From “God is the same; yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13: 8) and “God is the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1: 17), we learn that God’s character is unchangeable.

Nor is He unsure of Himself that He changes His mind; though, from our human perspective, that sometimes looks to be the case.

For example, Genesis 6: 6 says that the Lord was repentful (KJV) and filled with pain that He had made man. Jonah 3: 10 states the Lord relented (NASB) about carrying out His threat to destroy the Ninevites, instead having compassion upon them after they turned from their wickedness.

In these passages, we see the word “repent” and ‘‘relent.” That makes us think that God, in these instances, did change his mind.

However, in Hebrew, the word translated as ‘repent” and “relent” is the Hebrew expression meaning “to be sorry for.” That doesn’t mean a change is going to take place. Instead it means that there is regret for something that has already taken place.

For instance, take Genesis 6: 6. From it, we see that though God regretted making man, He did not change His mind and undo mankind. Rather, He allowed mankind to continue to exist through Noah and his family. Besides, the context for this passage shows that it wasn’t that God was sorry for creating mankind. It was the sinfulness of mankind that caused the grief and pain in God’s heart.

In the case of the Ninevites, consider this. We know that the consequence of sin is death. Yet, God who loves and desires reconciliation with all, is certainly sorrowful about us sinning, but He will save those who turn from sin and who believe in and trust Him.

It then was entirely consistent with God’s character to be sorrowful about the Ninevites’ wickedness that called for judgment, but then not bring it about because of their repentance. In other words, it would have been contrary to His character and indeed would have been a change of mind if He had carried out judgment on the Ninevites.

Moreover, God doesn’t have to change His mind. He always knows what will happen. After all, being omniscient, He knows the end from the beginning. As such, he sometimes intercedes and does what He has to do in order to have humanity carry out His perfect plan (Isaiah 46: 10-11).

A great example of that is God making sure the plan of salvation took place. If He had not set aside and protected a remnant people (Noah and family) and had not flooded the world before mankind’s evil destroyed every person on earth, Jesus wouldn’t have had a world to save.

As for the Ninevites, God knew they would repent, but that they would do so only with the threat of destruction. In somewhat similar fashion was the case of the Israelites in the wilderness. They too were threatened with destruction, but God knew that Moses would intercede, allowing for some of the righteous to later come forward and lead the nation into the promise land.

If nothing else, we should be grateful to have scriptural verses that take us into the mind and heart of God. They are there to help us know that we can rely on Him being unchanging.

Scripture was written to help us understand that God is never regretful about the decisions He makes, but that He is saddened by some of the responses we make in regard to his decisions. Nonetheless, God’s actions are remarkably consistent with His Word as it relates to our responses.