The Unchanging God Who Relents Text: Jonah 3:10
Introduction: The Crisis of a Changed Mind
We come now to a verse that has caused no small amount of theological hand-wringing. It is one of those places in Scripture where the modern, rationalistic mind, which wants God to fit neatly into its systematic boxes, begins to fidget. Our text says that God saw the repentance of Nineveh, and He relented from the disaster He had threatened. He changed His mind. So, what are we to do with this? Does God have a mind that changes? Is He fickle? Does He make plans and then, surprised by unforeseen developments, scrap them for Plan B? If prayer and repentance can alter the eternal decrees, is God truly sovereign? Or, on the other hand, if He knew all along that He was not going to judge Nineveh, was His threat just a divine bluff? Was Jonah sent to preach a lie?
These are not trivial questions. The character of God is at stake. If God is mutable, if He changes, then He is not God. He is simply a very large, very powerful creature, subject to moods and new information, just like us. A changing god is no god at all, and you cannot anchor your eternal soul to a shifting sea. As Malachi tells us, "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed" (Mal. 3:6). Our entire salvation depends upon His immutability.
But at the same time, the Bible is a book that reveals a living, personal God who interacts with His creatures in time and space. He is not the abstract, motionless Prime Mover of the Greek philosophers. He is the God who walks in the garden, who grieves, who gets angry, and who, as our text says, relents. The error is to pit these two truths against each other, as though we must choose between a sovereign, unchanging God and a personal, responsive God. The Scriptures present both, and our task is not to reconcile friends, but to understand how they dwell together in the perfect character of the Almighty.
The key to this apparent dilemma lies in understanding the Creator/creature distinction, the nature of divine communication, and the glorious consistency of God's character. God is always true to Himself. And it is precisely because He is true to Himself that He must respond to repentance in the way that He does. The change is not in God; the change is in the Ninevites, and God's unchanging response to that new situation is what the Bible here describes, in language we can understand, as relenting.
The Text
Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them. And He did not bring it upon them.
(Jonah 3:10 LSB)
God Sees and Man Turns (v. 10a)
The verse begins with the divine observation and the human action that prompts the divine reaction.
"Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way..." (Jonah 3:10a)
First, "God saw their works." This is not the sight of a detached observer who is just now catching up on current events. This is the evaluative gaze of the sovereign Judge. God is not just seeing sackcloth and ashes; He is seeing the reality behind the ritual. He sees "their works," which the text immediately defines as turning from their evil way. The Hebrew word for "turned" here is shuv, a robust term for repentance. It means to turn around, to reverse course. This was not a superficial sorrow for getting caught; it was a genuine revulsion at their own wickedness. From the king on his throne to the lowest servant, there was a corporate turning.
Notice the emphasis on "works." Faith without works is dead, and so is repentance. James tells us that Rahab was justified by works when she received the spies. Of course she was justified by faith, but the faith was not a disembodied sentiment; it acted. It did something. So it was here. Nineveh's repentance was not a mere feeling or a new year's resolution. It was concrete. It was a turning from their evil way. Specifically, the king had called on them to turn from "the violence that is in his hands" (Jonah 3:8). This was a real, ethical transformation. They stopped doing the things God was judging them for.
Now, we must immediately ask the Calvinist question. Where did this repentance come from? Did the Ninevites, those pagan, violent Assyrians, just pull this up out of the native goodness of their own hearts? Of course not. The natural man is dead in trespasses and sins and does not seek after God. This massive, city-wide revival was a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. God is the one who grants repentance (Acts 11:18). This entire event, from Jonah's sermon to Nineveh's sorrow, is orchestrated by God. So when God "sees" their turning, He is seeing the fruit of His own secret work. He is not being surprised by their response; He is responding to the response He Himself sovereignly produced.
This is crucial. God is not a passive spectator in the drama of redemption, waiting to see what men will do. He is the author, director, and principal actor. The repentance of Nineveh was as much a miracle as the great fish. And God, seeing this work of His own grace, now acts in accordance with it.
The Divine Relenting (v. 10b)
This brings us to the heart of the matter, the divine response to man's turning.
"...so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them. And He did not bring it upon them." (Jonah 3:10b)
The word for "relented" is the Hebrew nacham. It can mean to be sorry, to regret, or to comfort. When it is used of God, it is what theologians call an anthropomorphism. An anthropomorphism is when Scripture ascribes human characteristics or actions to God so that we, as finite creatures, can have some grasp of who He is and what He is doing. The Bible speaks of God's hand, His eyes, His nostrils. We know God is a spirit and does not have a body. These are accommodations to our understanding. In the same way, when the Bible says God "relented" or "repented," it is describing an unchangeable God's change of action from a human point of view.
So what is actually happening? God is not changing His mind, but He is changing His method. He is not abandoning His eternal decree, but rather He is fulfilling it. We must distinguish between God's will of decree and His will of command. His will of decree is His secret, sovereign plan by which He ordains whatsoever comes to pass. This never changes. His will of command is His revealed law, what He requires of us. This is what we can obey or disobey.
The prophet Jeremiah gives us the divine commentary on this very principle. "At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it" (Jer. 18:7-8). This is God's standing policy. The threat of judgment is almost always conditional. It is a warning, and a warning, by its very nature, is intended to produce a response that averts the disaster.
Think of it this way. A father tells his son, "If you don't clean your room, you will be grounded." The son, hearing the warning, cleans his room. The father then does not ground him. Did the father change his mind? No, he accomplished his purpose. His goal was not primarily to ground his son, but to have a clean room. The threat was the means to that end. In the same way, God's threat against Nineveh was the very instrument He used to bring about their repentance, which was His goal all along. The announcement of judgment was part of the plan of salvation for Nineveh.
Therefore, God did not change His eternal purpose. His purpose was to save Nineveh through the preaching of a threat of destruction. But He did change His declared course of action toward them, because they themselves had changed. His action is always consistent with His character. God's unchanging character dictates that He judges unrepentant sin and forgives repentant sin. When Nineveh was unrepentant, His unchanging justice required a threat of wrath. When Nineveh repented, His unchanging mercy required that He relent. The change was in Nineveh's position before God's law, not in God's character or ultimate plan.
Jonah's Theological Problem
The proof that this is the correct way to understand it is found in the very next chapter. Jonah's complaint reveals that he understood this principle perfectly well, and it is precisely why he ran away in the first place.
"But it was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, 'Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore, in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil.'" (Jonah 4:1-2)
Jonah was not theologically confused. He was theologically astute. He knew his Systematic Theology. He knew Exodus 34:6-7 by heart. He knew that God's fundamental character was one of grace and compassion. He knew that God was the kind of God who delights to relent when sinners repent. His problem was not with God's sovereignty, but with the objects of God's sovereign mercy. He did not want God to be God to the Ninevites.
Jonah's anger proves that God's threat was not a bluff. It was a genuine declaration of what Nineveh deserved and what God would have righteously done had they not repented. And Jonah's anger proves that God's relenting was not a change in His eternal plan, but a consistent expression of His eternal character, a character Jonah knew all too well. Jonah preached doom, hoping for fire and brimstone, all the while knowing that the God who sent him was looking for any righteous basis to show mercy.
Conclusion: A God We Can Deal With
So what does this mean for us? It means everything. Because God is unchanging in His character, we know exactly how to deal with Him. His responses are not arbitrary. We have His Word on it.
If we, like Nineveh, are walking in rebellion, in violence, in pride, in sexual sin, in any form of evil, then God's unchanging justice stands against us. The threat is real. "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). These are not bluffs. This is the settled, judicial posture of a holy God toward unrepentant sin.
But if we, like Nineveh, hear the warning of God's Word and we turn, if we repent, then we will find that He is the same God who met them. He is "a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil." His unchanging character guarantees His response. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). He is faithful to His own character and just to the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ, whose death satisfied the demands of the law.
The cross of Christ is the ultimate display of this truth. At the cross, God did not relent from pouring out the evil. He poured out the full cup of His wrath for sin upon His own Son. He did this so that He could be both just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. Because the judgment fell on Christ, God can now relent from bringing that judgment on all who repent and believe.
Therefore, do not trifle with God. His warnings are real. And do not despair. His promises are sure. Whether He is threatening judgment or promising mercy, He is acting consistently with His glorious, unchanging character. The question is not whether God will change. The question is whether you will. Turn from your evil way. Turn to Christ. And you will find that the God of Jonah is your God, a God who delights to relent.