NGMIF and DRCM Bible Study

Join us as we continue our look at Old Testament exampes on prayer. Tonight we will look at Exodus 32: 7-14, 30-35; 33: 1-6, 12-17 to see a man whose prayer was so powerful that he caused God to repent. There is a great difference, of course, between man’s repentance and God’s repentance. Man’s repentance involves turning from sin to God. But when the Bible speaks of God repenting, there is no thought of sin. Neither is there any hint of vacillation, as if God wavers in His purpose or changes His plans in response to man’s doings. God is unchanging or immutable. His purpose has been fixed from eternity and He will establish it. God does not change His mind as man does.

So how do we explain the many Old Testament references to God repenting? (Most OT references to repentance refer to God, not to man.) When Scripture speaks of God repenting, it is viewing God from man’s viewpoint. From man’s viewpoint it seems as if God is changing His mind, although from God’s viewpoint, He never changes His mind and His purpose is always carried out. We refer to the sun setting, but that is only from our limited viewpoint. The actual truth is, the sun did not move; the earth revolved. But we speak from our viewpoint.

I want to answer the question, what kind of person does it take to get God, from our viewpoint, to “relent from the harm which He said He would do to His people” in response to that person’s prayers? How can we move God through our prayers?

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