A KEY SCRIPTURE

Exodus 32:14 "So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people." (NKJV)

Jonah 3:10 "Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it." (NKJV)

ARRIVING AT AN ANSWER

God's attributes do not change, neither does His purpose or principles. His actions do change according to the conduct of His creatures. An example of seeming change was when God was faced with Israel worshipping the golden calf. Their idolatrous conduct had to be punished; they had quickly disobeyed God's direct command (Exodus 20:23; 32:8 ). They deserved the consuming wrath of God. This could be accomplished without God breaking His covenant promises to the fathers, because He could make of Moses a great nation (Exodus 32:10 ), and so fulfill His purposes.

To be a partner in the purposes of God His will had to be obeyed, His way loyally trod, and His standards of conduct kept. God can reject a privileged people who, while wilfully sinning think themselves secure, and the Lord God can still fulfill His purposes. The Lord relented in response to Moses' intercession for the people, and the peoples' obedient compliance with his demands (Exodus 32:11-14 ) that came after the sword and plague punishments (Exodus 32:28,35; 33:10 ). What God threatened to do to sinful Israel He changed, but He remained unchanged in His purposes and principles.

"God does not need to repent as men do, for He does not err, nor is He baffled or overcome. But when He said (by anthropomorphic description) to repent, He changes not His purposes, but a course of events previously threatened, because the altered conduct of His people no longer calls forth what He originally promised, it is a change in His dealings with His people, not a change in His character or purposes." The New Bible Commentary, third edition, Editors, D. Guthrie, J.A. Motyer. Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.Grand Rapids, Michigan

God spared the Ninevites because He saw their work and acts of repentance (Jonah 3:4-10 ). The fact that God sent someone to warn them, instead of just sending the destruction unannounced, gave the Ninevites ground for believing that an opportunity had been granted to them for repentance. The change of mind and conduct gave God what He needed to change sure judgment into sure mercy. This seeming change was not God altering, but God responding to the change expressed in repentance on the part of the Ninevites, so God in mercy spared them.

What a lesson for our own nation. It is time to turn to God in repentance so that He can show mercy. As a nation and as individuals we need to give serious attention to the warning Jesus gave to those with greater light, and greater privileges than the Ninevites,

Matthew 12:41 "The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here." (NKJV)

God relented and did not overthrow Nineveh, as His reluctant messenger had declared, they did not get what they deserved because they turned from sin, to God. This made it possible for God to withhold, at that time, destruction. But God's principles and purposes remained unchanged.

A KEY SCRIPTURE

Hebrews 6:17-18 "Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us." (NKJV)

ARRIVING AT AN ANSWER

God is predictably unchanging both in His faithful being and purposes. He is personally the Guarantor of meeting His obligations for time and eternity. God gave to Abraham two reasons for strong faith and sure hope.

Hebrews 6:13-14 "For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, 'Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.'" (NKJV)

Abraham endured patiently in faith that had its basis both divine promise and oath (Hebrews 6:15 ). The ultimate fulfilment of God's promise and oath is found in Jesus. He affirmed Abraham's joy in seeing His day by faith afar off, to be the fulfilment of God in Christ, by which all the nations on earth would receive blessing (Genesis 18:18 ). The desire is expressed that we:

Hebrews 6:11 "... show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end," (NKJV)

We are to imitate Abraham's role model of persistent, patient, victorious faith in the Immutable God.

Our faith is to be grounded on God's unchanging Word and unchangeable oath of guarantee (Hebrews 6:16-20 ). "It is impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18 ). God condescended to the human practice of an oath that we might "have strong consolation" (Hebrews 6:18 ) of salvation for both Jew and Gentile through faith in the Saviour, Jesus Christ the Lord, who has entered the sanctuary in heaven where He sits on the throne, ministering for us in the power of an endless life. His resurrection and entrance is the visible manifestation of eternal life:

1 John 5:11 "And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." (NKJV)

This life has become ours through faith in the "determined purpose and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23-24 ), having its fulfilment in Christ's death and resurrection. Anchored faith means we are held steady against the beating waves of trouble and doubt.

Our God is eternal and is unchanging. Any change is in the creature not in God. His purposes and principles are unchanging. As He is, so He ever will be, throughout our earthly life and eternal life.