8 minute read
Is There Regret In God?
from December 2020
Gò0dNews from the Pastor’s Desk
Is There Regret In God?
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by Reagan Marsh
I’ve pastored for nearly 22 years and have received many fascinating questions from people studying their Bibles. Here’s one I thought would be helpful for GNM readers! Q. Ok, a question from 1 Samuel 15:10-11, then v. 35: “I regret” and “The Lord regretted”…instant confusion! My husband wasn’t sure how to explain that kind of regret but knew it wasn’t the same regret that we feel—as if we’ve made a mistake or whatever. My Bible’s footnote says the Hebrew is uncertain—but it still throws me about this word being associated with God? Because God is sovereign, it confuses me that he’d “regret” anything that he’d ultimately appointed or planned in the first place? Can you help me understand this?
A. Great question, and a tough subject! This matter challenges many people. Non-Christians attempt to use it to discredit the Bible or discourage a believer’s faith because there are several places in Scripture where God “regrets.” (Some translate the term =“repents.”) But this uncertainty doesn’t have to stay that way when we consider what we know of God from the rest of Scripture.
In reading the Bible, we should always reason from what is clear to what is less clear; we understand the parts in light of the whole, the uncertain in light of what’s plain.
So to your question: while the rest of the chapter is easily translated, the Hebrew is indeed a bit obscure in these verses. But this much is evident: to speak of God “regretting” is a term of divine condescension, expressed in what theologians call anthropomorphic language (giving human characteristics to something that’s not human) or accommodation language (adjusting how we speak to ensure communication).
We use anthropomorphic language when we say, “My car keeps making this awful rattle—it must be mad at me!” Or we might use accommodation language when we talk to someone who isn’t a native English speaker—shorter sentences and smaller words to help them be able to understand what’s being said more easily. (And I’m certainly glad when they return the favor if I attempt to speak their language!) The Bible does that right here for us.
Scripture teaches that God is immutable: he does not and cannot change his essential being, his mind, his decrees, his law, his will, his emotions, or his Word. If he could change, he’d cease to be God (Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8, etc.). He’d be subject to time, circumstances, variation, and human sin—he wouldn’t be the Eternal One, the Rock of our salvation, the strong Refuge to whom we flee. So these statements of what God does not and will not do are the “fence” within which we may reason out the question of God’s “regretting” biblically.
In his loving condescension to us, God can and does express his displeasure at our sin in terms of “regret.” It’s just like when we speak to our children about something more complex than they can grasp: we simplify—and God used the same basic principle as his Spirit “breathed out” (2 Timothy 3:16) the Scriptures for us. In the 17th century, Hercules Collins, a highly influential English Baptist Puritan pastor, wrote, “When the Scripture speaks about God’s repenting that he made man (Genesis 6:5-6), it is not to be understood properly [=literally], as if God were capable of
repentance, as man is; but it is spoken to our capacity. God is said to repent when he doth such things as men do when they repent.”
So, does God repent or regret? Your husband was right— not like we do! It’s simply a statement expressing that God was displeased at sin. And there’s massive hope in that statement because the same God was overwhelmingly pleased to give his Son as the one substitute for sinners. By coming to Jesus in repentance (Acts 17:30) and faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), we may have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7), and a new life (2 Corinthians 5:17-21), freed from the regrets of the past (2 Corinthians 7:9-10).
If you’d like to submit a question about the Scriptures, please use the contact form at reformationdalton.com—maybe I can answer it in a future GNM article.
About The Author
Reagan Marsh is husband to Kara, daddy to RG & AG, and founding pastor-teacher to Reformation Baptist Church. An SBTS graduate, biblical counselor, and Th.D student in Puritan Studies, he has served in gospel ministry since 1998.
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