The Immutability of God in the Old Testament: Does God Change His Mind?

[Even though we’re finished blogging, this topic raised an interesting discussion in class the other day; and I had just been discussing this very topic with the ladies in my community group the night before- thus, a blog!]

We’re given several examples in the Old Testament of God “changing His mind”; but I will limit myself primarily to Exodus 32 and 1 Samuel for the purposes of this discussion. Read Exodus 32: 10-14:

Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, "O 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?

Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

And the LORD repented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

And here is 1 Samuel 15:10-11:

The word of the LORD came to Samuel:

"I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments." And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night.

On both of these occasions, God ‘repented’ of an action that He had previously taken. While it would seem that he desired to change his course of action, there is no indication that he intended to change his plan entirely. The Exodus passage tells us that God still wanted to make a great nation of Israel; the Samuel passage reverses a decision God was already displeased about making. Even with the ‘repenting’ or ‘changing his mind’, the Lord’s plan would still be carried out. God said he would destroy the grumbling Israelites, not Moses- there would still have been a remnant to build on, so he would have been able to keep his promise to Abraham. While Israel had been given instructions for kings long before they had them’ specifically that their kings would be from the tribe of Judah; appointing Saul the Benjamite seemed to be contrary to these instructions. So did God change his mind by appointing Saul in the first place; and was Saul’s house of kingship temporary from the beginning? Or did the change of mind come when Saul failed to obey? David was of the tribe of Judah and there was no covenant between God and Saul that was in danger of being broken. So it may be more accurate to say that God changed a detail in the plan rather than the outcome of it. It seems that all the occasions where God ‘changes his mind’ fall into that category- God said he would send Israel into exile for her idolatry, but he pushed back the timetable time and again because there was a righteous person to stem the tide. But he did eventually allow them to be carried off, and then he kept his promise to gather them back to Judah.

While this tends to agree with the camp that says God can change his mind, I can’t emphasize strongly enough the fact that these instances don’t alter the master plan- they in no way detract from covenants he made with people or the things that are to come.

The real question though, seems to be whether or not God’s actions are influenced by our prayers. If they are, does that diminish his authority? and if they are not, then why pray? The discussion I mentioned earlier- the one with my community group- addressed this question. We wrestled with it for over an hour, and finally ended up finding some peace with the answer I gave to the ‘does God change his mind’ question. God does as he pleases- there is no doubt about that. His plans will come to fruition in his timetable. But it does seem that God will choose to alter the means because of our prayers, as long as that alteration does not change the end. In plain language, yes- God does change his mind and can be influenced by our prayers. But again: only when the means don’t change the end, and only when it doesn’t diminish his glory in that action.