In lesson three, we considered whether the God of the Old Testament is violent or peaceful and also whether He is legalistic or gracious. As we conclude our study of Dr. David Lamb’s book, “God Behaving Badly,” we are going to go even deeper and ask is the God of the Old Testament rigid or flexible, and is He distant or near?
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- Think of a stubborn person you know (it could be you). What is it like to be around this person? When is it good that they are that way?
- How easily do you change your mind? In what types of situations do you find it easy or difficult to do so?
Have you ever heard someone say, “Oh, I love that guy! He’s so stubborn. In fact, he’s so inflexible, he never changes his mind.” It is difficult to imagine a rigid person as being perceived positively. People generally do not want to be described as stubborn or inflexible. However, when Christians speak about God, His immutability or lack of changing is considered a good thing. But for those of us who have felt bullied, deceived, or humiliated by inflexible people, sermons and songs that praise God’s unchangeability might seem ironic. How did inflexibility become a good thing?
While a few New Testament texts portray God as unchangeable, the texts used most frequently to support the doctrine of God’s immutability are found in the Old Testament. Specifically, four texts are mentioned repeatedly:
God is not human, that He should lie, not a human being, that He should change His mind. (Numbers 23:19)
He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a human being, that He should change His mind. (1 Samuel 15:29)
The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind. (Psalm 110:4)
I the Lord do not change. (Malachi 3:6)
While some of us may not like the fact that the God of the Old Testament is described as unchangeable, since that is what the Bible says, perhaps we just need to accept it. God’s immutability is just one of those biblical doctrines that we need to swallow, even if it feels like a bitter pill. As we start looking at specific passages, we are going to find that God’s commitment to not change is actually a very good thing because that means His blessings on His people will continue.
Of the four primary Old Testament texts that mention divine immutability, three of them use the verb naham, each time with a negative participle, stating basically that God does not change. The one text where naham is not used is found in Malachi where the word shanah is used to state that Yahweh does not change. In three of the four texts, the divine immutability involves a promise or commitment by Yahweh to bless His people. If God were to have changed His mind in these three contexts, negative repercussions would have resulted for His people. The fourth text includes a promise to bless David. In these situations, flexibility would have resulted in judgment and death, but divine rigidness results in mercy and life.
In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now, you will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’” (2 Kings 20:1-6)
- What caused the change in Yahweh?
(Prayers and tears caused the change in Yahweh. Yahweh explained that He changed His mind because He had heard Hezekiah’s prayer and had seen Hezekiah’s tears. In general, Yahweh changes in the context of showing compassion toward His people, often responding to human intercession, as He did for Hezekiah. Even Moses changed the mind of God, not once but twice.)
- How would you have felt if you were Isaiah when Yahweh told him to go back to tell Hezekiah that He had changed His mind and Hezekiah would live fifteen more years? Why might that have been difficult?
In the book of Jonah, after all the Ninevites repented, God changed His mind about the evil that He had said He would bring on them and He did not do it.
“…But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened. (Jonah 3:8-10)
Yahweh’s willingness to change His mind to show mercy wasn’t just on a whim, it characterized His nature. God was concerned about all the Ninevites, and even their cattle.
- Jonah became angry at God because of the compassion He showed the Ninevites. Do you ever feel like Jonah and wish that God wasn’t merciful to someone? What types of people make you feel this way? Why?
(Divine changeability is precisely what infuriated Jonah so much, because he wanted Nineveh to be destroyed. Jonah perceived God’s willingness to move from judgment to mercy as a weakness. I guess it depends on your perspective whether or not divine flexibility is a good thing.)
- So, the Bible seems to say both that God changes and that He doesn’t change. Which one is it? Is God flexible or not?
To reconcile these apparently contradictory aspects of God’s character, we have three options before us. First, we can ignore one of these characteristics. Second, we can rationalize that even though Scripture describes God as both mutable and immutable, He is actually only one of them. Third, we can work to understand how these two apparently contradictory yet biblical descriptions of God can be faithfully reconciled without downplaying the tensions. This means we hold them in tension while avoiding attempts to overly standardize the Bible.
The fact that God does not change His commitments but remains faithful to His promises is great news, but the fact that He extends not condemnation but mercy to the contrite is even greater news. Wouldn’t it be great if Christians had a reputation of being like God in this way? If we were known as being unchangeable in a good way (faithful, loyal, reliable, dependable) and changeable in a good way (merciful, gracious, flexible, and compassionate)?
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- When has God seemed either distant or near during a personal crisis?
The psalmist frequently speaks of God being far away (Psalms 10:1; 35:22; 38:21; 71:12). The author of Psalm 22 asks God differently why He is so distant:
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but You do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22:1-2)
- How comfortable do you feel complaining or lamenting to God?
Many of us resonate with these questions and feelings. In the midst of a personal crisis, we wonder where God is. God is remote, so along with the psalmist, we ask, “Where are you, God?” And yet the God of the Old Testament is also near. Every Christmas we are reminded that one of Jesus’ names is “God is with us” (Immanuel), but it is easy to forget that this particular messianic title first appears in the Old Testament when it was given as part of a divine promise to an eighth-century king, Ahaz. Isaiah 7:14: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.
Psalm 13 begins a bit like Psalm 22, with questions about God’s absence.
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide Your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for He has been good to me. (Psalm 13)
The psalmist is in pain and feels cut off from God. This isolation has been going on “forever,” prompting the fourfold repetition of “How long?” The psalmist is forgotten, but Yahweh is hidden. Death is near, but Yahweh is far. The psalmist is desperate, but Yahweh is distant. Yahweh is once again absent from a person in crisis.
However, after verse 2 the tone of the psalm changes from questioning and despair to petition and finally to trust and praise. While the confidence and trust of the psalmist is obvious by the end, ironically even in the despondent questions at the beginning, we find a kernel of faith that God is still present.
When God seems distant in the midst of crisis and pain, we can pray the psalms of lament. As we follow the pattern of the lament—from doubts and despair to prayer and petition—we eventually arrive at a place of hope, trust, and praise. While it happens quickly in the six verses of Psalm 13, it may take much longer in our own lives. But there are plenty of psalms of lament to read during times of trouble. God knows that there will be times when He feels distant from us, so during those times, He has provided prayers, these psalms of lament that not only keep the communication lines open but also gradually draw us back into His presence, into a place of trust and faith.
Yahweh Is With His People
God manifests His presence using extraordinary imagery involving a burning bush (Exodus 3:2) and a burning pillar (Exodus 13:21), an earthquake (1 Kings 19:11-12), and a whirlwind (Job 38:1; 40:6), but He appears to His people more typically in mundane ways.
God Speaks to His People
In Scripture, God speaks to His people frequently. In the English Standard Version of the Old Testament, the phrase “The Lord said” appears more than 250 times. “Thus says the Lord” appears more than 400 times. That is a lot of divine talking.
God Walks With His People
While people typically think of God’s incarnation strictly as a New Testament idea (that is, Jesus), the Old Testament gives us numerous glimpses of God as a man. Yahweh displays human-like characteristics to manifest His presence to people, sometimes taking the form of a man and walking with them, and once even wrestling with a man.
God Dwells Among His People
There are numerous Old Testament texts that state Yahweh is with His people:
“Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.” (Exodus 29:45-46)
“And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon My people Israel.” (1 Kings 6:13)
“Be strong, all you people of the land,” declares the Lord, “and work. For I am with you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And My Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.” (Haggai 2:4-5)
- How does God manifest His presence to us today? How does He speak to you? When do you experience His presence?
- How can followers of Jesus communicate to people that God is near?
(We will need to welcome and reach out to people outside the Church, even those on the margins of society. Embodying God’s presence in this way will involve taking risks and putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations.)
Conclusion
All the negative perspectives that people have about God (angry, sexist, racist, and so on) can make God appear, in a word, bad. Fortunately, however, as we have looked closely at Yahweh and the Old Testament, we see a God characterized highly favorably (loving, affirming, hospitable, and so on). All the positive things we have been seeing about God can also be summarized in a word – good. God is good! Because God is good, good things happen to bad people like us. Because God is good, His commands result in blessings for us. Because God is good, He gives us the Bible in which we learn what He is like—that He is loving, fascinating, and relational.
Hopefully, this study has expanded your picture of God. Allow that knowledge of God to shape you. Follow your fascination with God into His Word. Know that God desires relationship with you. Be assured that God is good!
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Theology at Your Fingertips 