Yes, He does. How can anyone say He doesn’t?
He changed His mind when Abraham asked Him to spare Sodom and Gemorrah if He found just 10 honest men there. He changed His mind when He allowed the enemy to harass Job (first it was don’t touch Job, then He allowed Job to be touched.) He changed His mind when He sent Jonah to Ninevah (after they repented). He changed His mind about destroying the Israelites after their sin with the Golden Calf.
And that’s just off the top of my head. I’ll wager I could find a few more times He changed His mind.
But then how are we to trust in salvation? If God changes His mind about those things then He can change His mind about His gift of salvation, too, right?
Of course He can…but He won’t. How can I be so sure? Not because of the fact that God changes His mind about things, but because of which things He changes His mind about.
God never has gone back on His word regarding the good things He has done for us: He has honored His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; to Moses,; to David; to Solomon, etc. and so on and so on.
As the Psalm says, His love endures forever. Fortunately, His anger doesn’t.
God changes His mind (sometimes) about destruction and punishment. Even when he continues through with His righteous and just punishment/judgment, He does so with mercy and compassion. It is always (and only) with regard to judgment and punishment that God has changed His mind. Everything else He says He will do, He does. Everything else He said He would provide, He has provided. Everything else He says He will make happen, He has made happen.
We can trust God totally to do whatever good He has said He will do for us, and also hope eternally that He will be merciful and flexible regarding His judgments upon us, all of which we always deserve.
There is nothing wrong about changing our minds, and (in truth) the people who don’t change their minds are the ones not to trust. I once read that good managers are the ones that can make decisions quickly and change them slowly, and bad managers take a long time to make a decision, and then change their minds quickly.
God is certainly a good manager. He has changed His mind only for certain times when He said He would punish the sinners, but never about the promises He has made regarding our land, salvation or His protection and love. And absolutely NEVER about anything in the Torah. The followers of Replacement Theology should remember that next time they profess that God has abandoned the Jewish people. Hasn’t happened, ain’t happening now, and ain’t evah gonna happen.
Those who are repentant, have accepted Messiah Yeshua as their Messiah and who have done T’shuvah in their heart will receive all those good promises about salvation; so long as they maintain their proper attitude and continue to worship God as He said we should, continue to move forward spiritually in maturity, constantly working towards the goal.
Don’t be concerned that God has changed His mind about judgement- He will judge the unrighteous and unrepentant as they deserve, and even they might still receive mercy. Not absolution, not getting off free, but merciful judgment. And those who are faithfully obedient and continue to work towards the goal will be rewarded with every good promise God has made about salvation.
You can bank on it because that’s how God rolls.
G-d does not change His mind. If G-d is not affected by time, he knew when he said it that he was going to change His mind, thus he had another intention in His mind. He wanted us to do something for Him to change His mind. And He knew that they will do it in advance. It was for our benefit that say something. For example, He wanted Moses to ask G-d to spare the Israelites. He wanted to show that they deserved death, but that He was merciful in the same time. He did not changed His mind, as He promised Abraham to make him a great nation. It was all part of His plan. The same with Hezekiah, He wanted Hezekiah to pray to G-d to heal him. He knew that Hezekiah was going to be healed in advance, he did not have children yet! Who would have been king after him?
I have heard this argument often: God was just testing them. As you point out, God knew what was going to happen, so if that is true then it wasn’t a test, at all, was it? How can you have a test if the answer is already known? I will give in to the argument that God wasn’t testing for His benefit, but actually just providing them a way to see what was truly in their hearts. In other words, showing them what they are. But, then again, if God knew the results before hand, then did He really need to show these people what they would do since they were going to do it, anyway?
I don’t see why there is such a “fear” to allow God to change His mind- I don’t see this humanizing or degrading or creating distrust in God, at all, which is the only reasoning I can find for this adamant attitude that God doesn’t change His mind. God, Himself, doesn’t change. God’s promises don’t change (He never ‘promised’ to destroy the people for their sin- He said He wanted to do it. There’s a difference between saying I want to destroy them and I promise I will destroy them.) In any event, for me- if God wants to change His mind, that’s OK with me. He’s God, ya know? He is still totally trustworthy to keep His promises, and salvation is a promise. If he wants to change His mind about how He judges someone, or some people, that’s His prerogative. After all, He will punish the sinners and we are all sinners, yet He has provided Yeshua as our way to escape what He promised would happen. So- did he change His mind about punishing sinners, or just those who repent?
Because it’s silly to see G-d changing His mind if He is over time. This won’t happen because He knows the beginning from the end. He must had, then another reason to do so. If not, He is not really all knowing!
I disagree that being all-knowing supersedes one’s ability to change one’s mind, and that knowing what will happen excludes that same person (or entity, in this case) from changing the previously known results. Maybe we are both agreeing in different ways: howzabout this? … God says He will do ‘this’ to allow someone (Moses, Hezekiah, whoever) to act and show their heart, and He ends up seeming to change His mind, from our perspective, while all the time He knew exactly what was going to happen. I can live with that statement. Unless, of course, I change my mind.
That’s exactly what I wanted to say. But in our stand of view, G-d changed His mind. We may be both right 🙂