servant4ever said:
In response to your Numbers 23:19 passage, I had to admit it was tricky to find an answer. But, we need to look at the historical context. Balaam, the person speaking the verse, is not even an Israelite. In fact, he is working for the enemies, the Moabites. Greg Boyd explains:
I think you assume that even an enemy of God can not be used by God for His purposes (I would point to Judas that preformed miracles as one of the 12)
The problem is if one takes the Hebrew word repent regarding God to mean the same thing as the word means in man then we remove one of the attributes of God (Immutability )
The word Nacham is translated
to be sorry, console oneself, repent, regret, comfort, be comforted
(Niphal)
to be sorry, be moved to pity, have compassion
to be sorry, rue, suffer grief, repent
to comfort oneself, be comforted
to comfort oneself, ease oneself
The question is can God be sorry that he had to do one thing to accomplish the next?
When one gets an organ transplant one can be sorry that it was necessary for another to die for you to get the organ ..yet that has to be the order whether you are sorry or not.
"This verse (as well as 1 Sam. 15:29 which quotes it) is often cited in refutation of the claim that God genuinely changes his mind. However, since Scripture explicitly states in dozens of contexts that the Lord does change his mind (twice in 1 Samuel 15!) the text cannot justifiably be used in this fashion. There is a straightforward explanation of this text which is perfectly consistent with texts which teach that the Lord does sometimes change his mind.
Sometimes it is the man that changes not God.
The role of Prophets included calling people to repent .When People do repent then the warning changes (just as God knew they would, as in the case of Jonah )
God knew that Nineveh would repent, this entire episode was intended to be a sign, a typology of the tree days in the tomb, and the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles (Nineveh was the first place that non Jews were given the word of God )
In this passage Balak attempted to get Balaam (a prophet-for-hire) to prophesy what he wanted to hear (cf. 22:3823:17). The Lord informed Balak that he, the true God, is not like a human being who can lie when its profitable or a mortal who will change his mind for the sake of convenience. This was a common practice for false prophets who speak on behalf of false gods. But for the first time in his life Balak (and Balaam!) confronted the real God. This God is not like a mortal who would change his mind for the reasons Balak gave him to do so." (
http://www.gregboyd.org/gbfront/index.asp?PageID=455)
Balaam needs to be looked at it two ways. The oracle itself notes that there were conditions for the blessing (v. 21). This pretty obviously indicates that if the conditions change, a "Jeremiah 18 reversal" will follow! As in 1 Sam. 15:29, Ezek. 24:14.
God knows the outcome because He ordained it.
In the response about Malachi 3:6, God is saying He does not change His character or his covenant with His people. Boyd states:
"Some cite this verse as evidence that God need never be flexible in his plans and change his mind. But this claim contradicts all the explicit declarations of Scripture, examined in Chapter I, that God does frequently modify his plans and change his mind, especially in response to prayer and repentant hearts.
I guess if Boyd says it it must be true huh? :>)
Malachi was specifically speaking of Gods covenant promise to Israel . Would Boyd suggest that God is not faithful to His covenants?
I think it is especially note worthy that this assurance to the immutability of God is in the last of the OT Books before the intertestamental period when God was silent . That word from Malachi would bring comfort during Gods silence.
Gods character never changes. He is always perfectly good and faithful. But for just this reason he will not stick to one intentioneven after hes announced it
So at any given time God can change and decide to change any of His words or works. How does one have confidence in such a God ?
if the circumstances change and render that intention no longer perfectly good (see Jer. 18:610; Jon. 4:2; Joel 2:1213). In other words, God is absolutely unchanging in his perfect character which is perfectly responsive to our ever changing circumstances." (
http://www.gregboyd.org/gbfront/index.asp?PageID=469)
How do you know that ? What assurance do you have? Who says that He is unchanging in His character and how can you trust that , when things are always subject to change. Perhaps God will send all humanity into hell where we belong
The James and Psalm passages just shows that God's loving character never changes. He will always love us, until the very end of the age. God always watches us, He knows the future possibilites that we will have to choose from, He can change His mind, and He allows us to have free will.
How do you know that ? What proof do you offer that God can change His mind about some things and not others?
The god Boyd teaches is a fickle god that is subject to whims . How do you know that He will not change the plan of salvation or once again flood the world . His god is like a man it seems to Boyd.
Psalm 33:11
The counsel of the LORD stands forever,The plans of His heart from generation to generation.
Sorry if this post is too long, have a great night
I hope you did also
Now I will lengthen the post yet more
This is written by my son's Pastor on this topic
God Does Not Repent Like a Man
November 11, 1998
After Saul disobeys Samuel, God says, "I regret [= repent] 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). Some have argued that since God "repents" of things he has done, therefore he could not have foreseen what was coming. Else why would he repent or regret, if he knew in advance the consequence of his decision?
However, this is not a compelling argument against God's foreknowledge. First of all, the argument assumes that God could not, or would not, lament over a state of affairs he himself chose to bring about. That not true to human experience; and more importantly, God's heart is capable of complex combinations of emotions infinitely more remarkable that ours. He may well be capable of lamenting over something he chose to bring about.
Not only that, God may also be capable of looking back on the very act of bringing something about and lamenting that act in one regard, while affirming it as best in another regard. For example, if I spank my son for blatant disobedience and he runs away from home because I spanked him, I may feel some remorse over the spanking - not in the sense that I disapprove of what I did, but in the sense that I feel some sorrow that spanking was a necessary part of a wise way of dealing with this situation, and that it led to his running away. If I had it to do over again, I would still spank him. It was the right thing to do. Even knowing that one consequence would be alienation for a season, I approve the spanking, and at the same time regret the spanking. If such a combination of emotions can accompany my own decisions, it is not hard to imagine that God's infinite mind may be capable of something similar.
Now the question is: Does the Bible teach that God laments some of his decisions in the sense that I have described above (which does not imply that He is ignorant of their future consequences), or does the Bible teach that God laments some of his decisions because he did not see what was coming?
The answer is given later in 1 Samuel 15. After God says in verse 11, "I repent that I have made Saul king," Samuel says in verse 29, as if to clarify, "The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent" (KJV). The point of this verse seems to be that, even though there is a sense in which God does repent (verse 11), there is another sense in which he does not repent (verse 29). The difference would naturally be that God's repentance happens in spite of perfect foreknowledge, while most human repentance happens because we lack foreknowledge. God's way of "repenting" is unique to God: "God is not a man that he should repent" (the way a man repents in his ignorance of the future).
For God to say, "I feel sorrow that I made Saul king," is not the same as saying, "I would not make him king if I had it to do over." God is able to feel sorrow for an act in view of foreknown evil and pain, and yet go ahead and will to do it for wise reasons. And so later, when he looks back on the act, he can feel the sorrow for the act that was leading to the sad conditions, such as Saul's disobedience.
Hence we have our precious fighter verse in Numbers 23:19 - "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" I say it is precious, because here God's commitment to his promises hangs on his not repenting like a man. In other words, God's promises are not in jeopardy, because God can foresee all circumstances, he knows that nothing will occur that will cause him to take them back.
Resting in the confidence of God's all-knowing promises,
Pastor John
http://www.desiringgod.org/library/fresh_words/1998/111198.html
