by Kenneth F. Sheets
The Relationship of Humans to the Unchanging God
When man, the human creation of God, chose to violate the design of his Creator, his action did not make him “like God,” possessing the authority to determine good and evil for himself. The adversary had deceived the female human into violation, and, perhaps, thereby “encouraged” the male human to violate as well, but the male ädäm was not deceived when he went beyond the bounds which the Creator had established for his existence.[1] The man, quite simply, chose to exceed the authority he possessed; he chose to usurp to himself an authority never delegated to him by the Creator, and whatever positive result he may have expected, it did not occur. His violation of “just a single point” of God’s design was not the act of eating the fruit; his action of eating of the fruit was merely a result of the evaluation which had already occurred in his mind regarding his relationship to the Creator and the Creator’s design for his existence.
Despite knowing the truth that he was a being designed and brought into existence by God, and thus that he was owned by and existed within the Creator, man decided to act as though these conditions of his existence were not reality. He chose to act as though he was “self-made,” or had come into existence apart from God,[2] and was not dependent upon God. This was the violation: man thought, and acted, as if he was a being independent of God and able to decide, totally apart from God, the design criteria governing his existence. The sad result was that the man found that, regardless of what he thought or how he acted, he could not escape the criteria, and the implications of the criteria, established by the One in whom he was “living, and moving, and existing.”[3]
Man’s choice to act as though he were independent of God had an immediate effect, an effect which the Creator had designed into His human creature and which did not require Him to “act” personally or perform any special act of “judgment.” God had built the system of the entire creation in accord with His Person, and the system could not be changed, nor could it be escaped. As soon as the man violated the system of which he was a part and into which God had placed him, he experienced a sense of alienation from the Author of the system. The Creator’s system was a composite, integrating every aspect with every other aspect, and it included every criterion for proper and integral application of the authority structure which He had built into every thing that existed and which ruled over them all. The ädäm had violated the system of the Creator, and, though in the design of God he possessed both the ability and opportunity to violate that system, God had never given him the authority to do so, nor would He, nor could He, ever give such authority. The system was a perfect representation of the unchanging person of the Creator, and He would never delegate to any created being, or to all, the authority to act as though any other system or seeming “set of design criteria” existed or superseded any criterion of His design. Whoever and whatever violated His system was not only accountable to Him, it also experienced the effects of having violated, and it experienced those effects immediately.
After the male human, the head of creation, violated, certain conditions came into existence affecting the entirety of creation. God had built these conditions into His original creation, but they were designed only to come into existence when that male human chose to step beyond the boundaries established for him. The Creator had designed every one of these “new” conditions with the intent that they would influence erring humans to turn back into His perfect way.[4] When the man exceeded the authority delegated to him, he came to know violation both perceptually and experientially, and his thinking in the matter had changed his relationship to the Creator. He was now alienated from the God who had brought him into existence, but, as a finite created being, he could never in himself provide or devise a means of overcoming or removing that alienation. The infinite transcendent Creator alone could provide a means for erring humanity to be reconciled to Him, and, in His perfect knowledge, He had already provided that means. Nothing that originated in any or all created beings, whether human or angel, whether animate or inanimate, not even the entirety of the creation, could suffice to provide the reconciliation of even a single finite being to the infinite God. He, the unfalse and unchanging God Who Exists, could provide that means, and He did just that.
The “Changing” of the “Unchanging” God
Many have misinterpreted the English text of Genesis 6:5-7 (shown in the list below) to conclude that God not only did, but will, change His mind regarding something He has threatened or intended to do. Failing to recognize the import of the proposition that “God can change His mind,” those who commit this error of interpretation read the English record to be saying that the “utter sinfulness” in the earth at the time of Noah moved God to “change His mind” regarding the continuation of humans upon the earth. In actuality, however, the Hebrew wording of this text reflects only the perfect constancy of the Creator and never indicates any change in the mind or thinking of God.
The word used in the Hebrew Scriptures to describe God’s “repenting”[5] is the verb nähkăm, a verb which in no way describes “repenting” in the common modern concept. In addition, this word is not related to mĕtanŏĕō, the Greek verb which is translated “repent” in the NT and describes the “change of mind” a person experiences when he changes from not believing God to believing Him. God cannot change or represent Himself differently or deceive in any way; He is the absolute, perfect Creator whose person transcends all that exists. Because of His person and nature, and His knowledge of the future as He knows the past, Yihyeh, God Who Exists, does not, and indeed cannot, begin on one course of action and then change to a different course of action. That which He does is a perfect and exact representation of His person, and, if He were to change from one course of action to another or from one perspective to another, He would be exhibiting a change in His person. Though from the human perspective He may appear to change, the transcendent Creator can never do anything of any kind which is different from who He is. Thus, if He appears to change, it is man who misunderstands, because every course of God is actually in full accord with every other seemingly “different” course of God.
Another word in Genesis 6:6 confirms the concept that God did not and does not change His mind. In the English version, this word is translated “it grieved him,” making it appear that the actions of humans “caused” the transcendent Creator to grieve. The Hebrew word is a hithpael form of the verb ätsăb, “to grieve.” The hithpael stem makes the verb reflexive, that is, where the subject is both doer and receiver of the action. Thus, a descriptive literal translation of the verb would be “he grieved himself” or “he made himself grieve.” God, as transcendent Creator, cannot be positively or negatively affected by the creation; the creation partakes of a finite existence within Him and does not possess either the extent or the ability to change the person in whom it exists.
The emotions, that is, the sensibilities, of humans were perfectly built into them by the Creator, and they are aspects of the “image” of Himself which He imparted to humans. He Himself possesses “emotion” perfectly and is never “emotional” in any way or to any degree which is not in total accord with His design, His person. Thus, if He is pleased or if He is grieved, it is all in perfect accord with His design. With respect to humans, God’s pleasure is related to their living in accord with the reality that they are created beings which are totally dependent upon His person and nature. When, however, a human seeks to live apart from the reality of his nature as a created being, God “grieves Himself,” because He sees and knows all the destruction which lies ahead of a life lived contrary to His design.
The situations and conditions of human existence do not cause this grief. It is an aspect of the Creator’s being, His person, and, just as He built “emotions” of joy, anger, sadness, love, and more into His human creature, all of these are rooted in His perfect person. The Creator’s grief at the violations committed by His human creatures actually signifies in itself that He has not willed any person to destruction, but desires that all walk with Him in the blessedness of His way. When God is “grieved,” however, nothing in the creation nor all of the creation possesses the ability to relieve that grief. Just as the love[6] of the transcendent Creator transcends the creation, so His “grief” does the same. The creation possesses nothing of itself which enables it to change His grief into pleasure; the creation can only conform to the design criteria He established when He created. No new criteria exist; the only right and true and effective criteria are those which originated in His person, criteria which were present in Him before the foundation of the world.
Accordingly, the only thing which can change the “grief” of God into His “pleasure” is the application of His design. In the very beginning, He expressed to Adam that violation of His design would bring undesirable, destructive results, not the least of which was alienation from Him and the blessedness of a walk with Him. Adam, though he applied the God-designed means for reconciliation to the Creator, experienced the inescapable results of his violation. Cain, the first son of Adam, would follow in his father’s error and choose to exercise his own authority for providing a sacrifice of his own design, instead of conforming to that of the Creator.
Analysis of the Word Nahkam:
Working Definition:
Nähkăm: an action or activity, whether mental or physical in nature,
whether performed by some one or some thing,
which changes an unpleasant, undesirable, unsatisfied, or uncomfortable condition
to a condition
which is pleasant, desirable, satisfied, or comfortable in the perspective of the person
or thing experiencing the sense of undesirability
or dissatisfaction.
The one in whom this action occurs becomes “satisfied, comforted, appeased, consoled” as a result of the action of nahkam. When God is the person who is to be “satisfied, satiated,” the action of nahkam cannot be accomplished or brought into existence by any created being or all of them, or by the entirety of creation. God, the transcendent Creator, the God-Who-Exists, alone can do this to and for Himself.
Human violation of the design of God, and the alienation which it brought, could never be “satisfied” by anything “created.” The Creator Himself, alone, in the giving of the Son, could provide the “satisfaction” that would reconcile man to Himself. The Godly ancient men who wrote the Creator’s revelation knew this, that is, they knew that the debt of violation could only be satisfied by the Creator Himself. Though it is unlikely that they knew all the details now revealed regarding God’s satisfaction of Himself through the death of His Son, they knew nonetheless that only the God Who Exists could pay the price demanded by the God Who Exists.
The occurrences of nahkam in Exodus 32:12 and 14, where they are translated “repent” and “repented,” were translated into the Greek of the LXX using words from the root hilas-, which is the root of Paul’s word hilasterion, referring to Christ,[7] and the same word used by the writer of Hebrews in reference to the “mercy seat” of the Ark of the Covenant.[8] Just as Christ was the only possible “satisfaction” which could reconcile man to God, only God Himself could “satisfy,” could “satiate,” His own righteous design in regard to any violation of His design, whether He gave His Son after or before those violations occurred in human history. He existed His own “satisfaction,” and He provided Himself to be that satisfaction. This is the God Who Exists, the one in whom the entirety of creation exists . . . never at any moment has He left man without a means of reconciliation, a means of “satisfying” Him, and never has He left man ignorant regarding that means.
Footnotes:
[1] 1 Timothy 2:14.
[2] Psalm 100:3.
[3] Acts 17:28.
[4] Psalm 90:3.
[5] Genesis 6:6, 7; Exodus 32:12, 14; Numbers 23:19; Deuteronomy 32:26; Judges 2:18; 1 Samuel 15:11, 29, 35; 2 Samuel 24:16; 1 Chronicles 21:15; Psalm 71:21; 86:17; 90:13; 106:45; 110:4;119:76, 82; 135:14; Isaiah 1:24 (ease); 12:1 (comfort); 40:1 (comfort 2x); 49:13 (comfort); 51:3 (comfort 2x); 51:12 (comfort); 52:9 (comfort); 66:13 (comfort); Jeremiah 4:28; 15:6; 18:8, 10; 26:3, 13, 19; 31:13 (comfort); 42:10; Ezekiel 5:13 (comfort); 24:14; Joel 2:13, 14; Amos 7:3, 6; Jonah 3:9, 10; 4:2; Zechariah 1:17 (comfort); 8:14.
[6] Love: that characteristic of God which manifests itself in His constant giving of Himself to bring individual humans into that which is absolutely best for them, that is, the blessedness of walking in His perfect design.
[7] Romans 3:25.
[8] Hebrews 6:25.