall of Lucifer and 1/3 of all the angels was not a bump in the road to God’s plan; it was the part of the asphalt that made the destination reachable.

• The fall of man in Genesis 3 was not a fly in God’s ointment; it was a key ingredient of that ointment.

• The (near constant) rebellion of Israel was not a wrench in the gears of God’s machine; it was an integral and essential part of the machine.

• That Jesus would have to die on the cross to pay for the sins of mankind was not Plan B, it was the one and only plan that God had in mind before He ever issued the divine fiat “let there be…” (Genesis 1)

Let’s bring this down to a more personal level:

• Jesus knew full well that Judas was nothing more than a greedy, thieving, pretender who would ultimately betray Him for a few measly pieces of silver, but He chose Him, loved him, and even called him “friend”…so that His Word would be fulfilled.

• Jesus knew full well that Peter would deny Him three times, but He chose Peter anyway.

• God knows full well your heart and mine, the sins that we hang onto, and how we deny Him in thought, word, and deed…but yet “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:3, 4; 2 Timothy 1:9) Yes, God knew full well that you would fail him repeatedly throughout your life, but while you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you (Romans 5:8).

If that doesn’t get you fired up, your wood is wet.

God Does Not Change His Mind

It’s also the clear testimony of Scripture that God does not change like the shifting shadows (James 1:17), nor does He change His mind:

• Numbers 23:19

• 1 Samuel 15:29

This seems fairly obvious…since God is incapable of fault or error, and since all that happens is part of His divine decree, why would He need to change His mind?

Let’s Connect the Dots

Let’s take 1 Samuel 15 first. Did God not foresee the problems that Saul would cause? God appointed Saul…did He not foresee what Saul would do? Of course He did—Moses actually predicted in Deuteronomy 17:14 that Israel would one day reject God as their king and demand a human replaced for God’s rule. In Deuteronomy 28:36, God even warned (even as they were on the cusp of entering the promised land!) that one day Israel and its human king would be exiled. And as if to put a cherry on the “judgment sundae,” God told Samuel what their new king would do to them (i.e., take their sons as soldiers, daughters as perfumers, cooks, and bakers, that he would take the best of their fields, etc.)

So, no, Saul’s rebellion and unfaithfulness to God’s Word wasn’t a surprise…it was foretold.

When we get to Genesis 6, there’s a big clue dropped on us right in the middle of the passage:

The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. — Genesis 6:6 (emphasis mine)

The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself, and here we have a terrific example of that principle in action. Yes, God knew that man was going to rebel to the point where He had to wipe out all but 8 humans and a few animals, but it still grieved His heart….the same way that the Holy Spirit is grieved when the body of Christ acts the fool (Ephesians 4:25–32), even though He knows what we’re going to say even before a word is on our lips (Psalm 139:2–4).

So what do we do with Moses in Exodus 32 when God relented from destroying Israel and starting over with Moses? From a human perspective, that’s what God did…but it was really just a test for Moses, who was a type of Christ. Because of Moses’ intercession on behalf of the nation, God relented from the judging them just then (but that whole generation would eventually perish in the desert). We see a similar situation with Jonah where God promises “40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4) But God relented when the people repented (John 3:10) [Note: Nineveh was ultimately destroyed about 120 years later because they fell back into sin (Nahum 3)].

TL;DR

God has nothing from which He needs to repent, and He never will. When God is grieved over our actions, that is not an admission of wrongdoing or a mistake on His behalf; rather, it is quite simply an expression of the pain that our sin causes Him.

Homework

We’re going to do another Q&A day next week, Lord willing. I’ll be tackling another question or two submitted by the students, so the homework is mine this week.