NOVEMBER 4 - God Repenting?

NOVEMBER 4 - God Repenting?   So the Lord relented. — AMOS 7:3   God was so exasperated with the rebellion of Israel, that he was just about ready to devastate the nation's crops with a swarm of locusts. When you read the book of Amos, God appears to come across as impatient and hotheaded. But just when you hear the swarming in the distance, he seems to cave in and have a change of heart. How can this be?   He's God. Did God relent in the sense of deciding one thing yesterday and another today? No, for he knows everything from the beginning, including how he would act in all future situations. Did he have a change of opinion?   No, it's almost blasphemous to speak of God having an "opinion" about anything — it implies that the Lord makes judgment calls without knowing all the facts or that his preferences are mere tastes or whims with no reference to what is pure and right. So how can God "relent"?   As humans change, God shows them different "sides" of his character fitting with their behavior. His wrath shows itself when people rebel, his kindness when they turn again — kindness that he had all along. It may appear to us that he has repented — and the Bible may use that language so we can grasp the idea — but he has not repented or reconsidered. Professor A. A. Hodge said, "When [God] is said to . . . be grieved, or to be jealous, it is only meant that he acts towards us as a man would when agitated by such passions."   God graciously condescends to accommodate himself to our finite and often one-dimensional world. He uses human metaphors so that we might understand as best as we can. How gracious of him! God is bending over backward to give expression to his great love and passion for you. No matter how many mistakes you make, God will never change his mind about your sonship.   Lord God, I thank you that you only "borrow" human metaphors. Thank you for never changing your mind about me.

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