Does God Change His Mind?

While speaking with a young man i was working with a couple of weeks ago we started talking about whether or not God changes, or changes His mind. This is the e-mail response that i sent to him. Please note: Names and dates have been changed to protect the innocent. No animals were killed in the making of this letter... severely maimed, maybe, killed, no.

Alex,

The question was posed, "Does God change His mind?" There are a number of texts that look at this issue. I believe that you had mentioned one in Numbers but could not find it. I assume that what you were looking for was 23:19

Numbers 23:19 - "God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?"

It is important when looking at any verse to consider text in context:

Israel had just recently destroyed the armies of the Amorites & the Bashan while on their way to the promised land. These armies had stood against Israel and God instead of with him. As a result they were given into the hands of the Israelites.
So Balak, the son of Zippor, King of Moab decides that since it's clear that a strict military battle was not going to defeat the Israelites. Instead he goes to Balaam the prophet asking him to curse the Israelites so he can defeat them. At first Balaam is forbidden by God from going. Finally God does allow him to go, and Balaam tells Balak that he can only do what God tells him to do.
So Balak agrees and Balaam instructs Balak to set up seven alters with sacrifices and Balaam goes to talk to God. When he returns from speaking with God Balaam prophesies good concerning Israel and not evil. Balak is not happy with this turn of events and decides that maybe if he changes the position and the way that he faces the Israelites, maybe this will change the outcome. So he takes Balaam to a different place and tries again. So this verse is part of what God tells Balak through Balaam as a part of this second attempt. Balak attempts to do this 3 separate times, all to no avail. In essence, Balak is hoping that he can find a way to manipulate God. He is looking to find favor from the powerful God of Balaam. He thinks that in certain places God may be weaker or more powerful, or that some types of places are more or less honored by God... a god of the hills vs. a god of the valleys vs. a god of the plains etc. So God is basically telling Balak that he cannot manipulate or strong arm Him. He is not like other gods that are easily swayed and that he can gain favor from through sacrifice.

However, Balak is not fully defeated by this. He does succeed in partially defeating the Israelites as seen in chapter 25. He recognizes that attacking them physically as the Amorites & the Bashan attempted to do and were miraculously defeated was not going to work. Attempting to gain more favor from a stronger god or the Israelites God to overpower them spiritually was equally unsuccessful. So he decides that the next plan is to separate the Israelite people from their God. So he sends his people in to seduce the Israelites into sexual immorality and into worship of weaker gods that would make God jealous and angry. Due to this immorality God punished the Israelites with a massive plague, and in the midst of this plague Phinehas the priest, the grandson of Aaron, puts a spear through Zimri, one of the leaders of the congregation, due to his blatant immorality and sin. So this is what God says;
Num 25:10-11 - And Jehovah spoke to Moses saying, Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the sons of Israel while he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy.

So, since the question is, "Does God change His mind?", after seeing this verse within its context i am seeing four places where the issue of this question is dealt with. 1) Balaam was instructed not to go to the Balak at first, however later God allows him to. 2) Balak attempts to manipulate God into doing what he wants. 3) Balaam succeeds in changing God's position towards His people. 4) Phinehas turns away God's wrath and prevents further destruction of Israel. So, what do you think is the answer to this question? Does God change? Does He change His mind? If so, how, and under what conditions? If not than how do you reckon what is happening here?

I hope that this helps, or at least gets you thinking some more...

While working on the second draft of this letter i realized that there was at least one major problem with the theology covered. I decided to leave it in to see if this student was going to catch it or not, but since i know that that student does not even know about this blog, i thought i'd post the answer here. In point 3 it is not God's position that has changed. He is a Holy God and cannot stand sin & corruption. It is not God's position but Israel's position that has changed. Balak knew that He could not change God's position towards Israel, so instead he changed Israel's position towards God.

This is what the enemy has been doing here in the US for at least the last 70 years or so. In an attempt to destroy His people, the enemy has been working on changing our relationship towards God.

Mousie? Mousie? Where are you Mousie? Oh, There You Are.

It amazes me sometimes how often the trinity shows up in some very unexpected places. At least unexpected by me. A few years back i got into a discussion with someone who is involved in the oneness doctrine. The oneness doctrine teaches that there is no separation between the Father, Christ, & the Holy Spirit. No trinity, only 1... which is true. There is only 1 God. The Lord our God is One. Yet in 3 persons. In our discussion he gave me some literature talking about how in Matthew 28 the disciples are commanded to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and yet every time in Acts the disciples baptize they do so in the name of Christ. The resultant conclusion is that as such the disciples recognized that the Father, Son & Holy Spirit are merely all titles for 1 God Jesus, for Christ, not three separate persons.

The Oneness Doctrine is an interesting (and flawed) view, but ultimately many of the teachings based off of it are very destructive. So i started to do some research praying that God would help me to see"the" truth and that i would be able to learn what He had to show me, and get past even my own misconceptions. (Even i know that i'm not right 100% of the time.) In doing this research i began to notice something. As much as i could find numerous different ways of arguing against the concept that the disciples only baptized in the name of Christ and not the trinity, the evidence did seem to show otherwise. So i brought it to God and asked Him what was going on here. As the research went on i began to realize that while yes, whenever the disciples were baptizing new believers in water the disciples did appear to only be baptizing in the name of Jesus, that wasn't the only thing going on.

I wasn't just seeing one baptism. I was seeing the baptism in water with the name of Christ, but i was also seeing baptism in the Holy Spirit & in power. I went through the research and scriptures, and yup, every time there it was; water baptism & baptism in the Holy Spirit. Well now, things were starting to make a great deal more sense. However, that still didn't account for the full trinity. That was only 2 baptisms, Christ & the Holy Spirit. So i started digging a little deeper and began to think about the fact that i was seeing 2 different baptisms and what baptism actually is. The very core of baptism is the principle of a death, a burial, & a resurrection. It's all very simple. The old man comes into the water, is buried beneath the water, and comes out a new man. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is death, burial, & resurrection into new power. So baptism of the Holy Spirit is for power, and water baptism is a physical baptism that is an evidence (representation) of...

OF COURSE!!! Water baptism is a physical evidence and representation of a personal choice that has already been made! It is a physical representation of repentance!!! Repentance is the first baptism. It is a choice to let the old sinful man die. Be buried in repentance... in God, and come out as a new man! That in itself is the first and probably the most important baptism! There you have it. The trinity in action. That brings us back to Matthew 28 Christ told the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them... There are 2 commands here, 1) go and 2) make disciples of all nations. Understanding the scripture better it is saying that you make disciples (by) baptizing them into repentance, water baptism, & into the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that Christ commanded. That's how you make disciples. It all to fit together! The pieces worked!

Needless to say, i came out with a whole new understanding, and i came out able to better explain and deal with the questions that were brought to me in an attempt to draw me into this view. Ever since then i have begun to see the working of the trinity in places that i have never seen them before. In fact, did you know that you can find the trinity in the Spiritual Gifts? Just look at I Corinthians 12:4-6. How about the trinity in the spiritual armor in Ephesians 6? It's there. You just have to allow it to be found (here's a hint: compare Ephesians 6:14 to John 14:17, 15:26, & 16:13)

There is so much to be seen and found... so many ways that the truth's of the Bible are there connected to one another and woven together as only a master storyteller could weave. Yet all of these different books were written by different people from so many different times and walks of life. Some wise and seasoned like Solomon and Moses, others young and brash like Jeremiah & young David. All woven together as a spiritual masterpiece standing the test of time and trials by fire.

Image from Product of Newfoundland used under cc license.
Extra points to the person who can identify the movie that the quote in the title comes from!

Vision to Reality - Facing the Giant

So now what? This is the difficult part. I see and for the most part understand the problem. That's the easy part. It's what to do next that is the difficult part. The problem exists on so many levels in our society that it is nigh impossible to tackle it all. It deals with institutions and views that are ingrained into our society and that have been a part of this culture and environment for over a century. How do you break the backbone of a century's old view and mentality that pervades an entire culture, society, and world? How do you tackle something that is so far encompassing that it invades us in every area that we live? It is defined in how we work, what we do in our "spare" time, how we live, how & what we eat, what we teach our kids, how our kids learn, our own expectations, what we see and invades our home. How does one even pretend to tackle this problem without being destroyed by it?

There are individuals, families, and even entire communities that have seen these problems for a long time and instead of fighting it have separated themselves from the problem and the society that it pervades. At times they have become outsiders looking in critically and rejecting our society as a whole, or they just don't even care and would rather be their own entity and allow the rest of society slowly destroy itself while they go on living their own lives. I can understand it, and in a way it is a very awe inspiring view to see the battle against the onslaught of outside forces. However, it does so little to actually create the change that needs to occur.

So how do you fight a battle that is so much larger than yourself that you can't even see & comprehend the vastness of it? How do you fell a giant that encompasses a planet in the face of a people that doesn't even recognize that the giant exists, that may only see a finger or toe of the giant and attempts to fight only that part, or that don't even understand that the giant is a problem? The answer is that one person alone can't... but then we never really are alone, are we?
II Kings 6:1-23 especially vs. 16 "And he answered, Do not fear, for those with us are more than those with them."

Image from andyburnfield used under cc license.