Thank you for your question.

In trying to answer this question let us change the question somewhat to a look at a bigger  picture. Since Jesus is God (The Father’s Son), let’s ask whether or not God changes His mind. In finding an answer to this we know it automatically applies to Jesus. Jesus said, John 10:30 “³⁰I and My Father are one.”  John 14:7 ⁷“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also;…”

The question of whether or not God changes His mind is one that has been asked by many Christians. There are without doubt some passages in the Bible that seem to say that God does NOT “change” His mind. However, there are also other passages in the Bible that suggest God DOES “change” His mind. How does someone answer these seeming discrepancies? Let’s take a closer look at this issue and see if we can come to an answer..

Let’s start by looking at some Biblical examples of where it seems to suggest that God had changed His mind.

Exodus32:7-14 Summary: Moses was up on Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments. Meanwhile, in the camp below, the Israelites had made a golden idol for themselves to worship. The Lord tells Moses in verses 7 and 8 what was taking place in the camp. Then the Lord goes on to say to Moses:  ¹⁰Now 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.”   But now look at what takes place in the following verses.     ¹¹Then Moses pleaded with the LORD ……and said: “LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹²…………..Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,………..” ¹⁴So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

2 Kings: 1-6     ¹In those days Hezekiah {king of Judah} was sick and near death. And Isaiah……… said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’”   ²Then he {Hezekiah} ……prayed to the LORD, saying, ³“Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.   ⁴And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ⁵“Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the LORD, …….. “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. ⁶And I will add to your days fifteen years…………’”

Jonah 3: verses 3; 4; 10 ³So Jonah…..went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,……. ⁴And Jonah began to enter the city…. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”   ¹⁰Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

 These are a few examples of God listening to the prayers of people and then apparently changing His mind about the course of action that He said He would do. At first glance it seems very clear that God changed His mind, however, if we study a little deeper into the issue we discover a few things that are important to verses like these.

The First thing we need to note is that the different Bible translations render the word “relent” differently. The NASB and NRSV say’s “Changed His mind”. The NIV and NKJV say, "relent."  The KJV, RSV, and 1901 ASV say "repent."  Since there are some differences, we will need to go one step further in our study, which means we will need to go to the original Hebrew and see what word(s) is being used here.

Now, upon doing so, we quickly discover that the same Hebrew word is used in all the passages being translated as, “relent”, “repent”, “change His mind” etc.. The Hebrew word at issue here for relent/repent is םַחָנ (nacham).  There are 108 occurrences of this word in the Old Testament.¹ ”

The Hebrew word “nacham” means to be sorry, to grieve and it also can suggests “relief or comfort from a planned, undesirable course of action.²” From this definition, we can now understand much better as to what is meant when a passage of scripture says, “the Lord relented” OR “the Lord repented” etc.. For example, Isn’t it possible to grieve or feel sorry over something, even if we know that it’s going to happen? Of course it is. Therefore, there is no reason why this cannot apply to God. Furthermore, If you knew something was going to work out good in the end, wouldn’t you still be relieved when it happens? Again, the answer would be Yes. Well, God would definitely be relieved not having to bring judgment on people. He would much rather see us repent. This takes us to the next point.

God is omniscience, which mean He is all knowing, past, present and future.. In other words, God knows all things, which includes choices people will make. He also knows what would have happened if we had made a different decision. In other words, while I’m driving down the road and I come to a corner, God knew I would turn right before I did, but He also knows what would have happened if I had turned left, even though He knew I wouldn’t turn left. He knows all things..  Therefore, how could an all knowing God change His mind? If God changed His mind, in that He adapted to new information, then God does not know all things. This would obviously take away from who God is and His majesty. To fully understand how this point applies to the question, we need to also consider another biblical truth concerning cause and effects.

 Throughout the Bible, God gives us cause and effects. In other words, “if you do this, this will happen; if you do that, that will happen.” .(Examples: 2 Chron. 7:12-20 / Malachi 3:6-11 / Galatians 6:7-8)This isn’t meant to be as God changing His mind but rather a response to the prayer. “It is important to understand that God brings about certain changes in people by telling them that they will be punished if they continue in sin.  They hear God's pronouncement, change their ways, and repent.  God then "changes" from punishing them to blessing them.  This does not mean that God did not know from all eternity that they would change their ways.  It means that from all eternity God ordained the means by which they would change; namely, His pronouncement of judgment which would motivate them to change. As free creatures, He gives us the choice to change -- knowing ahead of time what our choices will be should He warn us; thereby, bringing about change through His interaction with us.” ³   To better understand this, we can consider this: God’s “cause and effects” is much like how a parent deals with child. There are cause and effects and depending on what decisions the child makes will affect how the parent reacts. The only difference is, God knows what the outcome will be before it happen.

In closing,

I think the answer is clear.. God does not change His mind. When it seems like God is changing His mind, we are seeing it from a human perspective and leaving out God’s attribute of omniscience. God always knew what the ultimate outcome would be, even when He “relents” from doing what He said He would do. As we have seen in Jonah’s account of Nineveh.  The people of Nineveh repented and God “relented” from the judgment He had declared for them.. Of course, God knew this would happen and instituted the warning to them in order to bring about their repentance.  There is no mystery here but instead it’s a sign of His mercy and majesty.

The truth is, God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is unchanging.

I’ll end with these few verse.

Malachi 3:6 "For I am the Lord; I do not change…."

Numbers 23:19 “¹⁹ “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent…”

James 1:17 “…the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

I hope this helps answer your question. Please feel free to contact us with any comments and questions.

In CHRIST,

TRM

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 1.  Strong, James. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible : Showing Every Word of the Test of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order. electronic ed., H5162. Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996.

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