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“He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind” (1 Samuel 15:29). This is how most of us think about God. We praise His “eternal changelessness”. But the truth may be far more complicated than that. Do we want a God who is perfectly stubborn, or a God who is fickle?
As a parent, I change my mind sometimes, and I think of that as a positive. On the one hand, I make mistakes (just ask my wife), which means changing my mind is good if I realize that happened in a given situation. Most often it happens when I give out a punishment in the heat of the moment, only to realize later that it was too harsh. As a perfect, sinless God, this doesn’t apply to Him, however. He doesn’t have to change His mind because He made a mistake earlier.
On the other hand, I can change my mind if my child shows genuine remorse after misbehaving. I might ease up on the punishment. God does the same. He did so with Moses and the Israelites after the golden calf incident and after the faithless report of the spies. He also granted King Hezekiah 15 more years of life immediately after having Isaiah prophesy that the king’s death was imminent. God also relented for the prophet Amos. Most famous of all, God forgave Nineveh, after Jonah (finally) prophesied against them and the entire nation repented in sackcloth (pictured above). In fact, the reason Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh was because he knew that God was a “gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2). God’s change of heart towards Israel’s enemy was no surprise to Jonah.
So how can God be both stubborn and fickle? The answer is in His goodness. God is always good. He is stubborn in fulfilling His promises and fickle in relenting from punishment when we repent. Both are good, and for our benefit. Should we expect God to always relent from punishment? No, because He is good. Natural consequences and divine punishment serve to correct our behavior for our own good. God is immutable in His goodness.
So while God might seem fickle, He is also stubborn in His love and loyalty to His people. That’s good, because it means we can count on His promises. They are rock solid. God is recklessly loving towards us, as depicted in the parable of the prodigal son. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). Love is God’s nature, and that will never change.
