When God Repents
It is admittedly strange to think of using the word repent when relating to God. For us, repenting has to do with changing one's mind regarding sin - forsaking it and running to the Lord. Obviously, God does not repent in the same way we must repent; that is from sin. We only hear of God repenting in the Old Testament, not the New. The word repent in Hebrew is the word naham which means to comfort, to relent. The word repent appears 40 times and the word comfort appears 65 times. In Genesis 6:6 we read that God repented (as it says in the KJV) that He made man on the earth and that it grieved the Lord at His heart. Now, that seems like an odd thing for the Lord to say right? Why would God regret that he made man when He knew what man would do before He created him? Scholars say that the writer is describing God in what is called the anthropopathic mode. What that means is that human emotions and characteristics are being attached to God. It helps us as finite human beings