My ten year old daughter asked me at breakfast this morning how come God “regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel” I Sam 15:35?
You have an astute ten year old daughter. This particular text is just one of several in the Bible wherein we see God describing regret, or remorse, where we see God appear to change His mind. In other portions of Scripture, see for instance Numbers 23:19, God affirms what seems more plausible to us, that because God is God, He never regrets, repents, or changes His mind. To understand how this can be we must do our best to come to grips with the different ways that God interacts with His creation.
Consider the calling of Daniel in light of the invasion of the Babylonian army. We know God sent that army to punish Judah, but we have to affirm that Daniel did well to fight against them. Why would God call Daniel to fight an enemy God Himself sent? Here we run into the important distinction between God’s prescriptive or revealed will and His decretive or hidden will. The former refers to His law, what He commands of us. The latter refers to His sovereign, efficacious will by which He brings all things to pass. God’s law, for instance, forbids bearing of false witness. Yet, in Peter’s sermon at Pentecost he affirms that God had determined from before all time that Jesus would be unjustly delivered to the Roman authorities.
We have a similar situation here. Understand that history is God’s story. God is the author of all of history, and touching on His sovereignty, brings all things to pass. His decretive will is always done. But just as Shakespeare not only wrote his plays but acted in them, so God is an actor in His own story. God, for instance, decreed before all time, that He would give me new life, a new heart, the gift of faith. But God the actor, in space and time, actually did this.
With respect to Saul, and the flood, and other instances where God is described as having changed His mind, we have God the author deciding that God the actor would change course. Look at it this way. God the author of history knew from before all time that Saul would fail. He knew from before all time that He would reject the kingship of Saul. And He knew that He would, as an actor, first choose Saul, and then later, again as an actor, reject Saul. God the actor changed direction, as God the writer had determined from before all time.
Of course the God who writes history and the God who acts in history is one and the same God. We’re just looking at the story from different perspectives. We can move forward with confidence that God’s promises are always yea and amen. We can trust all that He has told us. And we can rejoice that He is not just an aloof writer of the story, but is actively involved in the story, in our stories and in our lives each and every day. The God we worship is sovereign over all things. And He acts in space and time.