Think of it like a Bonus Check

Does God change His mind?

The Bible does tell us that there is no change in God. [Malachi 3:6; Numbers 23:19]

The classic hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness says “there is no shadow of turning with thee”.

But…

In certain passages of Scripture, He sure seems to change His mind.

Take, for example, God’s conversation with Moses in Exodus, chapter 32.

By verse 7 of this chapter, God is talking with Moses about how He has decided to bring judgment upon Israel for Aaron making a golden calf.

(If you have never read this chapter, you should do that now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.)

But, Moses talks to God.

Talks God out of this plan.

Talks God into relenting from punishing His people.

For the glory of God’s name, Moses asks God to do differently than He has just told Moses He would do.

Moses, it seems, talks God into changing His mind.

But, maybe that isn’t what is going on.

Maybe there is something else.

Something more.

Think of it like this.

Imagine that I get a big bonus check from work.

And imagine that I have neighbors that I know are struggling financially.

And imagine that my son knows about our neighbors.

Now, when I tell the family about the bonus, I tell them that I am planning on taking the family on vacation.

But my son says that maybe God has given us the bonus in order to help the neighbors.

However, I persist.

I say that we have been blessed by God and we are going to enjoy what God has given us.

Yet my son continues to push and advocate for the neighbors.

He feels that the most loving, God-honoring thing to do is to help our neighbors.

He believes that we have been blessed so that we can bless others.

He won’t take no for an answer.

And now, I am celebrating my son loving our neighbors the way we are supposed to.

Now, imagine that this was my plan the entire time.

That I always intended to give the money to the neighbors.

That we were never going on vacation.

But I wanted my son to get there.

I wanted my son to advocate and fight for the neighbors.

I wanted him to feel the importance of loving others.

What if this is what God had in mind?

What if God wanted Moses to advocated for the people?

After all, couldn’t God just do what He was going to do?

Does He have to tell Moses anything?

(By the way, none of this is meant to deny that ‘prayer moves the hand of God’. I believe that God does respond to the prayers of His people. Scripture is clear about that.)

I believe He tells Moses in order to get him involved.

I am convinced that God had a bigger plan than we can ever imagine.

I am also convinced that Moses is not more merciful than God.

So, God does respond to the pleas of His people.

But, I have no doubt that this was also completely part of His plan.

A plan that was established before the foundation of the world.

And, therefore, the plan didn’t change.

And neither did God.