What does the Bible say? Does God change his mind?
On a few occasions in Scripture the answer, at least on the surface, would seem to be YES.
For example, in Exodus 32 after the people have made a golden calf for themselves to worship God tells Moses,
Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.But Moses prays and intercedes for the people and we read that God relented and did not bring about the disaster he had threatened.
The first time I read that in my NIV Bible I wrote in the margins, "Moses' prayer changed the mind of God!" And indeed we should all take this story as a lesson on the power of prayer. But did God change his mind?
In Isaiah 38 Hezekiah becomes ill and hears from God who tells him:
Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.Hezekiah prays in a sorrowful, humble, and repentant manner and God adds 15 years to his life. Did Hezekiah's prayer change God's mind?
In Jonah 3:4 God gives Jonah the message to give to Nineveh, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." But the Ninevites believed God, repented, fasted, and God spared them and did not overturn them like he said. Did he change his mind?
It seems like he certainly did change his mind.
The only problem is verses like 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?"Or 1 Samuel 15:29:
"He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man that he should change his mind."And Malachi 3:6:
"I, the Lord, do not change."So how do we square these two seemingly contradictory teachings?
The answer lies in the book of Jeremiah:
"If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it." - Jeremiah 18:7-10
What this means is that anytime God announces something like he did to Moses in Ex. 32 - namely that he was about to wipe out the Israelites - there's also an implicit condition that if they repent or if a change happens God will relent and back off. God is not changing his mind here. Rather it's like a parent who looks at a child after they do something they're not supposed to and in a warning tone says, "You're about to get in trouble!" They hope the child will stop and correct their behavior before punishment is necessary. This is what's going on.
God does not change his mind. If he did it would imply that God could not see the future perfectly, or that he had been wrong in his first decision. God does not make mistakes! God is not ever surprised! And God does not change (Mal. 3:6), even when it comes to his mind. And thank goodness for that, because I can trust that he will never go back on the promises he's made to me!
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