Can God Change?

There are numerous places in the Bible where it appears God changes his mind, but that is against what scripture teaches us. Malachi 3:6 tells us the Lord does not change. Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever. That should bring tremendous relief to us as believers. Why? Because all the promises of God will remain true forever.

Now, I want to look at some accounts where it “appears” God has changed his mind and try my best to explain the text we are examining.

In Genesis 6:5-7 we read that “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (emphasis added).

And the Lord regretted or was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the earth, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them” .

Why would God regret creating man when he knew what man would do before he laid the foundations of the earth? From the language it seems like God was caught off guard regarding man’s wicked behavior; it appears God was shocked by man’s evil. Was he? Not at all. Rather the writer of Genesis, Moses is writing from the perspective of God with human emotion and experience. He is writing in what is called the Anthropopathic mode. Human characteristics are being attributed to God.

So in the final analysis, God did not change his mind regarding creating man for everything God made was very good (Gen 1:31), rather he regretted and was sorry how man degenerated in his wickedness. Another proof that God did not change his mind is by virtue of the fact that he saved eight souls in the flood and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Gen 7:23;9:1).

Jonah and the Ninevites

God commanded the reluctant prophet Jonah to preach one message to Nineveh, “Arise, go to Nineveh that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jon 1:2).  Jonah initially disobeyed, boarded a ship in Joppa to flee 2200 miles west to Tarshish (believed to be in the region of Spain) from the presence of the Lord (he thought). We know the story,  he was thrown off the ship into the sea, swallowed by a great fish where he was three days, and three nights (vs.17).

Once Jonah prayed and thanked God in the fish, the creature belched and spit Jonah out on dry land (Jonah chapter 2).

God came to Jonah a second time and commanded him to go to Nineveh and preach this warning from the Lord, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he (the king) issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it (Jon 3:1-10).

I want to examine three things here. First, the only recorded sermon we have of Jonah is only seven words! That’s right, seven words, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Jonah had to travel three days and 600 miles just to deliver these seven words to a nation and city that he hated.

What this tells me is that he was committed to declaring God’s truth in enemy territory.

The second thing that is very important to point out is the import of Jonah’s seven-word sermon was enough for Nineveh to believe God and repent in sackcloth and ashes. This type of behavior was an expression of extreme grief and anguish in ancient times. One would take off their clothes, but on garments of humiliation, usually with fasting and implore God for mercy and forgiveness. That is what the king of Nineveh and every citizen of the city did even as it was proclaimed and published.

They even made the animals fast and wear sackcloth (Jon 3:8).

It took only seven words for Nineveh to get the message that God was warning  them of their evil. Why else would they proclaim a city wide fast and call out mightily to God?

And third, did God change his mind regarding the evil he determined against Nineveh? No. God did not change at all. Rather, Nineveh repented which meant God was able to express his loving kindness and spare them instead of destroying them. God always forgives those who genuinely repent and judges those who refuse to repent when given numerous warnings to do so. God always remains constant in his perfect character.

Had Nineveh refused to repent, they would have been destroyed in 40 days as the prophet Jonah declared.