Theology Thursday: God's Regret

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
Does God experience regret?

Pastor Brady’s thoughts:
For a new Christian or any believer who hasn’t given this much thought before, our scripture might seem to contain a contradiction regarding the nature of God. If our God is omniscient (all knowing) then how can he also have regret?

Here’s two Old Testament passages to get us started:

In Genesis 6:5, God sees that humanity has become corrupt and fallen into great wickedness. Then Genesis 6:6 says “The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.”

God says in 1 Samuel 15:11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commands.”

Did God not know before he created Adam and Eve that humanity would become so sinful and evil? Did God not know before he made Saul king what Saul would then do?

It’s understandable to find these verses puzzling, because a number of places in our Bible firmly establish God’s foreknowledge - that God knows all things, including the future.

The prophet Isaiah indicates God’s foreknowledge as important evidence that he is the one true God (Isaiah 41:21-23). Later in Isaiah, we see that God knew from the beginning what was to come in the future (Isaiah 46:9-10). Writing in the Psalms, David says that God knew every word David would say even before he said it and that God foreknew the outcome of every one of David’s days (Psalms 139:4, 14-16).

There are a number of times that God reveals his foreknowledge through prophecy or forecasting of an event that then comes to pass. For example, he tells Abraham that his descendants would become slaves in a foreign land for 400 years before eventually coming to the land God had promised (Genesis 15:12-16).

Additionally, the Apostle Paul says that nobody can teach God anything and nobody is God’s counselor because God knows all things (Romans 11:33-36).

How do we square these two ideas? How do we reconcile the fact that God knows everything - even the future - but also expresses regret for decisions he’s made?

Our answer lies in how we define the term “regret.”

What we humans usually mean by regret is wishing we would have done something differently, or not at all. That’s not what the scripture means when it talks of God’s “regret.”

God doesn’t “regret” in the sense that he believes he was incorrect and wishes he could have been correct instead. God “regrets” in the sense that he’s sorry humans chose to disobey his commandments and desires and are now dealing with the fallout. In other words, God feels sadness and sorrow about the consequences of disobedience and sin.

In the biblical examples described above, God was disappointed at how things turned out, but he wasn’t surprised at how things turned out.

God hates sin, and deeply desires for his people to follow his instructions. But he knows when we will and when we will not, long before we do ourselves. And he factors in our failings and puts them to use for his ultimate purposes.

Maybe we can think of this as a sort of vicarious regret. When I tell my son not to play so rough with his toy school bus because he might break it, and then he disobeys me and breaks the toy, I have the feeling of regret (among other things!) that he didn’t listen and now has to face the consequences: sadness, maybe discipline via a timeout, no more toy school bus to play with.

In this scenario, I am disappointed that my son failed to follow my instruction, but I’m not surprised that his actions led to this result. I had a pretty good idea how things would turn out.

God is like that, except his knowledge and desires are perfect. God knows the future, but he does not dictate every aspect of the present in order to create that future.

The idea of God “remembering” something is also present in scripture, and I think it’s similar to our discussion here.

Genesis 8:1 says God "remembered" Noah.

Genesis 19:29 says God "remembered" Abraham.

Genesis 30:22 says God "remembered" Rachel.

Exodus 2:24 and 6:5 says God "remembered" his covenant with Israel.

Revelation 18:5 says God will "remember" the sins of the world.

There are several other examples, but when the Bible says God “remembered” it doesn’t mean God forgot and had to be reminded, it means he has observed the scene and decided to act. It means he has made a promise, and determined that now is the time to fulfill it.

God knows everything and does not make mistakes. Even in our limited knowledge, we know that obeying God’s commands and his call on our lives is the only way to avoid the ultimate regret of an eternity separated from his glory.

We would deeply regret that. And so would God.  

To know Him and to make Him known!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to minierccstaff@gmail.com and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.