Serpents
Does God change His mind?
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. - Numbers 21:4-9
We have been taught that God is unchanging, which leads us to think when He makes up His mind about something, He will stick with it.
But here, He seems to regret His own decision.
First God sends poisonous serpents among His people and then after Moses prays for them, He gives Moses a way to keep them safe.
We can interpret this a few ways.
One is that God intended to kill them all but relented when Moses prayed for them.
Or, maybe God wanted to knock some sense into them so He created a threat that caused them to turn to Him for help.
But what if God didn't send the serpents? Back then, the belief was that God had a hand in everything that happened, that good and bad was from God and directly related to our actions.
We don't tend to think that way today, so we might read this story and see God as compassionate and responsive to prayer, without blaming God for the serpents.
On the other hand, we might like the idea that God can be persuaded to change His mind about us. If we look at repentance as a form of appeal to God for clemency, we might think of it that way, but the mind that is changing is ours, not God's.
I don't believe God ever writes us off.
We can screw up royally and God is still waiting for us to turn around and come home to Him.
So, the mind or the heart that needs to change is the one we bear, and the good news is, we can change it at any time, and God will be there to help us.
More to come...