"Does Prayer Change God?"
[James 1:16-18]
February 17, 2008 Second Reformed Church
The answer is "no." If you remember nothing else this morning, please remember the answer to this morning's question is "no."
Last week we began a look at prayer, and we saw that God designed prayer to change us. God uses prayer to make us a people who seek His Will, His Kingdom, and His Glory. God uses prayer as a means to grow us in faith and trust and holiness, making us become more like Jesus, forgiving and loving others, that they, too, might come to salvation in Jesus Alone.
This morning we ask the question, "Does prayer change God?" We have seen that prayer changes us, but does it also change God? Do our prayers cause God to stop doing one thing and start doing another? If we believe that God is sovereignly in control of everything, can we pray that God will stop pursuing one thing and pursue another?
For example: If God is Sovereign, then we believe that the hurricanes that hit Florida do so in accordance with God's Sovereign Plan. Is it possible for us to see that a hurricane is heading towards Florida, pray that God will send the hurricane back out into the sea, and our prayer be the cause of God changing His Plan -- changing the course of the hurricane?
I've already told you that the answer -- the biblical answer -- is "no." Here's why it would be a problem: if our prayer could get God to change His Plan, then God was either doing something wrong or God was ignorant of some information that made there a better course to follow. And, if God sins, or makes mistakes, or doesn't have all the information to make the best possible plan, then there is no God.
And one may object, "But the King James Bible says 'God repented' eighteen times. Doesn't that mean that God will give in to our prayers and do something differently due to our prayers?"
The problem is, in part, one of translation. The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew and the New Testament was written mostly in Greek, so it needs to be translated into English for us to be able to read it.
Another part of the problem is that words often have more than one meaning. In our pew Bible, which is the New Revised Standard, eight of those King James texts are translated in a way that they no longer present a problem. However, there are still problems:
"And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people" (Exodus 32:14, NRSV).
"But when the angel stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented concerning the evil, ..." (II Samuel 24:16a, NRSV).
"You have rejected me says the Lord, you are going backward; so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you -- I am weary of relenting" (Jeremiah 15:6, NRSV).
"But if the nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring upon it. ..., but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it" (Jeremiah 18:8, 10, NRSV).
"It may be that they will listen, all of them, and will turn back from their evil way, that I may change my mind about the disaster that I intend to bring on them because of their evil doings" (Jeremiah 26:3, NRSV).
"If you will only remain in this land, then I will build you up, and not pluck you up; for I am sorry for the disaster that I brought upon you" (Jeremiah 42:10, NRSV).
"Rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing" (Joel 2:13, NRSV).
"Then the Lord relented concerning this; 'It shall not be,' said the Lord. ... The Lord relented concerning this; 'This also shall not be,' said the Lord God" (Amos 7:3, 6, NRSV).
"Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we will not perish" (Jonah 3:9, NRSV).
A plain reading of these verses gives us the understanding that God can be convinced that there is a better way. God, at times, it would seem, realizes that what He is doing is not the best thing. It seems as though God flies off the handle at times and doesn't always make the best choices, so, sometimes, we have to get Him back on track.
That's blasphemy!
Moses wrote, "God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?" (Numbers 23:19, NRSV).
And this morning's Scripture, "Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation of shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures" (James 1:17-18, NRSV).
So here we have a problem: the Bible tells us that God never, ever, ever changes, and He never changes His Mind. Yet, we have these verse of God repenting, relenting, changing His Mind, and being sorry. What are we to do?
The basic principle of Scriptural interpretation is that Scripture interprets Scripture. This is based on our understanding, as Paul wrote, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (II Timothy 3:16, ESV). The Bible, though it was written by many men over two thousand years, God the Holy Spirit made sure that what was written down is in perfect harmony with all of the rest of the Scripture. There are no contradictions and no errors in the Scripture, because the Holy, Perfect God has made sure it was written down that way.
So, if God is Perfect, Holy, All-Knowing, etc., He cannot err or sin or be lacking information. So, we must do something else with those Scriptures that seem to indicate that He does. In order for us to be consistent, we must understand those Scriptures that seem to be inconsistent in a different way.
And the answer is quite simple: God is All-Knowing and humans are not. All that God knows and plans cannot fit into our minds. So, when faced with a dilemma, as we see in the verses I brought to our attention earlier, we may look at them and understand that God's Plan never changed, but our perception of God’s Plan, or our understanding of God's Plan changed.
For example: Jeremiah 18:8, 10, "But if the nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring upon it. ..., but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it" (NRSV).
A plain reading of this text would have us say that God intended to bring a disaster upon Israel, but, if they obeyed, God would change His Mind and not bring the disaster. That would mean that God's Plan hinged on Israel's actions -- that God didn't know what He would actually do until they responded -- that God didn't have enough information to say whether they would obey or not, so He was waiting to see what He would -- even should -- do.
But if we understand it from the perspective of our knowledge being limited, we could say that God, Who is Sovereign and All-Knowing, knew exactly what Israel would do, and He carried out the Plan He had intended from before the creation. However, neither the prophet, nor Israel, knew what they would do, so to their understanding and their knowledge, there were still two possible options -- two possible ways God's Plan could be worked out.
God's Plan was already worked out; He knew what He would do. But Israel didn't know their future or whether God would bring them judgement or mercy, so both options were still valid based on their lack of knowledge.
Another example: Jesus is returning. He may return tomorrow, or He may not. God knows definitely when Jesus will return -- His Plan is sure. But our knowledge is limited. So, we may only say, "Jesus will return tomorrow, unless God changes His Mind and grants us the mercy of additional time to preach the Gospel and witness His Salvation to the nations, in which case, He will return another day."
If you would like a twenty-five cent word, this is called, "anthropopathism." This is the attributing of human emotions to a non-human. Just like we talk about God's Hands and Eyes, when God doesn't have a body, we also talk about God changing His Mind, and so forth, when such a thing is impossible. This is just the way we speak because our knowledge is limited.
So, what shall we do with this understanding?
First, let us understand that prayer changes us; it does not change God.
And second, let us understand that since God is Unchanging, we can always trust Him. God will always be the same; He will always keep His Promises. We never have to doubt God or worry about whether or not He will do what He has said. Our God is Faithful and Trustworthy. He has a Plan that is unfurling, and He knows our needs before we ask. So we can come to Him, in prayer, to be changed, and with the trust and faith that we always come before that same Perfect and Holy God. And that is good news.
Let us pray:
Eternal God, we thank You that You do not change; we thank You that You can always be trusted and relied on. Remove from our minds any doubt that You might change, or get confused, or not have all the facts. Rather, let us know that the Lord our God is the Great and Only God, Who knows our needs and fulfills every one of them. For it is in Jesus' Name we pray, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment