Numbers 23:19 –
God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?
There are a bunch of interesting truths inside this one verse. First, God not being a man is a key point we tend to miss. We are always trying to personify God which tends to put Him in a “box” and limits our understanding of Him. Granted God did personify Himself in Jesus, but Jesus only represents God in flesh. We cannot keep putting God in a box and trying to limit His glory based on the frailties of a human body.
Second, we need to look at what God does not do since He is not human. He does not lie or change His mind. No matter how hard we try we do both often. Many times we will claim that the “Holy Spirit” made us do it. Often changing our minds is a good thing, because we may be headed down the wrong path. And we can justify a lie to protect people feelings. But even then reality and truth may be needed to really protect the person. Discernment and wisdom is necessary when considering how to handle an instance where you would tend to lie.
Third, the questions actually lead me to Jonah. Here God gave Jonah a message for Nineveh of destruction. When Jonah gave the message, God felt compassion and spared the people, which got Jonah upset. Now did God change his mind or just not tell Jonah that if they repent He will spare them? Unfortunately many times we will only get our “marching orders” and not the entire mission plan. God wants us to be faithful that He understands the ultimate plan and we should not need to know or question it. Ours “is not to reason why”, ours “is just to do”! A paraphrase from Tennyson works well in this since we are really God’s foot soldiers. So what may seem on the surface to be God “reneging” on His word is actually us only knowing or listening to part of it!