Does God Repent?
Genesis 6:6 - 'The Lord regretted that he had made human beings.' 1 Samuel 15:11 - 'I regret that I have made Saul king.' Numbers 23:19 - 'God is not human, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.'
Wait... what? Does God regret decisions or doesn't He? Does He change His mind or doesn't He? Today we're tackling one of Scripture's most fascinating paradoxes - and discovering how the answer reveals something profound about who God is.
Welcome back to Word for Word, I'm Austin Duncan, and today we're tackling a question that has puzzled believers for centuries and honestly, might have you scratching your head too: Does God repent? And I know what some of you might be thinking: "Wait, why would God need to repent? Isn't repentance something we do when we mess up?" And that's exactly why this question is so fascinating and, frankly, so important for us to wrestle with together. You see, when we open our Bibles, we find passages that seem to suggest God changes His mind, that He feels regret, that He "repents" of decisions He's made. But we also find clear statements that God never changes. So what's going on here? Are we dealing with a contradiction? Is the Bible confused about God's nature? Or is there something deeper happening that we need to understand?
Today, we're going to dive into this question with both our minds and our hearts engaged, because this isn't just an academic exercise. This touches the very core of who God is and how He relates to us. And I promise you, by the end of our time together, you're going to have a richer, deeper understanding of God's character that will actually strengthen your faith and transform how you pray.
The Puzzle That Keeps Us Up at Night
This is one of those topics that can make your brain hurt if you think about it too long. I remember the first time I really wrestled with this tension in Scripture. I was a young pastor, still pretty fresh in ministry, preparing a sermon, and I came across Genesis 6:6. Maybe you’ve read it before. It says:
“And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”
And I just froze. I stared at the page for a while, almost like maybe if I stared long enough, it would explain itself to me. God…regretted? The Creator of the universe, the One who knows all, the One who sees the end from the beginning — He was sorry He made humanity? That didn’t compute. I found myself asking: how can God be sorry for something He knew was going to happen? How can God regret something when He’s the One who planned it all out? But it wasn’t just Genesis 6:6. Once you see it, you start noticing it in other places too. In Exodus 32, after Israel makes the golden calf — that horrible moment of betrayal where they worship a statue just after God delivers them from Egypt — Moses pleads with God not to destroy them. And what does the text say:
“And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.”
Some translations even say “the LORD repented” (KJV, ASV, ERV).
Then in 1 Samuel 15, God says:
“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.”
And again, we’re left scratching our heads. Regret? God regrets?
Jonah 3 — Nineveh repents, turns from their sin, and we read:
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”
But then we turn in Scripture and find verses that sound like the complete opposite.
“God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”
James 1:17 describes God as:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
So which is it? Does God repent? Does He change His mind? Or doesn’t He? How do we hold these seemingly opposite truths together without getting tied in theological knots? That’s what we’re diving into today. And if you stay with me, I believe you’ll not only understand what’s happening in these passages, but you’ll also see how they actually help you know and trust God better.
Understanding the Heart Behind the Question
Before we get into the deeper theology, before we start unpacking Hebrew words or exploring commentaries, let’s pause and think about why this question matters so much. This is not about trying to win a debate or prove how much we know about difficult Bible verses. It is not about showing off knowledge or impressing people with complicated answers.
This question touches something very personal. It goes right to the heart of our relationship with God.
Imagine if God truly changed His mind in the way that people do. If He made decisions without fully knowing how they would turn out, if He experienced real surprise, if He looked back on something He did and thought, “I wish I had not done that.” What would that mean for us? What would that say about His promises? Could we trust Him when He says He loves us? Could we be sure that His love will not fade or fail? Could we really have confidence that His plans for our lives are good and reliable? Now think about the other side. What if God never changes in any way at all? What if He is completely unmoved by our prayers or our repentance? What if nothing we say or do matters to Him? What kind of relationship would that be? Could we call Him Father if He never listens or responds? Would we really believe that He cares about us if nothing we do touches His heart?
This is why the question is so important. It is not just about solving a theological puzzle. It is about knowing the God we love and worship. It is about asking whether we can trust His promises. It is about whether we can believe that our prayers matter. It is about whether our choices, our faith, and our repentance make a difference to Him. This is why we need to approach this question with care. We need to go slowly, to pray as we study, and to listen humbly to what Scripture teaches. We should not try to force the Bible into categories that make us feel comfortable. Instead, we need to let God reveal Himself as He truly is. At the end of the day, this is not about winning an argument. It is about seeing the beauty of who God is. He is the One who is unchanging in His character and promises, and at the same time deeply engaged with His people. He is steady and faithful, and He is also full of compassion and mercy. This is the God we can trust. This is the God who invites us into a real relationship with Him.
When God Says "I'm Sorry"
Let's start by honestly examining the passages where Scripture says God repents or relents. We're not going to explain them away or pretend they don't exist. These are God's words, and they're in the Bible for a reason.
Genesis 6:6-7 - God's Sorrow Over Human Evil
One of the first major passages that brings up this question is in Genesis 6:6-7. It says,
“And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’”
This is the moment right before the story of the flood. Humanity had fallen into such deep wickedness that Scripture describes it in the strongest possible terms. Genesis 6:5 says that every intention of the thoughts of human hearts was only evil all the time. That is how serious and widespread the rebellion had become. And in response, God expresses sorrow. This is not a casual or detached sorrow. The passage tells us it grieved Him at His heart. It was deep and personal. The Hebrew word used here is nacham (נָחַם). It is a rich word that carries layers of meaning. It can mean to be sorry or to regret, but it can also mean to be moved with compassion or to change one’s course. It even has a sense of comforting oneself. In this context, it shows the emotional weight of God’s response. This is not cold, calculated regret as if God is sitting back and rethinking His plan in a detached way. This is the heartbreak of a Creator watching His creation choose a path that leads to destruction.
But here is something we need to keep in mind. This sorrow does not mean that God was surprised or caught off guard. It does not mean God made a mistake. Think about it in terms of your own life. Have you ever made a choice that you knew was right, even though you also knew it would bring pain? Maybe you had to discipline your child. Maybe you had to set a boundary in a relationship that you knew would hurt, but it was necessary. In those moments you can feel sorrow about the pain while still knowing that you chose rightly. That is closer to what is happening here. God’s grief over human sin is real. It is deep. It shows His heart. But it does not mean that He did not see it coming. It does not mean that He made an error in creating humanity. What it shows us is that God takes sin seriously and that He grieves over the ruin it brings to His creation. It shows us that His judgment flows out of both His justice and His sorrow over what sin has done.
Exodus 32:14 - Moses Changes God's Mind?
The next passage that really makes us stop and think is Exodus 32:14. This is right after Israel makes the golden calf. God tells Moses that He is ready to destroy the people and start over with Moses. But Moses steps in. He intercedes for the people. He reminds God of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then we read this powerful line:
“And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.”
That makes me pause. Did Moses actually change God’s mind? Did human prayer really cause God to alter His plan? This is where we need to take a closer look. Notice what Moses does in his prayer. He does not give God new information. He does not point out something God forgot. Moses appeals to what God already declared about Himself. He calls on God to remember His promises. He pleads with God to act according to His own character. It is as if Moses is saying, “God, stay true to who You are. Be faithful to what You have said.” The word used here for relented is נִחָם (nicham), from the same root as in Genesis 6:6. It can mean to relent, to have compassion, or to change course in response to something. But this does not mean God was caught off guard or had to rethink His plan. God’s response was not, “Oh, I had not considered that.” God’s response was to act in line with His unchanging faithfulness to His covenant.
The relenting we see in this passage is not a contradiction of who God is. It is actually an expression of who God is. God had always purposed to show mercy to a repentant people. He had always planned to be faithful to His promises. Moses’ intercession was part of how God carried out that plan.
1 Samuel 15 - The Puzzle Gets Deeper
Maybe the most puzzling passage on this topic is found in 1 Samuel 15. In verse 11, God says,
“ ‘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.”
The Hebrew word there for regret is נִחַמְתִּי (nichamti). Then, just eighteen verses later, Samuel tells Saul,
“And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.”
That word for regret is the same Hebrew root, נִחָם (nicham). Did you catch that? In the very same chapter, using the very same word, the Bible says both that God does regret and that God does not regret. If that does not make you stop and think, I do not know what will. So what is going on here? The key is to see how the passage itself is helping us understand something about God. In verse 11, when God says He regrets making Saul king, it is describing God’s emotional response to Saul’s disobedience. This is speaking in a way that we can relate to. It shows us that God grieves over sin and over the ruin that rebellion brings. But verse 29 is talking about something different. It is pointing to God’s essential nature. God is not like us. He does not change His mind because He lacked information. He does not make decisions and then second-guess Himself like people do. God’s regret is not like human regret.
This is not a contradiction. It is actually a clarification. The Bible is showing us that when it speaks of God regretting, it is using language that helps us understand His sorrow over sin. But it is also reminding us that God’s purposes are steady, His wisdom is perfect, and His decisions are never made out of ignorance or weakness. God’s regret is something deeper. It reflects His holy and compassionate response to sin, not uncertainty or changeability like we see in ourselves.
Jonah 3:10 - When Repentance Meets Relenting
Finally, let's look at Jonah 3:10:
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”
This is actually one of the most beautiful examples in Scripture of how God's "relenting" works. God had declared through Jonah that Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days. But when the people repented, when they turned from their evil ways and cried out to God for mercy, God withheld the judgment He had threatened. Was this a surprise to God? Had He not anticipated that Nineveh might repent? Actually, if you read the book of Jonah carefully, you'll see that Jonah himself knew this might happen. In Jonah 4:2, he says,
“And he prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”
In other words, God's willingness to relent when people repent isn't a character flaw or inconsistency, it's fundamental to who He is. It's part of His unchanging nature to show mercy to those who turn to Him.
The Anchor Verses - God's Unchanging Nature
Before we go any further in trying to understand what it means when the Bible says God relents or regrets, we need to make sure we have a firm foundation. The Bible teaches clearly and consistently that God does not change. This truth about God’s unchangeable nature helps us make sense of those other passages. While the Bible does describe God as relenting or grieving, it speaks even more plainly about the fact that His character and purposes are constant. God does not shift like we do. He does not change His mind because He made a mistake or because He learns something new.
Numbers 23:19 - The Foundation Stone
One of the clearest and most important verses we can turn to when we’re asking if God changes His mind is found in Numbers 23:19. This verse gives us a steady foundation to build on as we think through these questions. It says:
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
Let’s take a moment to slow down and really think about what that means. We all know what people are like. We change our minds. We say things and then don’t follow through. Sometimes we make promises we can’t keep because we didn’t think them through or didn’t see all the consequences. Sometimes we speak too soon and then have to walk it back later. That’s part of being human. We are limited in knowledge, we are limited in power, and sometimes we’re just plain inconsistent. But what this verse is telling us is that God is nothing like that. God isn’t human in that way. He doesn’t lie. He doesn’t say one thing and do another. He doesn’t change His mind because He didn’t think through what would happen. He doesn’t make a promise and then realize later that He can’t keep it. When God says something, you can count on it. When He makes a promise, He will keep it. There are no surprises for Him. No plan B. No moments where He has to reconsider because He overlooked something. His word always stands. His purposes always hold firm.
And the setting for this verse makes it even more powerful. This happens in the story of Balaam. Balak, the king of Moab, is terrified because he’s seen how God is with Israel. He hires Balaam to come and curse Israel, hoping that maybe he can stop them that way. But Balaam tells Balak that he can only say what God tells him to say. And instead of a curse, God puts a blessing in Balaam’s mouth. Balak is frustrated. He wants to change God’s plan. He wants to reverse God’s blessing. But Balaam makes it clear, that’s not going to happen. God doesn’t change His mind like a man. What He has spoken, He will do. What He has promised, He will fulfill.
This is so important truth for us as we think about those other passages that say God regretted or relented as well. Numbers 23:19 reminds us that whatever else is going on in those stories, it isn’t that God is like us, changing His mind because He made a mistake or because He didn’t know what would happen. God’s purposes are steady. His promises are sure. His word is reliable.
Just imagine if God were like us in this way. Imagine if He changed His mind the way we do. How could we trust His promises? How could we be sure of His love? What if He promised to forgive us today, but tomorrow He changed His mind? What if He said He would be with us always, but then something happened that made Him rethink that? We would be left with no solid ground to stand on. But the good news is that God is not like us. His word is unshakable. His promises are secure. When we read about God grieving over sin or relenting from judgment, we’re seeing how God’s steady, unchanging character interacts with a changing world. From our point of view, it can look like God changed His mind. But what’s really happening is that God is responding to people in ways that are always perfectly consistent with who He is. His mercy, His justice, His compassion - those things don’t change. But how we experience them can change, depending on how we respond to Him. When people repent, they meet God’s mercy. When people rebel, they meet His justice. And behind it all is the same faithful God, keeping His word, acting according to His perfect character.
Malachi 3:6 - The Comfort of Consistency
Another verse that speaks directly to this truth is Malachi 3:6. It says:
“For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”
Let’s take a moment to think about what is happening here. God is speaking to His people at a time when they have been unfaithful. The book of Malachi is full of examples where Israel has fallen short. They have questioned God’s justice. They have failed in their worship. They have doubted His love. And yet, right in the middle of calling them to repentance, God gives this beautiful reminder. He says, “I the LORD do not change.”
And why is that good news? Because, as God goes on to say, it is precisely because He does not change that they have not been consumed. In other words, if God were like us, if His love came and went, if His patience ran out, if His faithfulness shifted depending on His mood, Israel would have been wiped out long ago. But they weren’t. And the reason they weren’t is because God’s character stays the same. His mercy endures. His covenant faithfulness holds steady. His promises are not like human promises that falter when tested.
This is so important for us to see. God’s unchangeability here isn’t presented as some distant theological concept for philosophers to debate. It’s presented as a source of comfort and hope for His people. God is telling them, “You are still here because I am still who I have always been.” His steady nature is what gives them another chance. His unchanging character is what makes repentance possible and restoration sure.
That same truth speaks to us today. When we stumble, when we struggle, when we wonder if God has finally had enough of us, Malachi 3:6 reminds us that God doesn’t change. His love doesn’t wear out. His promises don’t expire. His grace isn’t here today and gone tomorrow. That is the foundation of our hope. That is why we can come to Him again and again, knowing that He will meet us with the same mercy, the same patience, the same faithfulness that He has always shown. God’s constancy isn’t cold or detached. It is the reason we are not consumed. It is the reason we have hope. His unchanging nature is what holds us steady even when we falter.
James 1:17 - No Shadow of Change
The New Testament echoes the same truth we have been seeing throughout the Old Testament, that God doesn’t change. James 1:17 puts it this way:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Let’s pause and really think about that. James describes God as the “Father of lights.” That’s a beautiful image. He’s pointing to God as the Creator of the sun, the moon, the stars (all the lights in the sky that give warmth, beauty, and order to the world). But here’s what’s interesting. From our point of view on earth, those lights seem to change. The sun rises and sets. The moon goes through its phases. The stars wheel across the night sky. Even the brightness of those lights can look different depending on clouds, or the time of day, or where we are standing.
But the sun is still the sun. The stars are still the stars. It’s our perspective that changes, not their nature. And James is telling us that when it comes to God, there is not even the slightest hint of change. There is no variation at all. No shifting. No turning. No shadow creeping across His character. The God who was good yesterday is still good today. The God who was faithful before will still be faithful tomorrow. His love does not rise and fall like the sun. His mercy does not wax and wane like the moon. His promises do not drift like stars across the sky. He is steady. He is sure. He is constant.
And James ties this truth directly to the gifts God gives. He says that every good and perfect gift in your life comes from this God who doesn’t change. Think about that for a moment. The breath in your lungs. The food on your table. The people who love you. The grace that saves you. All of it flows from the hand of the God who never shifts, never flickers, never fades. That means you can trust those gifts. You can rest in them. You don’t have to wonder if God’s generosity will dry up. You don’t have to fear that His kindness will run out or that He’ll take it back because He changed His mind.
Now, let’s connect this back to the big question we’ve been asking about God relenting or regretting. When we read those passages, it might seem at first glance like God is changing. Maybe we wonder if He has second thoughts or if He is adjusting His plans as He goes. But James helps us see the deeper reality. What looks like change is really God’s unchanging goodness responding to changing human hearts and actions. When people repent, they meet the mercy that was always there. When people rebel, they face the justice that was always there. God’s character doesn’t shift. It’s our position before Him that changes, like moving from light into shadow or shadow into light.
And here’s why this matters so much for us. Life changes. We change. Circumstances shift. We go through seasons where we feel close to God and seasons where we feel far from Him. But God Himself doesn’t change. His heart toward us remains steady. His promises stand firm. His grace is always sufficient. That’s why James points us to this truth as a source of hope. In a world that feels uncertain, in lives that are often filled with ups and downs, God is the one constant we can rely on.
The Key to Understanding
So how do we reconcile these seemingly contradictory teachings? The key is understanding that the Bible often speaks about God using human language and concepts, what theologians call anthropomorphism. That just means God sometimes speaks about Himself using human language and human imagery. It’s not because God is like us in every way, but because He wants us to understand something true about Him in a way that we can relate to.
Speaking in Terms We Can Understand
Let’s think about this with a simple example. Imagine you’re talking to a five-year-old child. Suppose your child disobeys, and you need to help them understand that their actions matter, that they affect your relationship. You might say, “Daddy is sad when you don’t listen.” Now, that sadness is real. But your sadness as a parent is not exactly like a child’s sadness. Your sadness comes from a place of love, from wanting what is best for your child, from seeing the bigger picture of where their choices can lead. A child’s sadness might come from being in trouble or from losing a privilege. Both are called sadness, but they are not the same. In the same way, when the Bible says God “repents” or “regrets,” it is describing how God responds to human sin or human repentance in language that we can understand. It’s showing us that God is not cold or indifferent to what happens. He is engaged. He is relational. He cares deeply about righteousness, about justice, about mercy. But we need to be careful. Just because the Bible uses a word like regret or repentance does not mean that God’s experience of those things is exactly like ours.
When we repent, it’s usually because we realize we were wrong. We see our sin, or we discover that our decision didn’t turn out the way we hoped, so we change our mind. But that’s not what’s happening with God. God never makes a wrong choice. He never gains new information that forces Him to adjust. He never looks back and says, “I didn’t see that coming.” When the Bible speaks of God regretting or relenting, it is helping us understand His heart toward sin and His responsiveness to human actions, not telling us that God changes in the way people do. God uses this kind of language because He loves us. He wants us to know Him. And because we are limited in our understanding, He graciously speaks to us in ways we can grasp. He shows us His grief over sin in terms that make sense to us. He shows us His mercy in ways that help us trust Him. But behind that human language is the unchanging, perfect, all-wise God who is always true to His character. So just keep in mind that God’s use of human language is a gift. It helps us see His heart.
But it doesn’t mean that His nature is like ours in its limitations. When we see words like regret or repent applied to God, we are being invited to understand His care, His compassion, and His justice (not to think that He is just like us), figuring things out as He goes along.
The Difference Between Divine and Human Regret
Now let’s get to the heart of what makes God’s “regret” or “repentance” so different from ours. This is where we need to slow down and think carefully, because if we mix up what’s true of us with what’s true of God, we’ll end up confused about His character.
When people feel regret or repent, what’s usually behind it? Think about your own life. When you’ve felt regret, it’s often because of one of these reasons. Maybe you acted without knowing all the facts. You made a decision, and later you learned something that made you wish you had chosen differently. Or maybe you made a poor judgment call. You thought you were doing the right thing at the time, but it turned out badly, and you felt regret because you realized you misjudged the situation. Sometimes we feel regret because we’ve done something wrong. We’ve sinned. We’ve hurt someone, and we know it. Or maybe we regret because we changed our minds after gaining new information. We see things more clearly now, and we realize we want to go in a different direction.
All of that makes sense when we’re talking about human beings. But none of that applies to God. God doesn’t lack knowledge. He knows everything from the beginning. There’s no new information that will surprise Him or cause Him to adjust His plan. God never makes a mistake in judgment. His wisdom is perfect. He always knows what is best and acts according to that perfect wisdom. God doesn’t do wrong. He is holy. There’s no sin in Him that would lead to regret in the way we experience it. And God doesn’t change His mind because He learned something new or because His plan didn’t work out the way He hoped. That just isn’t who God is.
So what’s really happening when the Bible says that God “repents” or “regrets”? It’s showing us His heart. It’s describing how God, who is perfectly holy and perfectly good, responds to human sin. It’s showing us His sorrow over the damage that sin brings. It’s showing us that He is not distant or indifferent. And when people repent and turn back to Him, it’s showing us that God delights to show mercy. His relenting isn’t because He changed His essential plan or because His purposes shifted. His response comes from His unchanging character, a character that is always just, always merciful, always faithful to His promises.
This is so important for us to remember. When we read that God regretted making Saul king, or that He relented from bringing disaster on Nineveh, it’s not telling us that God made a mistake or had second thoughts. It’s telling us that God is deeply engaged with His creation. He grieves over sin because of what it does to people and to His world. He responds to repentance because that’s exactly who He has always been, the God who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
So we don’t need to worry that God’s “regret” means He’s unreliable or unsure of Himself. Instead, we can see it for what it truly is, a window into the heart of a God who is both perfectly consistent and deeply compassionate.
A Father's Heart in Divine Language
Let me share an analogy that might make this clearer. Imagine a wise, loving father who has raised his teenage son with care. This father knows his son well. He knows his strengths, his struggles, and the choices his son is tempted to make. And because the father is wise, he can already see where some of those choices might lead. He knows that his son is about to make a destructive decision, one that will bring pain, one that will have real consequences. Now, this father could step in and stop it. He could take away the choice. But he also knows that sometimes, the best way for his son to grow is to let him face those consequences.
So the father allows it. Not because he wants his son to suffer, but because he loves him and longs for him to learn what is good and true. When the consequences come, the father isn’t surprised. He isn’t caught off guard. He saw it coming all along. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel the pain of it. He does. The father feels deep grief as he watches his son struggle, as he sees the pain that those choices bring. His heart aches, not because his plan failed, but because he loves his son and hates to see him hurting.
And then comes the beautiful part. When that son, humbled and broken, comes home and says, “I’m sorry,” the father’s joy is real. His forgiveness is immediate. His love pours out, just as it always has.
Now, here’s the key point. The father’s emotions are real. His grief, his sorrow, his joy, all of it is genuine. But none of those responses mean his character changed. None of those feelings mean his commitment to his son wavered. What changed were the circumstances. What changed was his son’s heart. The father’s unchanging love showed itself in different ways depending on what was happening. His grief and his joy flowed from the same steady love; love that never shifted, love that always sought what was best for his child.
That’s a picture of what we see when the Bible talks about God’s repentance or regret. It’s not about God changing His mind because He made a mistake. It’s about God’s perfect, steady, unchanging love showing itself in different ways as He interacts with people. When we sin, we see His grief. When we repent, we see His mercy. But behind it all is the same faithful God, whose heart is always turned toward His people with love, justice, and compassion.
Key Theological Principles - The Framework for Understanding
Let me give you four key principles that I believe help us navigate these complex texts faithfully.
1. Immutability - God's Unchanging Essence
Let’s start with something that Scripture makes very clear. God’s essential nature does not change. This is what theologians call immutability, which simply means God is unchanging in who He is. His character stays the same forever. His love does not fade. His holiness is never compromised. His justice is always right. His mercy remains steady. His wisdom is perfect and does not shift over time. Every attribute of God that you read about in the Bible is true of Him yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
And this means His purposes and His promises are secure. When God says He will do something, He will do it. When He makes a covenant, that covenant stands. He doesn’t go back on His word. He doesn’t change His mind because He got tired of keeping His promises or because He’s frustrated with us. That’s not who He is. When He commits Himself to His people, that commitment is forever.
Now, here’s where it’s important to be careful. Sometimes when people hear that God is unchanging, they picture Him as distant or detached, like a stone that never moves or a machine that just keeps running the same way no matter what. But that’s not the God of the Bible. God’s immutability doesn’t mean He’s cold or unfeeling. It doesn’t mean He’s static or unresponsive. In fact, it’s just the opposite.
Because God never changes in His character, we can count on Him to always respond in a way that is faithful to who He is. His actions in the world flow out of that steady, perfect nature. When people repent, God shows mercy because He is always merciful. When people persist in rebellion, God brings justice because He is always just. His responses to changing human behavior don’t come from Him changing who He is. They come from Him being absolutely consistent with who He has always been.
So when we see God grieving over sin or relenting from judgment, what we’re seeing is God’s unchanging character interacting with a changing world. His heart for righteousness, His desire to show mercy, His commitment to justice, these are steady.
2. Omniscience - God's Perfect Knowledge
The second truth we need to keep in mind is that God’s knowledge is perfect and complete. From beginning to end, God knows everything. He knows every detail of the past, present, and future all at once. There is no new information that comes to Him. There is no unexpected development that catches Him off guard. He doesn’t have moments where He says, “Oh, I didn’t see that coming.” That’s simply not how God works.
Psalm 147:5 puts it beautifully when it says, “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.” Think about that for a moment. God’s understanding is beyond measure, beyond what we can count, beyond what we can fully grasp. His wisdom and knowledge have no limits.
So when we come to those passages that say God regretted something, like when He regretted making Saul king, we need to remember this truth. God didn’t regret because He was surprised by what Saul did. It wasn’t as though Saul’s failure was a shock that forced God to rethink His plan. God knew exactly how Saul would act before Saul ever became king. He knew every choice Saul would make.
So what’s happening when Scripture says God regretted or grieved? It’s showing us God’s heart. It’s describing His real, genuine sorrow over sin and the harm it causes. It’s showing us how deeply God cares about what happens in His creation. But that sorrow isn’t the result of God being caught off guard. It’s not regret in the way we experience it, where we wish we had chosen differently because something unexpected happened. It’s God’s holy, loving response to sin and its consequences. And here’s the key: that response was always part of His perfect, eternal plan.
From the beginning, God knew what would happen. From the beginning, He knew how He would feel about it. From the beginning, He had already purposed how He would respond. His grief over sin, His mercy toward repentance, His justice in judgment, none of these come from surprise or new information. They flow from the heart of a God whose knowledge is complete, whose understanding is beyond measure, and whose plan is always perfect.
3. Covenant Faithfulness - God's Reliable Promises
The third truth we need to see is that God’s responses in Scripture are always consistent with His covenant commitments. In other words, when God acts in history, He does so in line with the promises He has made. He doesn’t respond randomly or out of changing moods. He responds in ways that are perfectly faithful to what He has said He will do.
So when we read that God “relents” from judgment, especially in places like when Nineveh repents or when Moses intercedes for Israel, what’s actually happening? God is doing exactly what He has always promised to do. He is showing mercy to those who humble themselves, confess their sin, and turn back to Him. His relenting is not God changing His mind in the way people do. It’s God being completely faithful to His character, the same character He declared to Moses on Mount Sinai, the same character that has defined His relationship with His people from the beginning.
Nehemiah 9:17 captures this so clearly. As the people of Israel look back on God’s dealings with them, they say: “You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” That’s who God is. That’s who He has always been. And that’s who He will always be.
When God shows mercy, when He holds back judgment in response to repentance, He isn’t acting out of inconsistency. He’s acting out of faithfulness. He’s doing what He has always said He would do. His relenting is not a break from His plan, it’s the expression of His plan. It’s what He wants. It’s what He promises. When people repent, God meets them with grace, because that’s exactly the kind of God He is.
This truth is such a comfort for us. It means we don’t have to wonder whether God will be merciful “this time” or whether He’ll forgive “just this once.” We don’t have to question if maybe His patience has run out. We can come to Him with confidence, knowing that when we turn to Him, we will always find the same gracious, merciful God, ready to forgive and abounding in steadfast love.
4. Divine Responsiveness - God's Relational Nature
The fourth truth we need to hold onto is that the Bible presents God as genuinely relational and responsive. This is something we see all over Scripture. God listens to prayers. He responds to faith. He grieves over sin. He delights when people repent and turn back to Him. These are not just figures of speech or poetic ways of talking about God. They point to the real relationship God has with His creation.
God is not distant or detached. He is deeply involved with what happens in the world and in our lives. Think about all the moments in the Bible when God’s heart is shown so clearly, when He weeps over sin’s destruction, when He forgives the repentant, when He draws near to the brokenhearted, when He answers the cries of His people. This is the God we see in Scripture: relational, compassionate, and engaged.
But here’s the important balance to remember. God’s responsiveness is never about Him being reactive the way we are. He is not caught off guard. He is not adjusting His plan because something happened that He didn’t expect. His responsiveness flows from His unchanging purposes. From the beginning, God planned to work through relationships. He planned to respond to faith. He planned to act with mercy toward repentance and justice toward rebellion.
So when we pray, and God answers, it’s not because we changed His mind or gave Him new information. It’s because He has always intended to be the kind of God who hears and responds to His people. When we repent, and He forgives, it’s not a shift in His plan, it’s the outworking of His plan. His responsiveness is part of His eternal purpose, not a change from it.
This is what makes our relationship with God so amazing. We are not dealing with a distant force or an unfeeling ruler. We are in relationship with a living, loving God who really does listen, respond, and care. And because His responses flow from His unchanging nature, we can trust Him completely. He will always act in line with His perfect wisdom, His steadfast love, and His eternal plan.
Practical Implications & What This Means for Our Faith
Now let’s bring this down to where we actually live. We’ve explored some deep truths about God’s nature, His unchanging character, and His real responsiveness. But what difference does this make for your daily walk with God? How should it shape the way you pray, trust, repent, and live? Let’s talk through a few key ways this understanding helps us.
1. Confidence in Prayer
First, it gives us real confidence when we pray. When we see that God truly responds to the prayers of His people, like He did when Moses interceded for Israel in Exodus 32, we’re encouraged to come before Him boldly. We don’t have to hold back. We don’t have to wonder if our prayers matter or if God is paying attention.
But as we pray, we also remember that God’s responses come out of His perfect wisdom and unchanging love. We’re not trying to persuade Him to be kind, as if He might not be. We’re not trying to give Him information He’s missing or convince Him to care. Prayer isn’t about changing God’s heart, it’s about aligning our hearts with His. It’s about expressing our dependence on Him and participating in what He is already doing.
And that’s actually far more encouraging than if prayer were about trying to sway a reluctant or unpredictable God. It means we’re invited into God’s work, to be part of His plan through our prayers, knowing He is always good and wise.
2. Trust in God’s Promises
Second, this deepens our trust in God’s promises. Because God doesn’t change, His commitments to us are rock-solid. When He promises to never leave us or forsake us, that promise isn’t going to change if circumstances change. When He guarantees eternal life to those who trust in Jesus, that’s not something He might take back if things get complicated. When He says He’s working all things for our good, we can be sure that’s exactly what He’s doing.
These aren’t temporary offers. They are the outflow of His unchanging love, backed by His perfect knowledge and His power. So when we face doubts or hard times, we can hold on to these promises with confidence, knowing they stand as firm as God Himself.
3. Encouragement to Repent
Third, this encourages us to take repentance seriously. When we see in Scripture that God relents in response to genuine repentance, we’re motivated to turn from sin and seek His mercy. And we can do so with hope. God’s willingness to forgive us isn’t a sudden change of heart. It’s not as if we caught Him on a good day. His mercy is who He has always been. His desire to forgive is the very reason He sent Jesus to die for our sins.
When we repent, we’re stepping into the mercy that’s already waiting for us. We’re returning to the God who’s always been ready to welcome us home.
4. Comfort in Difficult Times
Fourth, this gives us comfort when life feels hard or uncertain. When the world feels out of control, when our circumstances shift, when we don’t know what’s coming next, we can rest in the truth that God’s plans for us haven’t changed. His love for us doesn’t rise and fall with the ups and downs of life. His care isn’t tied to the changing tides of our circumstances.
And at the same time, we know that God isn’t distant or detached. He’s not watching from far away. He grieves with us in our pain. He is working, even in the middle of hardship, for our ultimate good. We can lean on Him, knowing that His heart toward us remains steady.
5. Humility Before Mystery
Finally, this truth leads us to humility. There are parts of God’s nature that are simply beyond us. We won’t always be able to fit together every piece of how His unchanging character relates to His actions in history. There’s mystery here, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s right that the God who made the universe is greater than our ability to fully explain.
As Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
That’s not meant to frustrate us. It’s meant to lead us to worship. We can trust God’s heart, even when we don’t fully understand His ways.
Common Questions
"Doesn't this make God seem cold and unfeeling?"
Not at all. If anything, it makes them even more significant.
Think about it. Our emotions can sometimes be messy, reactive, or driven by incomplete knowledge. We feel things in the heat of the moment. We can overreact, or our feelings can change as we learn more or as circumstances shift. But God’s emotions aren’t like that. When the Bible says that God grieves over sin, it’s not talking about some quick, knee-jerk reaction like ours might be when we’re caught off guard. God’s grief isn’t impulsive. It isn’t because He’s surprised or frustrated by something He didn’t expect.
Instead, God’s grief is the deep, holy, and wise response of perfect love to the reality of evil and its consequences. It’s grief that comes from fully understanding what sin does, how it destroys lives, how it damages His creation, how it separates people from the joy of knowing Him. God’s grief is shaped by His perfect knowledge of every detail and His perfect love for every person.
So when God grieves over sin, it shows us the depth of His care. It reveals His heart for the world He made and for the people He loves. His emotions are not smaller or less meaningful because they aren’t like ours. They are greater, purer, and more powerful. They come from the heart of a God who sees everything clearly and loves perfectly.
And that should actually comfort us. Because it means that when God grieves over sin, or when He shows mercy in response to repentance, He’s doing so not out of weakness or frustration, but out of perfect, steady love. A love that we can trust completely.
"If God already knows what's going to happen, why should I pray?"
Because prayer isn't primarily about giving God information or changing His mind in the sense of introducing new variables He hadn't considered. Prayer is about:
Expressing our dependence on God
Aligning our hearts with His purposes
Participating in His work in the world
Experiencing relationship with Him
Being changed through the process of prayer
God ordains both the ends and the means. He plans both the answer to prayer and the prayer itself.
"How can God truly grieve if He chose to allow the things that grieve Him?"
This is probably one of the deepest and most challenging parts of this whole conversation. How can God will to permit something, like sin or suffering, and at the same time genuinely grieve over it? How can He allow something to happen and still be deeply saddened by it?
I think part of the answer comes when we recognize that God’s will operates on more than one level. On one level, God has chosen to create a world where real love and real moral choice are possible. He didn’t design us to be robots, programmed to do only what is right. And that’s because genuine love, genuine worship, and genuine obedience can’t be forced. They have to be chosen. But in giving us the ability to choose, God also permitted the possibility, and the reality, of sin. He knew that real freedom would lead to real rebellion and real brokenness. And yet, He determined that this kind of world, a world where people could truly love Him and one another — was better than a world where those things weren’t possible at all.
But here’s the important thing: just because God permits sin doesn’t mean He is indifferent to it. Just because He allows it as part of His plan doesn’t mean it doesn’t grieve His heart. Think about it like a parent who sees their child make a harmful choice. The parent could step in and stop it. But sometimes, out of love and wisdom, they allow the child to experience the consequences because they know it’s the only way the child will learn and grow. The parent doesn’t stop loving the child. In fact, they might grieve even more deeply because they know the pain that’s coming. They permit it, but they hurt with their child through it.
That’s a glimpse of how God relates to sin and suffering. He allows it as part of His larger, perfect plan, a plan that includes redemption, healing, and ultimate victory over evil. But He doesn’t take pleasure in it. He doesn’t watch from a distance without caring. He grieves over what sin does to His creation. He feels sorrow over the pain it causes. And at the same time, He is working through it all to bring about His good purposes.
This is a mystery. We won’t fully grasp how it all fits together on this side of eternity. But what we can know is this: God’s permission of sin doesn’t cancel out His compassion. His grief over sin doesn’t mean His plan has failed. Both are true at the same time, and both flow from His perfect love and wisdom.
"What about unanswered prayer? Does God really respond if His plans don't change?"
Sometimes people hear all this talk about God’s unchanging plan, and they wonder, “Well then, what’s the point of praying? If God already knows what He’s going to do, does my prayer even matter?” That’s an honest question, and it’s one worth thinking about.
But here’s something important to realize, that question assumes prayer is only valuable if it works like this: we ask for something, and God gives us exactly what we requested. But the Bible gives us a much bigger, richer view of prayer than that.
Yes, sometimes God does respond by giving us the very thing we ask for. We see that in Scripture, and maybe you’ve seen that in your own life too. But other times, God answers in ways that are even better than what we had in mind. Sometimes He gives us what we would have asked for if we could see the situation the way He does.
Sometimes God uses prayer to change our hearts. As we pour out our concerns, our hopes, and our struggles, we find our desires starting to line up more and more with His. Prayer isn’t just about getting things from God, it’s about being shaped by God.
And there are times when we pray for relief, but instead of removing the hard thing, God gives us strength to endure it. Think of Paul asking for the thorn in his flesh to be taken away. God didn’t remove it, but He answered by saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God gave Paul what he truly needed, even though it wasn’t what Paul first asked for.
So the fact that God’s plans don’t change doesn’t make our prayers meaningless. Quite the opposite. It means our prayers are part of how God’s good and perfect plan unfolds. When we pray, we’re stepping into what God is already doing. We’re participating in His work. We’re growing closer to Him. We’re aligning our hearts with His.
Prayer isn’t about changing God’s mind. It’s about connecting our hearts to His and trusting that His answers, whatever form they take, will always be wise, loving, and good.
The Heart of the Matter: God's Character
As we come to the end of this exploration, I want to bring us back to what really matters most. This conversation isn’t just about solving a theological puzzle or figuring out how to win a debate. It’s about knowing the heart of the God we serve. It’s about seeing His character more clearly so we can trust Him more deeply, love Him more fully, and walk with Him more closely.
A God Who Feels Deeply
When the Bible speaks of God repenting or relenting, it’s showing us that our God is not distant. He’s not cold. He’s not some far-off force that set the world in motion and now stands back to watch it all play out. No — He is deeply engaged with His creation. He sees. He cares. He grieves over sin not because it threatens His plan — His plan will never fail — but because He loves the people He has made. He grieves because sin destroys what He delights in. It brings harm and heartbreak to those He loves.
And that should shape how we think about sin. Sin isn’t just breaking a set of rules. It’s wounding the heart of a loving Father. It’s turning away from the One who made us and loves us most. When we see sin this way, it moves us beyond just trying to avoid punishment. It helps us see why repentance matters so much. Repentance isn’t just about getting out of trouble. It’s about coming home. It’s about returning to the arms of the One who has been grieving over our wandering, longing for us to come back to Him.
A God Who Can Be Trusted
At the same time, the Bible teaches us something that gives us so much security: God’s unchanging nature means His love for us is completely reliable. His commitment to our good isn’t fragile. It doesn’t waver with changing circumstances. It isn’t dependent on how well we perform. His promises don’t expire or get revised because of something that happens in the world or in our lives.
When Paul writes in Romans 8:38–39 that nothing — nothing in all creation — can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, he’s leaning hard on this truth. He’s reminding us that God’s love is anchored in who He is. And because who He is doesn’t change, His love doesn’t change either. That means we can trust Him in every season, in every struggle, in every moment of doubt or fear.
A God Who Invites Relationship
And here’s where the beauty of these truths really comes together. This tension we’ve been talking about — between God’s unchanging nature and His responsive heart — points us to something wonderful about our relationship with Him. We’re not dealing with a machine that simply processes our prayers and actions and spits out a pre-programmed result. We’re not relating to a God who is coldly calculating outcomes based on our performance.
We’re relating to a Person, the living God, who genuinely cares about our choices, who really listens when we pray, who responds with wisdom and compassion. And at the same time, we’re not dealing with a being who is limited or changeable. We don’t have to fear that His love for us might fade or that He might change His mind about us if we fail. His love is as steady as His nature. His responses to us come from perfect wisdom and perfect love that never waver.
So as we think about what it means for God to repent or relent, let’s remember that these truths aren’t meant to confuse us or burden us. They’re meant to draw us closer to the God who invites us into a real relationship, one that is built on His unchanging love and His compassionate, personal care.
The God Who Never Changes Yet Always Cares
I know some of this has been challenging. But I hope you've seen that this question about whether God repents isn't just an academic exercise. It touches the very heart of who God is and how He relates to us. The Bible teaches us that our God is both transcendent and immanent, above all change yet intimately involved in our lives. He's sovereign over all things yet genuinely responsive to our prayers and our faith. He feels deeply about our choices yet is never surprised or overwhelmed by them. This should fill us with both comfort and motivation. Comfort, because we know His love for us is secure and His plans for us are good. Motivation, because we know our choices matter to Him and our prayers make a difference. When the Bible says God "repents," it's using the most vivid language possible to show us that He cares, really cares, about what happens in our lives. When it says He doesn't change, it's assuring us that His care for us is absolutely reliable.
Both truths are precious. Both are necessary. And both point us to the amazing reality that the unchanging God of the universe has chosen to enter into relationship with us. That's the God we serve. That's the God we can trust. And that's the God who invites us to bring our prayers, our fears, our hopes, and our lives to Him with complete confidence.
Let's pray together:
“Father, thank You for revealing Yourself to us in Your Word. Thank You for showing us that You're both strong enough to never change and loving enough to care deeply about our lives. Help us to trust You more fully, pray more boldly, and live more faithfully in light of who You are. When we struggle to understand Your ways, help us to rest in Your character. And when we're tempted to doubt Your love, remind us that it's as unchanging as You are. We love You and trust You. In Jesus' name, Amen.”
Thank you for joining me today on Word for Word. I pray this has been helpful as you continue to grow in your understanding of God and His Word. Next week, we'll be diving into another fascinating question, so make sure you're subscribed and hit that notification bell so you don't miss it. Until then, keep studying, keep growing, and keep trusting in the God who never changes yet always cares.
God bless.
