Open theists, who believe that God does not and cannot know in advance the future choices that His free creatures will make, cite 1 Samuel 15:11 to prove that God changes His mind. God says, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me” (ESV). The word translated “I regret” is also rendered “I am grieved” (NIV) and “I am sorry” (NLT). Similarly, verse 35 tells us again, “And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel” (ESV).
Open theists argue that when God says He “regrets” something, He implies that He didn’t know what would happen. After gaining further knowledge, God changes His mind. God acted on the best knowledge He had at the time, but the bottom line is, regardless of the terminology used, God made a mistake.
Throughout history Christians have understood that in 1 Samuel 15 (and similar passages), God accommodates His language so that we can better understand Him. To say He “regrets” making Saul king is to communicate powerfully that He grieves over sin. God is not saying, “If only I had known then what I’ve learned since...” (Even among finite beings, a mother can feel sorrow about disciplining her child, still knowing she’d repeat her actions in a similar situation.)
Remarkably, between the two verses about God “regretting” making Saul king, another verse warns us against wrong conclusions about God: “The Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret” (verse 29, ESV).
Here we find an emphatic statement that God does not regret as humans do. We couldn’t ask for a clearer interpretive guideline. Knowing in advance our tendency to misunderstand, God sovereignly places this clarification in the immediate context, using the same Hebrew word from verses 11 and 35, warning us not to conclude exactly what open theists do conclude: that God regrets in the same way humans do.
On the contrary, He directly tells his people, “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6). He is a God “who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). Jesus Christ, the very “image of God” (1 Corinthians 4:4), “is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow” (Hebrews 13:8) —and doesn’t that seem to rule out constant change, whether in knowledge or anything else?
I agree with Bruce Ware, who argues that the proper interpretation of 1 Samuel 15 about God “regretting” is this: God never regrets in the strong and ultimate sense, but He does regret in a weaker and more immediate sense. He is not uncaring (He does regret), but He remains unchanging (He does not regret).
How do we explain passages such as God promising judgment on Nineveh (see Jonah 3:4), then deciding to withhold judgment when the Ninevites repent (see verse 10)? Wayne Grudem says in his Systematic Theology, “These instances should all be understood as true expressions of God’s present attitude or intention with respect to the situation as it exists at that moment. If the situation changes, then of course God’s attitude or expression of intention will also change.”
Such change does not indicate an inconsistency in God’s being; He remains true to His unchanging nature by responding to repentance differently than He responds to evil.
Excerpt from If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.
