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Does the
Lord change or not?
Malachi 3:6; and Genesis 6:6,7;
Exodus 32:14; Jonah 3:10
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God does not change
- (Malachi
3:6) - "For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of
Jacob, are not consumed."
- God does change
- (Genesis
6:6,7) - "And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the
earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7And the Lord said,
"I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from
man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am
sorry that I have made them."
- (Exodus
32:14) - "So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He
said He would do to His people."
- (Jonah
3:10) - "When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their
wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had
declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it."
When God says that
He does not change, He is speaking about His nature and character. But
this does not mean that He cannot change how He works with people throughout
history.
When we see God changing His mind, we are seeing it
from a human perspective. Since God knows all things from all
eternity, He as always known the ultimate plan that He would carry out; even
the plan to "change His mind." As we have seen in Jonah's account of
Nineveh. They repented and God relented from the destruction that was
to come upon the inhabitants. Of course, God knew this would happen
and instituted the warning to them in order to bring about their repentance.
There is no mystery here.
Return to
Bible Difficulties - Isaiah to
Malachi
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