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NASB | Malachi 3:6 "For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Malachi 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I do not change [but remain faithful to My covenant with you]; that is why you, O sons of Jacob, have not come to an end. |
Bible Question:
I agree, with confidence, that the Lord is "the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow." This is a refrain through scripture, in praise passages or teaching passages. Yes, in narrative passages, we sometimes get another impression. I think of Moses on the mountain, petitioning on behalf of the Israelites, and God yeilding to his request for mercy. Or Abraham having a similar conversation with God about Sodom. Now, was God playing games with these two, or did God's mind change? I can see a consistent principle of character running through both of these, which runs through the whole canon, of just wrath being overcome by compassion... so maybe there isn't a change on the grand scheme but somehow, on the small scheme, God's mind changed? God's heart is shown as very complex --- such as in Hosea 11, wanting to violently purge the people, but having such a tender love that the violence is impossible. Is this an anthropomorphic moment, reading a human father's complexity into the heart of God -- or is God's heart really torn in these ways? Immutably torn? |
Bible Answer: Hi JRM, I think you might have answered your own question. You suggested; “Is this an anthropomorphic moment” I believe it might be a little closer calling it an anthropopathisum. It’s more or less describes the “thinking of God” in human terms so that we can better understand Him. It doesn’t add up that God, being omniscient, would actually have to change His mind because he would have known what He was going to do in the first place, and He knows the outcome before it ever happens; this is His “all knowing” or omniscient ability”. The choice of wording used, as in, Genesis 6:6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. It isn’t like the results were a surprise to the Lord that things turned out the way they did! God knows “all the outcomes” of every event, even the iffy situations that could have been involved. Our hind sight is 20/20 where as God knows the future as perspicuous as the past. The wording is expressed that way in the Bible so that the human realm of thinking, with our finite minds, can somewhat understand a small portion what God was doing in His infinite way of thinking. That makes it about as clear as mud, right? CDBJ |