Does God change his mind?

[tonychanyt]

Numbers 23:

19 God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

A man may change his mind. God as a divine being is immutable, i.e., he does not change his mind.

What about (NASB 1995) Exodus 32:

9 The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. 10“Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

The Lord wanted to destroy the Israelites. Moses interceded for them:

12 “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. 13“Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.

This was a case of anthropomorphism. He changed his mind like a man by attributing a human quality to the LORD. By treating God as if he were a man, the Israelites could interact with God in this frame of convention.

In his divine attribute, God never changes his mind, but he does in terms of the anthropomorphic convention while interacting with human beings.