DOES GOD REALLY REGRET?

 To regret is to imply sorrow, remorse and disappointment. These are human emotions, often attributed to human beings. That is understandable, we are finite beings. Then, how does the Bible attribute similar emotions to God, an infinite being?

In attempting to justify the story of the flood in Genesis, the writer states that “the Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain” (Genesis 6:6 NIV). The English Standard Version renders it this way: “And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”

But how could this be? Isn’t God unchangeable or immutable? Immutability suggests that God is unvarying, reliable, constant and perpetual. In reciting the word of the Lord, Balaam said, “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” (Numbers 23:19)?

Theologians refer to these cases as anthropopathism. This is a figure of speech in which the feelings or thought processes of finite humanity is ascribed to the infinite God. It is a way to help us understand God’s work from a human perspective.

This is a classic example of anthropopathism – The term Anthropopathism comes from two Greek words. The combined word suggests the ascription of human feelings or passions to a non-human being, generally a deity. It is a way to help us understand God’s work from a human perspective.

For instance, like in the Genesis text cited earlier, the Bible often uses human language to help us understand what God is like. These biblical texts are not teaching that God has human emotions like we do. Neither are these texts teaching that God is not consistent and lives with regret.

Interestingly, the ancient pagan world was filled with an array of deities, many of which were known to change. They changed their desires almost capriciously, demanded one form of worship in one place and another form in another. They displayed fickleness, anger, jealousy, hatred, confusion, indecision, favoritism, lust, etc. All in exactly the same ways we humans do. They were mutable deities. That is, they were changeable, fluctuating, inconsistent, unpredictable, and even erratic.

Unlike some pagan deities, who exhibit emotional states in the exact same way we humans do, the God of Scripture is immutable. By immutable we mean that God is unchangeable either by process of time, external events, or internal knowledge.

If God were mutable, this would mean that He would be bound by the laws of time. That is, God would have to experience events in a sequence as we do, with His existence being at a point in space and time before the change occurred and after it occurred. This would make God a temporal being like us.

Our experience of divine emotions is totally dependent on our position before God. If we are repentant, we experience His mercy; if we are rebellious, we experience his anger and wrath; and if we are faithful to His will, we experience His kindness and blessings. God hasn't changed, we have. We’re the mutable factor in the equation, not Him.

We change our behavior, our allegiance, and our priorities. Sometimes we change them for the better, and sometimes for the worst. We can add to our relationship with God, at times we subtract from our relationship with God, because we’re mutable. However, God never adds or subtracts from His character and emotions. We should be forever grateful that God is immutable, as this provides an assurance of His love and mercy toward us sinners, who deserve nothing but the full penalty of our sins.