During my studies at theological college one of my lecturers taught me an invaluable lesson: treat scripture as a friend. He didn’t mean that we treat our physical books as buddies, but that scripture invites us into a relationship with the God of the universe and therefore we should work hard at understanding it rather than brushing it off when it appears to say something strange.
A few weeks ago in the middle of our 1 Samuel series there was a verse that appeared to say something strange. Unfortunately for time’s sake our pastor was unable to tease out the implications of the verse in question, but that’s the beauty of blogs like this!
Here’s the verse in question:
[10] The word of the LORD came to Samuel: [11] “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night. (1 Samuel 15:10-11 ESV)
The context of this passage is fascinating reading in the book itself. Saul has been anointed as the first official king of Israel, much to Samuel’s disappointment and Israel’s poor reasoning (they wanted a King over them to be like the other nations – effectively rejecting God’s kingship over them). After an initially OK start Saul starts to very much look the part of a good King. But in 1 Samuel 15 we see bubbling to the surface what has been an undercurrent in Saul’s life – his own personal rejection of God.
There are many faults in the life of Saul for sure, but here in 1 Samuel 15 is the nail in the coffin: Saul disobeys a direct instruction from God. Then in verse 11 we’re told that Yahweh regrets having made Saul king.
It’s this ‘regret’ which has caused a few people to scratch their heads and ask questions.
‘What does it mean for God to regret something?’
‘Does God make mistakes?’
It certainly looks that way on first reading.
These are good questions so what are we to make of the answers?
Well first we need to take a step back and consider the boundaries we have in place for reading and interpreting scripture. Our boundary markers are essentially our systematic theology.
Have you ever heard the saying that we are all theologians? To an extent it’s true. If you have an answer for the question, ‘Who is God?’ then you’re a theologian. The next question is what sort of theologian are you.
The same is true for our interpretation of scripture. If you have an answer for the question, ‘What does this passage mean?’ then you have some sort of systematic theology. Systematics are essentially the way in which we understand what scripture says about particular topics and issues, and (for good or bad) they also inform our understanding and interpretation of scripture.
The systematic boundaries involved in understanding 1 Samuel 15:11 are those related to God and his character. If one of the implications of this passage is that God makes a mistake then our systematic understanding of God’s character should come in to prevent this reading.
So what do we know about God from other parts of scripture? We know that he is sovereign, all powerful, and all knowing. To say that he makes a mistake is to raise serious questions about his power and sovereignty. It also raises questions about his trustworthiness – for if God makes an error, for instance here in something as relatively small as choosing a king, how can we ultimately trust him in the really important things of salvation and judgement? To say God changes his mind is to make him at best less than reliable and at worst unpredictably pernicious.
Can we be satisfied with any of these implications?
This is how your systematic theology of God’s character acts as a boundary for interpretation. We should therefore rule out the idea that God makes mistakes or changes his mind.
So then, stepping back closer to the text, what are we to make of this strange phrase?
Regret may not be the most exact choice for translation. The NIV renders נִחַם (nicham) as ‘grieved’, which is probably a little closer to home. From this I quote from John Woodhouse* who gives the implications of this verse in much greater clarity than I could:
The astonishing thing is that God so enters into his involvement with his creation, in particular with humanity, and even more particularly with his people, that their failures affect him.
The depth of this tragedy is highlighted for us in the fact that the only other occasion where this verb is used to describe God’s feelings is in Genesis 6:5-6 [where the Lord was sorry, regretted, grieved, that he had made man on the earth for man’s wickedness was so great.]
…
This day when God’s appointed king did not listen to the sound of the voice of the Lord was like those far-off days when human wickedness came close to destroying all that God had made.
Saul’s rebellion affects God. This is what is meant when God says, ‘I regret that I have made Saul king.’
And this is truly astonishing: that the God who created this whole universe is deeply moved and affected by our rebellion and sinful nature. Your actions matter to God.
*Woodhouse, John. 1 Samuel. Looking for a Leader. Preaching the Word (2008) Crossway Books, USA. p264
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