“Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation” [Psalm 62:1].
Blessed posture! Waiting truly and only upon the LORD. Be this our condition all this day and every day. Waiting His leisure, waiting in His service, waiting in joyful expectation, waiting in prayer, and content. When the very soul thus waits, it is in the best and truest condition of a creature before his Creator, a servant before his Master, a child before his Father. We allow no dictation to God, nor complaining of Him; we will permit no petulance and no distrust. At the same time, we practice no running before the cloud and no seeking to others for aid: neither of these would be waiting upon God. God, and God alone, is the expectation of our hearts.
Blessed assurance! From Him salvation is coming; it is on the road. It will come from Him and from no one else. He shall have all the glory of it, for He alone can and will perform it. And He will perform it most surely in His own time and manner. He will save from doubt, and suffering, and slander, and distress.
Though we see no sign of it as yet, we are satisfied to bide the LORD’s will, for we have no suspicion of His love and faithfulness. He will make sure work of it before long, and we will praise Him at once for the coming mercy.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” [Jn 1:29]
John the Baptist commands a beholding of the sin-taking-away Lamb. What do we see in this beholding? How exactly does Jesus take away our sin?
Here are six things Jesus does with sin:
HE CONDEMNS IT.
Jesus puts a curse on sin. He marks its forehead.
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” [Romans 8:3]
Jesus says to sin in no uncertain terms, “Sin, you’re going to die.”
HE CARRIES IT.
Like the true and better scapegoat, Jesus becomes our sin-bearer.
“Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” [1Peter 2:24]
“For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
HE CANCELS IT.
He closes out the account. (Even better, He opens a new one, where we’re always in the black, having been credited with His perfect righteousness.)
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil (or is not resentful).” [1Cor 13:4,5]
That word resentful is more directly “to count up wrongdoing,” which is why some translations of this text say that “Love keeps no record of wrongs.”
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.” [Colossians 2:13,14]
HE CRUCIFIES IT.
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” [1Peter 3:18]
At the cross, Jesus dies and takes our sin with Him. Only the sin stays dead.
HE CASTS IT AWAY.
Jesus takes the corpse and chucks it into the void.
“He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” [Micah 7:19]
“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” [Psalm 103:12]
HE CHOOSES TO UN-REMEMBER IT.
Jesus is omniscient. He is not forgetful. But He wills to un-remember our sin.
“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord : for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” [Jer 31:34]
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” [Hebrews 8:12]
“And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” [Hebrews 10:17]
Astonishing. We bring our sin to Him, repentant and in faithful confession, and He unconditionally forgives and forgets them.
THIS is how Jesus forgives sin: He condemns it, carries it, cancels it, kills it, casts it, and clean forgets it. If we’ll confess it.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [1John 1:9]
“And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire A STILL SMALL VOICE.” [1kings 19:12]
The lightning flamed over the whole Heaven, attended by peals of thunder such as the man of God had never heard before. From crag to crag leaped the live lightning till the whole firmament blazed with the fire of God! Yet we do not find that the Prophet was in the least cowed or dismayed. His was a brave spirit—calm amid the storm. As the eagle mounts in the centre of the lightning and rises on the wings of the storm, so did it seem with Elijah’s spirit—he was awakened by the fury of the elements, but he was not afraid. And now the thunder ceased and the lightning was gone. The earth was still, the wind was hushed and there was a dead calm.
And out of the midst of the still air there came what the Hebrew calls, “A VOICE OF GENTLE SILENCE,” as if silence had become audible! There is nothing more amazing than an awful stillness after a dread uproar. Even the noise of the wind and of the storm which could not cow Elijah were not so terrible as the still small voice by which Jehovah called His servant near. Then the Prophet covered his face and went to the mouth of the cave and stood to listen, for the still small voice had won the solemn attention of his soul. It had done for him what all the rest could not do—for this reason that the Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire—but the Lord was in the still small voice and Elijah knew it and was awed and prepared himself to hear what God, the Lord, would speak.
What is the lesson of this? May God the Holy Spirit help us this morning to learn it and to teach it.
First, I call your attention to THE CHOSEN AGENCY.
Notice at the outset what it was not. It was not the terrible, it was not the tremendous, it was not the overwhelming, but something the reverse of all these. It was not a grand display of power, for God was in none of those great things which Elijah saw and heard. That which conquered Elijah’s brave heart was not whirlwind, was not earthquake, was not fire—it was the still small voice! That which effectually wins human hearts to God and to His Christ is not an extraordinary display of power. Men can be made to tremble when God sends pestilence, famine, fire and others of His terrible judgments—but these things usually end in the hardening of men’s hearts, not in the winning of them.
The still small voice succeeds where “terrible things in righteousness” are of no avail. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.” [Zech 4:6] Crash after crash the orator’s passages succeed each other! What a tremendous passage! The hearers must surely be impressed. Wind! And the Lord is not in it! And now everything seems to shake, while, like a second John the Baptist, the minister proclaims woe and terror and pronounces the curse of God upon a generation of vipers! Will not this break hard hearts? No! Nothing is accomplished. It is an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake. Another form of force remains. Here comes one who pleads with vehemence! All on fire, he flashes and flames! Look at the brightness of his sensational metaphors and anecdotes! Yes, fire! Might we not say fireworks? And yet the Lord does not work by such fire. The Lord is not in the fire!
The furious energy of unbridled fanaticism, the Lord does not use. He may employ great and terrible things as preliminaries to His soul-saving work, but they are only preliminaries—the work, itself, is done in the secret silence of the heart. As they were in Elijah’s case, so are these things in the cases of others—they startle and arouse, but they cannot convince and convert. That which is to quicken, enlighten, sanctify and really bless is the still small voice of gentle silence! This sounds like a paradox, but the sense is clear to him who knows the Truth of God by experience. The voice which is not heard outside is Omnipotent within.
We have sufficiently shown the negative side of it—God’s work stands not in the power of the creature. What, then, does God use to touch the heart? Our heavenly Father generally uses that which is soft, tender, gentle, quiet, calm, peaceful—A STILL SMALL VOICE. In the work of real conversion—of bringing the soul to decision and complete obedience to God—the calling voice is often so gentle that it is quite unperceived by others except in its results. Yes, frequently so gentle that it is almost unperceived by the man who is the subject of it! He may not even be able to tell exactly when the voice came and when it went. The gentle zephyr refreshes the fevered brow, but the sufferer scarcely knows that it has passed through the sick chamber and is gone, so soft is its Heaven-given breath.
In reconciliation there are no blows, nor beats of drums, nor bolts of tempests—love is the captain of this bloodless war! There is little display of physical or mental force and yet there is more real power than if force had been used! We observe that where there was a display of power, as in wind, earthquake and fire, we read afterwards, “God was not in it,” but here, in this still small voice in which there was no display of power, God was at work! Here, then, we see THE WEAKNESS OF POWER, but we learn also THE POWER OF WEAKNESS and how God often makes that which seems most resistible to be irresistible—and that which we would suppose to be easily waved away, weaves about a man fetters from which he never can escape!
Softly and gently works the Holy Spirit, even as the breath of spring which dissolves the iceberg and melts the glacier. When frost has taken every rivulet by its throat and held it fast, spring sets all free. No noise of hammer or of file is heard at the loosening of the fetters, but the soft south wind blows and all is life and liberty. So is it with the work of the Spirit of God in the soul when He actually comes to set the sinner free! He works effectually, but no voice is heard.
Now, whatever the soft and gentle instrumentality may be, it is, in every case, if it saves the soul, worked by the Holy Spirit’s Presence. And the Holy Spirit, though He can be “a rushing, mighty wind” when He wills for He comes ac-cording to His own Sovereign pleasure. Yet, usually, when He comes to bring to man the peace of God, descends as the dove, or as the dew from Heaven—all peace, gentleness and quiet. Satan can set the soul on fire with agony! Doubts and fears and terrors rend it like an awful earthquake! The whole man is in trouble and confusion, as the whirlwind of the Law sweeps through his soul! But the Spirit comes in tender love, revealing Christ, the Gentle One, setting up the Cross of the Savior before the sinner’s tearful eyes and speaking peace, pardon and salvation.
Brothers and Sisters, this is what we need—the work of the Spirit of God in His own manner of living love! I have said that He works usually to the salvation of the soul by revealing the love of Christ and it is so, not only at our first conversion, but afterwards. All along, His operations are after the same quiet and effectual kind. As we grow in sanctification, it is by tender revelations of the Father’s love. What has such influence over any of us as the infinite, overflowing Grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ?
Thus, like the silent morning light, Grace works upon the man. Its processes are carried on by love. There is not a touch of terror or bondage in the great reconciling deed within. The Gospel, with its glad tidings, leaps out of the heart of God and enters into the heart of men—and rest and sacred gratitude follow. God may devour His enemies with lions, but His friends He wins with love! Those that are obdurate He will break as with a rod of iron, dashing them in pieces like potters’ vessels—but for His own—when He comes to save them, He touches them with the silver sceptre of mercy! Grace works with the oiled feather. Love is the chariot of Omnipotence when it comes into the world of mind. This, my dear Friends (to close this first head), coming quietly home to us, to each one of us individually, without animal excitement—this it is which unites us to Jesus by faith!
Elijah was calm and quiet when he heard that still small voice of God! He neither fell down in horror, nor danced for joy, yet his whole nature was touched, his inmost heart was convulsed. The silence which God had caused to be heard within him, thawed his soul. THIS is how conversions are worked. When the Truth of God comes right home to the heart; when the man perceives that the message of Grace belongs to him—when he grips and grapples with that Truth and that Truth with him—then without help from the outside, he seeks and finds eternal life! The still small voice within the conscience is God’s chosen instrumentality to effectually convert and comfort the souls of men!
The Kingdom of God comes not with observation (Lk 17:20)—but in the secret chamber, man is brought near to God.
Notice THE CHOICE EFFECTS of this chosen mode of working. The first effect of it upon Elijah was that the man was subdued. I have gone over this before. He who could confront the raging wind. He who was not terrified by the lightning, nor made to tremble at the earthquake the moment he was in that in that stillness and heard that gentle voice—wrapped his face in his sheepskin robe and went outside the cave like a child obedient to the call of his heavenly Father. And when the Spirit of God comes in His gentle power upon any of you, then you will resist no longer—you will be subdued and conquered by His soft and tender touch.
The first thing Elijah did, I said, was to wrap his face in his mantle, therein imitating the angels who cannot stand unveiled in that awful Presence. He did his best to hide his face, like one ashamed—ashamed of having doubted his God, of having played the coward—ashamed of being found away from the place of his service. When the Holy Spirit deals with men and women, this is an early effect upon their minds—shamefacedness and humiliation cover their faces— They cannot speak in the same bold tones as they were known to do! All boasting is excluded. For some time, at any rate, they have to learn how to behave themselves in the Divine Presence—for walking in the Light as God is in the Light is not easy for newly-converted sinners—their eyes are weak and tender and, therefore, they have to cover them from the blaze of the eternal light. Love is the triumphant power! Where mere power and thunder fail, it leads the heart in glad captivity.
Those who hear the voice of the Lord are sure to cry, “Lord, show me what you would have me to do.” When that voice wins the willing ear, it creates a ready foot to go where God bids us. Our desire is to know the Lord’s will and promptly to fulfil it, for the heavenly whisper has for its burden—“Follow Me.” And now that Elijah has come out into the clear air, the next effect upon him is that he has personal dealings with God. The voice says to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” It is a home enquiry, made to himself, alone. He knows that God is speaking with him and, there-fore, he feels the force of every word which searches him. Then he pours out the bitterness of his grief and tells the Lord what ails him.
The Spirit is surely at work with you when your converse is with the Lord alone. When you want nobody to hear what you have to say, but are glad to enter into your closet and shut the door and pray to your Father, who sees in secret, this is real work, the work of God! When you feel every line of the Word of God as you read it as if it were written for you, and you, alone—when you think that nobody else in the world can enter so fully into it, in your judgment, as you now do, for the sentences seem shaped for you and there are little words dropped into the threat and the promise exactly adapted for you—then it is that the still small voice is executing its sacred office! This is a main point, this contact of the soul with God—this breaking down of the barriers of things visible, this closing in with God, the Unseen.
Oh, it is a sight such as angels delight to behold when a man bows before the Most High and listens to his great Father’s voice and then tells out to Him all his heart without attempting to hide anything from Him! This is never produced by whirlwind, fire, or earthquake—it is the effect of the voice of gentle silence, for God is in it! Vain are eloquence, argument, music and sensationalism—the Spirit works all holy things and He, alone—and this He works in the solemn silence of a soul subdued by love!
His mercies are new EVERY MORNING and fresh EVERY EVENING!
WHO can know the number of His benefits, or recount the list of His bounties? Every sand which drops from the glass of time is but the tardy follower of a myriad of mercies. The wings of our hours are covered with the silver of His kindness, and with the yellow gold of His affection. The river of time bears from the mountains of eternity the golden sands of His favour. The countless stars are but as the standard bearers of a more innumerable host of blessings.
WHO can count the dust of the benefits which He bestows on Jacob, or tell the number of the fourth part of His mercies towards Israel? How shall my soul extol Him who daily loadeth us with benefits, and who crowneth us with loving-kindness? O that my praise could be as ceaseless as His bounty! O miserable tongue, how canst thou be silent?! Wake up, I pray thee, lest I call thee no more my glory, but my shame. “Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake right early.”
IF THE GOD YOU WORSHIP ‘REPENTS, REGRETS AND HAS REMORSE’ OVER HIS ACTIONS OR PLANS, YOU’VE GOT ANOTHER GOD OTHER THAN THE SOVEREIGN GOD OF THE SCRIPTURES
A man recently wrote us stating, “Why did God wish he had never made man at the time of Noah? (Gen 6) Couldn’t he see out into the future and decide to not make man and save the regret? God decided to destroy his people and Moses pleaded with him and God repented or changed his mind. How can God change his mind if he knew he was going to? I conclude he didn’t know.” etc
“Why does Genesis 6:6 say ‘it repented the LORD that he had made man’ if he knew in advance how sinful man would get?” etc
Let us take an honest look at these verses and rightly divide the Word of truth –
You may be thinking that the word “repent” there means God REGRETTEDHe made man, and my dictionary says “regret” can mean “a looking back with dissatisfaction.” This cannot be the meaning here, however, for it is not possible that God would be dissatisfied with anything He has done.
Like all words, REPENTcan have different meanings. My dictionary defines it as “to feel pain, sorrow, or regret for something one has done.” The word “or” here suggests that God didn’t REGRETmaking man, He rather felt pain and sorrow for having done so. The way the verse is worded makes this clear. It doesn’t say THE LORD REPENTED making man, as it would if He regretted it. It says IT REPENTED THE LORD, it pained Him, for their sin caused Him sorrow. The rest of the verse verifies this interpretation when it explains, “and it grieved Him at His heart.”
Sin STILLgrieves the Lord, even after we are saved, so “grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).
Some texts in the Bible, if isolated from the rest of Scripture, challenge us. To overcome problems in our understanding we need to know a few things:
1. What did the original words mean to those to whom they originally were written? – basic grammatical meaning – literary use of the expressions common to the original readers – historical references meaningful at the time of the writing
2. What is the whole context of the portion in question? – local context: the flow of thought in the rest of the book in which it is found – theological context: what God has revealed in the other inspired books – historical context: how much God had revealed about his redemptive plan at that time.
IN ABOUT 30 PLACES IN THE BIBLE GOD IS SAID TO “REPENT”.
Genesis 6:6-7 is a prime example, “And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them.”
Did God regret something he had done? Did he really repent as if he had made a mistake? Did God have to change his plan from what he had formerly wanted it to be? If so, then he is not the God we read about in the rest of the Bible. A careful study of these passages removes the apparent conflict.
First we need to take a look at the larger context. What do clear Bible passages teach about God’s nature?
GOD’S NATURE IS “IMMUTABLE” (HE DOES NOT CHANGE).
The answer to Westminster Shorter Catechism question 4 “What is God?” is, “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”
If this is true, God can never regret, make errors, or change his plans. He answers to nothing greater than himself, therefore he is perfect and needs no improvement. God’s knowledge is perfect. It includes all things that ever will happen, there can be no reason to ever change or modify his plans.
James makes a direct statement in his epistle in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is NO VARIATION OR SHADOW OF TURNING.”
With God the Father there is “no variableness” (parallagae, παραλλαγη). This is an astronomical term. From it we get the word “parallax,” a term still used in astronomy. Even in those ancient times they could see that constellations appeared in different places as the seasons changed. Some dots of light move from constellation to constellation, we now know these “wandering stars” as planets. Some objects in the night sky change their brightness regularly. However, there is no such change with God. There is no variableness like that which we see in the night sky.
With God there is “no shadow of turning” (tropaes aposkiasma, τροπης αποσκιασμα). This is another astronomical term, It has to do with changes in shadows cast by the sun and moon. As the sun and moon change their positions in the sky during the day or night, there is an observable change in the length and direction of the shadows they cast. This word was also used in reference to the eclipses of the sun and moon where darkness took over parts of them. With God the Father there is no such change. He is a steady and reliable light.
There is a direct statement in Psalm 102:26-27, “They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, And they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will have no end.” This reminds us that though the earth and heavens perish and wear with time. God does not change.
There are many texts where God’s inability to change is made clear. For example, Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that He should lie, NOR A SON OF MAN, THAT HE SHOULD REPENT. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” And Malachi 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
God has all things under his sovereign control as it says in Psalm 135:6, “Whatever the LORD pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places.”
Ephesians 1:11-12 says, “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”
God even controls the directions of the plans of humans. Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. .” and Proverbs 19:21, “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD . . . that shall stand.”
Open Theism teaches that God is open to change and adjusts his plans to new circumstances. Those promoting this view reject the classic attributes of God (immutable, omnipotent, omniscient …). They say there are philosophical contradictions in the belief systems that accept the infinite and unchangeable understanding of God. However, their claims of contradictions are based upon total misstatements and misunderstandings of the actual historical and biblical doctrines. They often quote the verses about God repenting as if he adjusts to things outside of himself.
SO THEN, HOW DOES AN UNCHANGEABLE GOD REPENT?
The word here for “repent” is nakham (נחם). It is translated many ways in the Bible depending upon the context. Most often it is translated either “to repent” or “to comfort”, two seemingly very different words. The Brown Driver and Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (BDB) defines it this way: “to be sorry, to be consoled, to be moved to pity, to have compassion, to be comforted, to be relieved.”
A study of the primary uses of this Hebrew word show that it describes the reaction of a person to some sorrowful event, and the person either finds comfort from the sorrow, or grieves over the tragedy of the event. The focus of the word is upon the impact some disturbing thing has upon him. The word does not fit with our English words “repent” or “regret” as we commonly use those words today.
When WE repent over our sins, our response is grief over the offense they cause to God. When GOD repents, he has nothing to regret in himself. He has nothing for which to be sorry. God answers to no one but himself and to his own perfect and eternal plan. However, the sins of mankind offend him deeply. He has decreed that they would occur for his own good reasons. They are used to display his justice in his judgments, and his mercy in redemption. These sorrowful occurrences are used by God as means to accomplish all the things he has purposed to happen. When God observes these tragic outworkings of evil, he is morally offended. The word nakham (נחם) beautifully conveys this response.
To communicate to us the offense toward God which is produced by the sins of his creatures, the Bible uses a human response we all understand. We often experience grief, sorrow, and a need for consolation. When a human emotion is used to explain how God responds to something, we call it an “anthropopathism.”
We are probably more familiar with the term, “anthropomorphism.” That is when some physical part of man is used to represent something about God. The Eternal God has no physical body. He is revealed as spirit. However, the Bible speaks of God’s hands, eyes, feet, wings, feathers, … etc. These communicate to us that he controls, sees, comforts, etc.
In an “anthropopathism” some emotion or feeling of man is used to explain something about God. God’s spirit nature is very different in comparison with our human soul. Yet to know how much God is offended by sin and rebellion, these human terms are used to approximate his response in the best way possible for us.
Changes in how God treats people are based upon changes in them, not upon changes in God. It shows how God reveals his unfolding decrees to us in time. For example, in Eden before the fall, God is seen blessing man in his innocence. Then he casts man out for his sin and deep offense. In the time of Noah, he warned that the whole human race deserved destruction. By grace he chose Noah and preserved the human race beyond the flood.
All of these events of history were carried out according to God’s decree. The plan included allowing man to sin. God’s judgments show no change neither in God’s mind, nor in his plan. His repentance shows us the affront of sin to his holiness.
The changes in the relationships of persons with God reflect the Creator’s eternal and immutable decree as it unfolds. His plan takes into account human rebellions which accomplish his goal, even though that means enduring great offense from men’s sins.
NOW WE APPLY THIS TO THE TEXT IN GENESIS 6:6-7
Genesis 6:6-8, “And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
REGRET HAS NO PLACE HERE AT ALL. It could not be the meaning intended, since God cannot regret or make mistakes. Even the grief of God in verse 6 is not the same as human grief. God’s eternal blessedness is never interrupted even though in time God permitted sin. In Romans 1:25 God is said to be “blessed forever.” Dr. Charnock points out that grief as we know it is inconsistent with undefiled blessedness. His blessedness cannot be impaired or interrupted.
This language is an accommodation to our “limited creaturely capacity” to understand. God’s intentions are always perfect and infinite, ours are not.
Genesis 6:6 reflects a change in God’s treatment of mankind. It fulfills his unchanging promise and resolution to punish justly, and it shows how he detests sin. The need in God is not for external comfort, but to satisfy his own justice as his decree unfolds. If he regretted, or admitted that his plan did not turn out as he intended, it would be contrary to direct statements where God tells us that he is totally Sovereign, and that he has foreseen all that will come to pass.
Other similar passages are handled in the same way.
1. Consider what God has directly stated elsewhere. This rules out what the passages cannot mean. Since God is perfect and his plan is unchangeable, NO PASSAGE OF THE BIBLE CAN TEACH THAT GOD REGRETS OR REPENTS AS WE DO.
2. Discover what the original words mean, and how they were commonly used. The word translated as “repent” is not equivalent to our word “regret”. It includes mainly the discomfort that is connected with sorrowful things.
3. Consider the attitude of God described in these passages. In an anthropopathism we need to understand what the human emotion might represent in an infinite and unchangeable being of God. God is offended by sin. It appalls him, and causes what was created in a blessed state to be treated at a later time with judgment and contempt.
GOD’S IMMUTABILITY IS BOTH A SOBER WARNING, AND A COMFORTING ASSURANCE.
God’s true nature is an uncomfortable fact for those who remain unredeemed by Christ. For those brought into the family of God by grace, it is a wonderful truth. God cannot go back on his promises, nor can his plan fail in any way. His blessings and judgments are sure.
“And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for He is not a man, that He should repent.” [1Sam 15:29]
[Post compiled from ‘Geneva Institute for Reformed Studies’ by Bob Burridge, and other sources by Michael Jeshurun]
“I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes – that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses.
The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. He that believes in a God must believe this truth.”
If God’s eye is on that tiny insect and seemingly insignificant bird, then we know He’s watching over us too. Hallelujah!
O LORD, Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. . . . . [{Psalm 139:1-10]
“Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.” [Psalm 91:3]
God delivers His people from the snare of the fowler in two senses. FROM, and OUT OF. First, He delivers them FROM the snare—does not let them enter it; and secondly, if they should be caught therein, He delivers them OUT OF it. The first promise is the most precious to some; the second is the best to others.
“He shall deliver thee FROM the snare.” How? Trouble is often the means whereby God delivers us. God knows that our backsliding will soon end in our destruction, and He in mercy sends the rod. We say, “Lord, why is this?” not knowing that our trouble has been the means of delivering us from far greater evil. Many have been thus saved from ruin by their sorrows and their crosses; these have frightened the birds from the net. At other times, God keeps His people FROM the snare of the fowler by giving them great spiritual strength, so that when they are tempted to do evil they say, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” But what a blessed thing it is that if the believer shall, in an evil hour, come into the net, yet God will bring him out of it!
O backslider, be cast down, but do not despair. Wanderer though thou hast been, hear what thy Redeemer saith—”Return, O backsliding children; I will have mercy upon you.” But you say you cannot return, for you are a captive. Then listen to the promise—”Surely He shall deliver thee out of the snare of the fowler.” Thou shalt yet be brought out of all evil into which thou hast fallen, and though thou shalt never cease to repent of thy ways, yet He that hath loved thee will not cast thee away; He will receive thee, and give thee joy and gladness, that the bones which He has broken may rejoice.
No bird of paradise shall die in the fowler’s net.
“According as His divine power hath given unto us (or provided for us) all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” [2 Peter 1:3]
A bathroom with running water may not seem much to you, but if you are from a ‘third world country’ where many are deprived of this luxury, then maybe you’ll thank the Lord even for the toilet and bathing privacy He has provided for you!
An old song says: “Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”
It’s easy to lose perspective. We all face challenges and difficulties in life. And if we are not on guard, they can divert our attention from all the Lord has done for us.
Yes, you may face obstacles, but you need to remember the man who complained that he had no shoes till he saw a man who had no feet.
We may not have everything we would like, but we all have something to be thankful for.
Your children may be a challenge, but at least you have children.
Your spouse may tempt you to pull your hair out, but there are millions who would gladly trade places with you.
Your boss may be ruthless, but there are many in the world who would literally give anything to have any job so they could feed their family.
Your attitude is determined by your focus. When you focus on the negative — you turn negative, making your life, and those around you, miserable.
It is amazing how different you feel after taking just a few minutes to truly thank God for what you have.
I can read! I can see! I can smell! I can hear! I can talk! I can think! God loves me! Jesus died for me! I have a home in Heaven!
Say from your heart: “Thank you Lord for every blessing You have provided for me!”
A special thanks to every single one of you who remembered, greeted and prayed for me on my birthday.
I turned 56 just yesterday February 14th ! And beloved, I can look back and see that the Lord has indeed brought me A LONG WAY from what I once was! As one divine put it – “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am” [John Newton]
Things which once meant THE WORLD to me seem SO TRIVIAL now! And the funny thing is, I spent a greater part of my life wondering what I would be someday, when every day of every year I was being exactly what the great God had designed me to be. I know there is much written about ‘finding the will of God for one’s life’ and doing it. But methinks that for the most part that we children of God are being swept along by the current of God’s will just as a helpless driftwood in the rapids!
Please do not read me wrong here. Yes, THERE IS a place to seek God’s will and go about doing that . . . and yet for all that for the most part HE IS LEADING US IN THE PATH WHICH HE HAS CHALKED OUT FOR US. As that good ol’ hymn says –
“HE leadeth me: O blessed thought! O words with heavenly comfort fraught! Whate’er I do, where’er I be, still ‘TIS GOD’S HAND THAT LEADETH ME.
And thank God for that, dearly beloved! Because for the most part WE know not what to do or even how to do it! As Brother Philpot said long ago – “The Christian thus learns that if he stands, God must hold him up; if he knows anything aright, God must teach him; if he walks in the way to heaven, God must first put, and afterwards keep him in it; if he has anything, God must give it to him; and that if he does anything, God must work it in him.” And THIS I have found to be the truth! As the prophet says, “LORD, THOU wilt ordain peace for us: for THOU also hast wrought ALL OUR WORKS IN US!”[Isaiah 26:12] And again, “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure!” [Phil 2:13]
Just the other day this song came to mind – “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm!” This is one of my favourite hymns! And God does indeed move in MYSTERIOUS WAYS, does He not?! As said the prophet – “Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and THY FOOTSTEPS ARE NOT KNOWN!” [Psalm 77:19]
This is my Father’s world He shines in all that’s fair In rustling grass, I hear Him pass He speaks to me everywhere
Yes, for the most part we can only see the hand of God by the EFFECTS caused, but He Himself makes His presence known only as a rustle or the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, (2Sam 5:24) but however invisible to the natural senses WE KNOW as did the patriarch when HE IS THERE – i.e. Jehovah Shammah – The LORD is there! [Ezk 48:35] But soon and very soon these shadows and types and feelings of His presence shall give way to the reality – the reality that to be ‘absent from the Lord is to be present with Him’ and ‘in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are there pleasures forevermore’!
HOW LONG still the Lord will tarry we know not, but one thing WE DO KNOW, i.e. that we ourselves have not much long to live and that soon we shall be in the LAND OF THE LIVING!
When John Owen, the great Puritan, lay on his deathbed his secretary wrote (in his name) to a friend, “I am still in the land of the living.” “Stop,” said Owen. “Change that and say, I am yet in the land of the dying, but I hope soon to be in the land of the living.” And again, “I am going to Him whom my soul loveth, or rather who has loved me with an everlasting love, which is the sole ground of all my consolation.”
And this is the sole ground of OUR CONSOLATION TOO. Is it not brethren? Oh blessed hope that maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us!” [Rom 5:5]
The Psalmist said, “For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth!” [Psalm 74:12] And again our Lord said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” [John 5:17] So amidst all this ‘hustle and bustle’ of politics, religion, entertainment and in general the carnal activities of man which is going on in the world, unknown to the natural man there is a great spiritual work going on and hastening toward a determined end! i.e. the salvation of God’s elect and the destruction of the seed of the serpent!
May the Lord give us the needed grace to stay close to Him and walk in the light even as He is in the light and eagerly await His coming! Amen! [1 John 1:7]
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation!” [Heb 9:27,28]
Even so come quickly Lord Jesus! [Rev 22:20]
With lots of love Your servant for His sake Brother Mike
“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” (Jude 20,21)
Have you ever wondered what it means to “keep yourself in the love of God”? You might ask, if God’s love is unconditional, then why are we commanded to keep ourselves in it?
Is there a contradiction here? No. It’s merely two sides of the same coin. To grasp this, we must first understand something about God’s love from the Book of Jude.
Believers have a promise from God: They are kept safe in Jesus. Writing to first-century believers, Jude addresses his letter “to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:” (Jude 1).
If you go to a public place like Disneyland with your children, you know where they are. You don’t leave the park and forget them, because you protect what you love.
How much truer it is with God—even when we’re feeling shaken by crisis and feeling trapped in our circumstances. In the original language, the clear implication is, “You are CONTINUALLY kept by Jesus Christ.”
Continually kept. What could be more encouraging than that? Whatever your difficulties may be today, you need to know that you are preserved in Christ, and that He will maintain His investment, which He purchased at such a great cost at the cross. He WILL protect you, preserve you, watch over you, and keep you.
But here’s the interesting part: Jude then tells us, “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21). So which is it? It’s actually both. The Bible is teaching that God will keep us, but at the same time WE must keep ourselves in His love.
This does not mean we have to do certain things to ‘merit’ God’s love. The love of God for His own is always unmerited and absolutely sovereign!
Rather, Jude is telling us to keep ourselves in a place where God can cause His face to shine upon us and actively bless us, and to keep ourselves away from all that is unlike Him, and those things that would drag us down spiritually. In other words, we don’t keep ourselves saved, but we keep ourselves safe.
And that simply means to walk in the light, as He is in the light, that might we have fellowship one with another . . . . (1Jn 1:7) Often, that includes denying ourselves and embracing what God has for us.
Let there be no misunderstanding here, God CAN be displeased! “But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.” (2Sam 11:27)
Those who argue that God doesn’t get angry at His children might treat such portions of Scripture as purely hypothetical: “Keep yourselves in the love of God (you can’t help but do otherwise)….” But this won’t do, for it not only ignores the plain sense of the many texts on this subject, it cheapens the grace of God to the point of making Him unable to sanctify or chasten His people (Rom. 8:18-25; James 1:2-3; 1 Peter 4:12-13). It also may lead to a church’s exalting preference and lawlessness under the guise of “freedom in Christ.”
But that freedom has obligations. Consider: “Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…” (John 15:9b-10a). Even the ancients were not unfamiliar with such conditions: “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God…showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments” (Ex. 20:5-6).The Psalmist agrees: “But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments” (103:17-18). While we may understand the motivation behind easing these demands – eschewing anything that smacks of legalism – we ignore these Scriptures at our peril. Yet they can also be misused, and indeed they are, even within Reformed circles.
If the love of God is tied entirely to our obedience, or to our faithfulness to the covenant, we will find ourselves in an anxious tailspin. It’s one thing to combat lawless “freedom” with these injunctions, it’s quite another to make God’s covenant love conditioned solely upon them. Such notions would drive us away from the Gospel and back to the vicious angst that characterized us before the Spirit’s gracious call and the freeing forgiveness of the cross of Christ.
The answer to this is: the “love” that Jude wrote about, for example, is different from the efficacious, electing love of God; it is the love that distinguishes our every-day relationship with Him. This we can mess up. Badly. But in no way can we remove ourselves from God’s foreordaining love.
In John 6:37-40 we see that if Jesus were to lose one whom the Father has given Him, then He would either be deliberately disobeying His Father’s will or finding Himself unable to enact it. Denying this, then, does real violence to the doctrine of God and the Trinity. In short, God’s electing love is unconditional, steadfast, and gripping. But His constant smile, blessings in providence and joyful fellowship with Him are conditional and can be hindered by disobedience.
May the Lord grant us the grace to be obedient children, keeping ourselves in the Love of God. Amen!
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