All right. Well, like I said, if you want to join along, I'm pretty much going to be sticking pretty close to the notes here that you see. and you've got handouts in the back. And if you are watching by live stream, get in touch with me and I can get you some notes as well. But we'll leave those out there that way anyone coming on Sunday or Wednesday night, they can grab a copy. I wanna introduce you to the sheets themselves. The first page here, you're gonna see a title that says repentance in the Old Testament. It's gonna have several references that we're gonna study tonight, as well as both the Hebrew and the Greek word for repentance and what they mean. And so this first page, is really gonna be what we take our notes on. You'll notice I left you some blanks so that way you can write in the empty gap beneath the... the letters there. The second page has Christian and Jewish theologians. Now the word Christian here is used loosely. There are gonna be some guys on this list that we would look at and say, you probably aren't even really a Christian, but you're at least coming from a Christian worldview. So there's a guy on here who writes from what we call an open theist position. Open theist basically means God doesn't know the future. So that's a thing. So open theism is one of those natures of God that we would reject. Because again, of course God knows the future. That's what Isaiah 40 is all about. But he writes a whole book basically saying, well, of course God repents because God doesn't know the future. So he changes his mind. No, but I'm including them on here just so you can see. This is one of the interpretations that you'll run into. If you want to see some of the sources, things like that, there they are. And then you've got a lot of Jewish theologians. And the reason I'm including these is because a lot of our study tonight is going to be in the Old Testament. So the Jewish people obviously have a whole lot to say about the Old Testament. Now, some of these guys, as you get into Maimonides, in fact, you look at most of them, they are well after the time of Christ. But again, they're still Jewish writers writing about the Old Testament. We don't take everything they say. because they obviously have some very interesting things to say about Isaiah 53, about it not being about the Messiah. But it's interesting that a lot of the Jewish interpretations about the Messiah really change after the Christian era, because they're responding to Jesus's coming. And so I want you to notice that some of these Jewish writers, in fact, a lot of the ones I reference, are after the time of Christ. It's not like we're talking ancient, ancient. Middle Ages and stuff. But again, they're a Jewish context, and so you can see them there. And if that's up your alley and that interests you, I'm including it for your sake. If you don't care at all, then there you go. Just take my word for it. All right. And so let's get into the Bible study tonight. And we're going to start off in the book of Genesis. And what I want you to understand as we go through this topic, there are two words for repentance that we're gonna study, and one primarily. You'll see it there at the bottom of the first section, some of the key passages. The Hebrew word is, and I don't speak Hebrew, so I'm gonna really butcher this one, I'm sure, but naham, it means to be sorry, to repent, to regret, and sometimes it's actually used to mean comfort, which that's an interesting thing there. But I want you to notice the range of meanings here. So when it talks about God repenting, it's a Hebrew word that can have a range of meanings stemming from to be sorry, to regret, and to repent. So just keep that in mind when it talks about God repenting. It is translating a Hebrew word that could actually have the idea of he's feeling sorry about what happened. We'll talk about that, but I want you to understand that there's a range of meanings here that the word repent can mean. So that's one thing in the Hebrew. Now it is typically used to refer to mankind, but it can be used in these cases to refer to God. And that's why specifically we're digging in here tonight. So we're digging into does God repent or not? And that's where we're gonna look at these verses. The other word when we get to the New Testament is a word called metanoia. And the word in the New Testament means a change of mind or rethinking And you'll notice there it implies a moral reorientation rather than just regret. So I want you to notice that when we deal with this word repent in the New Testament, it actually has a stronger meaning than the word repent in the Old Testament. So the Old Testament could mean just, I felt bad about what happened. That doesn't really mean anything changed. It just meant, I felt bad. Oh, I regretted that. Oh, I felt sorry that happened. It can mean repent. but it can mean something a little vaguer. But when we get to the New Testament, typically this word metanoia is like, you need to change your mind. And that change of mind needs to be so profound that it actually changes the way you think and operate. Like it's like an operating system swap. So that's where, again, the danger comes in because we're reading it in English and there's times where we're missing some of the nuance of it because we're not looking at the original words and the word repent, doesn't have that range of meanings in English, but when we look at the underlying words in the Greek and the Hebrew, they have a lot more variety to them. That pretty much answers our question on whether God repents or not. It all depends on what connotation you're looking at. There's a few passages we're going to look at tonight. And so you'll see here Numbers chapter 23, you'll see 1 Samuel 15, you'll see Genesis 6-6, and 1 Samuel 15-11. Now, I want you to notice these, because you can almost pair them up. Because Genesis and Numbers are both written by Moses. Genesis and Numbers are both written by Moses, and one of them says God repents, the other one says he doesn't. And so I ask you this question, is the same author going to contradict himself in his same writing? Like, do you think Moses is going to be so bad of a writer? Obviously, under inspiration, he's obviously not going to make a mistake. But if we take Moses, who's writing, and he's using the word, do you think he's really gonna make that blatant of a contradiction just within a short distance of each other? Probably not. So the very fact that you've got the same writer who's writing these two books, and he says in one, God repents, and the other one, God doesn't repent, it lets us know, okay, we need to take a step back and look at the context to make sense of what's being done here. I'll also note that if you look there in 1 Samuel 15, again, they are within the same chapter, and you have one passage that says God repented, and then in the other passage it says God doesn't repent. You are not going to have an author make a contradiction that close to each other. Like even a modern day author that's not under inspiration, you're not gonna have them run into a contradiction within a few verses of each other. That doesn't make any sense. So clearly, when we are looking at a passage like this, we have to take a step back and go, these authors knew what they were writing, especially under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They knew exactly what they were putting down. And so if we look at that and we go, ah, this passage says God repents and this passage says he doesn't, we're gonna have to do a slight step deeper of digging because it doesn't mean what the surface seems to imply. So that's where we're going to go. Like I said, the word itself has a range of meanings, from to be sorry, to repent, to regret. And then the other one, like I said, metanoia, once you get to the New Testament, has a very, very different meaning. similar colors but a very, kind of a deeper meaning. Again, there's a theological nuance here. You'll see there the Old Testament has the idea of sorrow or regret. It's sometimes applied to God. The New Testament typically is humans responding to God's work. So that's how it's laid down. Now, I present several views. So right below it you're going to see several views. And I'm going to take actually a combination of some of these views, because I think they can be explained in this way. So let's start off with the book here, Genesis Chapter 6. Genesis Chapter 6. And in Genesis Chapter 6, I want you to start off in verse 6. So Genesis 6.6, again, remembering the range of meanings to this passage. We've got the lead up to the flood. And we got all that craziness going on with mankind spreading across the earth and just, there's a lot of bad stuff going on. The Bible says the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. And by the time you get to verse five, it says, and God saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Okay, that's a very important point that we need to consider, given what the next verse says. So here you've got God who made mankind. You've got God who blessed mankind. You've got God who's been patient with mankind. And he's been putting up with them for generations. Like you go through Genesis chapter five, and it's generation after generation, after generation, after generation, after generation, and it's this huge swath, and you get to Genesis chapter six, and you've got all this evil pouring out, and then you get to Genesis six, six, and it says this, and it repented the Lord, he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Okay, so this is not a contradiction because again, remember with Hebrew poetry, a lot of times if you don't understand the first part, go to the second part and it'll explain it a little more thoroughly. And so what you see here, it's within the range of meanings for God to be upset. It's within the range of meanings for God to be bothered by what's going on. But the last half of verse six really clinches it for us because what does it say? It says he repented that he had made man on the earth and what? It grieved him at his heart. Now, look at our meanings. The word can mean to be sorry, to regret, to repent. The comfort one doesn't play in in this one. But you see here, what it is, is God is looking at the evil of mankind and he's saying, all right, we're done. He's been patient all the way up till this point. He's given mankind enough time to repent themselves and to change and to whatever. And he finally gets to the point where he goes, okay, we're done here. And so you can see that, I mean, that's very clearly the meaning of the word repent here. It doesn't mean that God has suddenly gone, well, I never saw this coming. No, that's not it at all, he saw it coming. But the language here implies this is something that grieved him deeply, and now he's gonna do something about it. So he's, now, fast forward to Numbers chapter 23. So I wanna look at these things in pairs. Numbers chapter 23. All right, so again, remember, both of these are the books of Moses, both of these are written, I mean, we don't know how long it took Moses to write all this stuff down, but in Numbers chapter 23, You've got this next passage, and I want you to note specifically the language around this word. Numbers chapter 23, and look at verse 19. And it says here, we studied this the other week, so hopefully this passage is at least a little familiar to you, but it's the idea of Balaam when he's being brought forward to curse Israel. And he's bringing Balaam before Israel to curse them. And verse 17, and when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, what hath the Lord spoken? And he took up a parable and he said, rise up, Balak, and hear, hearken unto me, you sons of Zippor. And this is what Balaam is saying about God. Okay, so this is from the mouth of Balaam, and it's true. But again, I want you to notice the context. Balaam is trying to find a way for God to curse Israel. He's trying to find a way for God to turn his back on Israel. Okay, well, we'll take a step back. What did God say about Israel? What were some of the promises God made to Israel? Well, if you start going through those in your head, he promises, I will bless them that bless you, I will curse them that curse you, I will be with you, I will not forsake. There's some of these promises where God says, I will hold the line on these things, And what is Balaam doing? Balaam is standing up there going, God's not gonna change his mind on this one. God's not gonna suddenly go, just kidding, oops. I've used the illustration of when I used to run a ropes course. And when I ran a ropes course, we had these long, long ropes that could like hold like 5,000 pounds or something. It was ridiculous what they could hold. You got these long, long ropes that are holding the camper up in the air. And if I promise and I say, I will hold you up, I'm going to have to keep my word that I'm not going to randomly just let go of both ropes and let that camper, the moment they lean back and try to put their weight on the rope, I'm not going to go, just kidding, and let them just fall. And so what happens is, part of the contract that I made with the climber is, you climb the tree, I'll hold the rope. You need me to hold the rope? I'll be there holding the rope. You fall out of that tree, you're not going to drop too far because I'm holding the rope. And when it's time for you to come down, I will slowly release the rope and let you come down. Now, that contract does not include if they whipped a knife out and started cutting at the rope. If they started cutting out the rope, there's nothing I can do. Because I had a contract, as long as that rope is whole, it'll hold you up. But if they decide they wanted to do something different, and they wanted to take an ax and just start chopping at the tree or something foolish, OK, they might be able to do some other things to find their way down another way. But as far as I'm concerned, the contract I made was, you do things my way, I get you down out of that tree. And I'm not just going to randomly drop you. And so what God is doing is he's made an agreement with Israel. And he says, hey, we've got a contract. You do things my way, I'll take care of you. You do things my way, I'll bless you. You follow my laws. We've made this agreement with each other. I'll take care of you. And that's the Sinai covenant. They meet at Sinai. They say, we will follow these rules. We will do this. And God says, OK. But I'm just warning you. That if you walk away from me, here's the punishment that comes. And if you follow my word, here's the blessing that comes. And so what Balaam is doing is Balaam is going, the people of Israel have not done any of the things that would nullify this covenant. So I'm just telling you, God is of the character that he's not gonna change his mind on this one. He will not repent of the promise that he made. Because that's not the type of God he is. He's not a man that he's just gonna randomly lie. And so that's what you see. Balaam is observing, hey listen, Israel have not broken their covenant yet. So I can't curse them because that's not how this works. But you notice the trick Balaam makes. He gets Israel to break their part of the covenant. So that way God will curse them. And so what he's doing is he's saying, I know how God works. I know God's gonna keep his word. I know God's gonna follow what he said he would do. So if we want God to curse Israel, we're gonna have to get Israel to do something to get God to curse them. And that's what we saw a few weeks ago. And so I want you to notice this, that the first passage there in Genesis is God being grieved. He's sorrowing over the sinful state of mankind. He hadn't made any agreements with them. He hadn't made any like, I will bless you. And no, he just said, no, be fruitful, multiply and go out, do your thing. He hadn't made any agreements with those people. So he had put up with their wickedness for generations, and now he's looking at them going, I'm not putting up with it anymore. And so in that way, he changed his mind only in that he sorrowed over the grief and he went, we're gonna take care of this, okay? And then we see it there in numbers. Again, it's from the mouth of Balaam, but it's still a true statement. He's saying, God is not a man that he should repent. So that's why I wanna look at these together, because again, Genesis and Numbers, both written by the same guy, both written by Moses. Moses writes about one, it's a sinful outbreak, and he says, because of your sin, this punishment is coming. God is grieved at the sin you've committed. And so he uses this word that can mean to sorrow. But then a few books later, he says, but God is not a man that he should repent. God's not just gonna willy nilly change his mind. God knows the future, he made some promises, he's gonna keep them. All right, so again, keeping in mind that this idea of repent has the idea of to change your mind to chain. God will not change his mind on things he's made a promise about, but he will eventually run out of patience, so to speak, and then he will pour out his judgment. Okay, so there's those first two passages. Look at 1 Samuel 15. So 1 Samuel 15 is the next set, and I wanna look at these two together, because again, 1 Samuel 15 is written by the same author, All right, like you could maybe make the case, oh, maybe Moses forgot what he wrote in Genesis when he wrote Numbers. I wouldn't go there, but let's just play devil's advocate and say, okay, maybe he was writing this really long journal and he wrote that one three years ago and forgot what he wrote. Okay, we don't believe that, but you could make the case if you really wanted to. You can't make that case with here in 1 Samuel 15. 1 Samuel 15 is most definitely written all at once. So whatever this is saying, it's definitely not a contradiction because it's found in the same chapter. So look at 1 Samuel chapter 15. Again, it's a well-known passage, so I'm not gonna give you all the background to it, but long story short, Saul, he's done it again. Over and over and over again, Saul just keeps doing his own thing, and so God is finally saying, enough of you, Saul. Because again, Saul has the stubborn attitude of I am not changing, I'm not turning back, and Saul just has kind of this froward spirit that we've looked at. And you look at Psalm 15, verse 11, verse 10, and the word of the Lord came unto Samuel, and look what it says. It has repented me. It repenteth me. that I have made Saul to be king. For he has turned back from following me, he has not performed my commandments, and it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night. So again, I want you to notice this. As a writer, if you've ever done any writing, if you're trying to vary up your writing style so it doesn't have the same word over and over, sometimes you'll use synonyms. And so I want you to notice here that the word used for repent can mean I feel sorrowful about this thing that has happened. or I regret this, I'm not a fan of what Saul has been doing. And what do you find in the same passage? This saying grieved Samuel. So it implies, subtly, that there's a connection between the word repent in the context of God repenting of having Saul be king, and the grief is carried down to Samuel, because he's going, oh, this is bad. So he kinda understands the consequences of what's about to happen, and Samuel is grieved as well. Maybe for a different reason. But Samuel's very upset about what's happening on. But I want you to notice that what this is, is God gave a very clear command to Saul. He said, I want you to kill the Amalekites, I want you to wipe out their king, I want you to not bring anything back. And what did Saul do? He said, nah, I'm gonna do this and this and this, and God says, what are you doing? And he goes, well, I wanted to keep a trophy. And what do you see here? You see God saying, all right, it's too much. Saul, you've crossed the line. We're done. And so what he says is he says, it's repented me. I'm done with Saul. Like I put up with him all the way up to this point, and now I'm done. So basically the idea isn't so much, that God changed his mind, because he knew this would happen all along. He's now changing his actions. He's put up with Saul, he's been patient with Saul up to this point, and now it is like he changed his mind, but again, a God who knows the future, it's kind of hard for him to change his mind when you know what's gonna happen, but I guess you could make the case. But the point is, he's changing his actions. He's saying, I have put up with Saul all the way to this point, I'm done. This is how we're gonna act from now on. I'm done. And so he says, Saul, as far as you being king, I'm done with you. We're now gonna have a new king, and I'm gonna move to replace you as soon as possible. And that's basically what he's going. He says, I have repented me that I have made Saul to be king, for he has turned his back from following me, and he has not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night. And so I want you to notice is that as you go through the scripture, you will find the idea that God will change his actions. And typically he will change his actions based on either the person he's about to judge repenting. So if he says, I'm going to destroy you and the person repents, he'll say, okay, you've earned a reprieve. Or there'll be times where he says, I'll have mercy on you. And the person goes, oh really? And goes off and goes into wicked sin. And God goes, hold on. And so you'll see that throughout the scripture, especially the Old Testament. Perfect example is Nineveh. Nineveh, Jonah walks into the city. He says, yet 40 days Nineveh will be destroyed. Did Nineveh get destroyed in 40 days? No, why? Because Nineveh changed, because they repented. They bowed down in worship to the Lord and said, maybe God will have mercy on us. And God goes, see, that's all I wanted. Okay, I'm gonna spare you. And he did, he spared them for quite a bit, and then they turned back to their evil ways, and he goes, okay, let's start that clock over again, and he wiped them out. But the idea is, God will sometimes send a warning shot to say, hey, you have a time to repent, but there's judgment coming. And if mankind repents, he goes, okay, I'll let you go. Now, the interesting thing is, you do have a time at the end of the Kings, where it's too late. where the last king in the line, he repents and he tries to make things right. And it's like, I'm sorry, it's too far gone now. And they still all go into judgment anyway. And so it's up to God to decide whether he's gonna have mercy or not. But you will see God very directly throughout scripture, responding to whether mankind obeys or not. And so if God gives a warning and you turn, God will a lot of times have mercy. And if God gives a warning and you don't turn, then he just says, okay. And so there is some give and take where God knows exactly what's gonna happen, but he still offers and mankind has the choice to repent or not. And so I want you to see here is what has happened is God gave Saul the kingdom, God gave Saul all this stuff, but God also says, here's the command. And Saul says, I don't wanna do it. And so God said, okay, I'm pulling the kingdom away from you. And that's what he's doing. But the reason I bring this up is because if you go forward just a few verses, All right, he lays it out, Saul doesn't repent. Saul makes all these excuses for why what he did was okay. He's like, oh, the people made me do it, and this, this, this, this, this. And he's like, oh, they wanted to offer great sacrifice, and that's where you get the idea in verse 21. And the people took the spoil, the sheep and the oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord thy God at Gilgal. And so Saul's making up excuses. He's not having a repentant heart himself. He's stubborn, he's coming up with excuses, and so God just looks and says, we're done. And that's why Samuel says to him this really famous passage. And Samuel said, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than to fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. And because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. That's it. And so this is explaining what that word repent means in this context, because Saul chose to actively defy the Lord in all these ways, and so God just finally says, okay, I'm not putting up with it anymore, you're done. And then Saul, instead of repenting, instead of bowing on his face and saying, I'm sorry, he just goes, but it wasn't my fault. And I had good motives, and I have this, and God just goes, okay, now we're doubly done. How do you not under, and he even mentions this stubbornness and iniquity is like witchcraft. And it's funny that he points it out because what do you find Saul doing right before he dies is going to a witch. And so right now it's kind of the figurative witchcraft and Saul gets so far gone that he literally goes to a straight up witch to try to talk to Samuel to get an idea of what's gonna happen in the battle the next day. And I mean, that is how far Saul goes because he just refuses to submit to what God says and he just goes deeper and deeper into his sin. And that's where we get. And then verse 24, and then Saul says, I have sinned. So after all this confrontation, after all of this, and Saul making excuse, making excuse, making excuse, then he suddenly goes, oh, now I have a problem. Oh, now I've, yeah, now I'll admit it. But again, it's too late at this point. And it says, and Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy words, because I feared the people and I obeyed their voice. Again, it's too late now. You were confronted and you didn't have the choice. You didn't repent or anything. You just kind of doubled down. I want to contrast this with David, who you see later, who commits, we would almost make the case, more grievous sin. And Nathan comes and he tells this parable and he says, and David gets all upset over this guy stealing a sheep and killing the guy and all that. He's like, oh, he needs to be put to death. So David's extremely unmerciful, but then Nathan points his finger at David and goes, thou art the man, because you took Bathsheba, and you betrayed her husband, and you killed him in battle, and David immediately repents. He doesn't excuse himself, he doesn't, well, the battle kills everyone else, I mean, it wasn't my fault, it was them, they threw a rock off the, no, he goes, I have sinned. And so I want you to notice the difference, because yeah, David did grievous sin. But David responded properly every time he was corrected. And that's why God said, you're a man after my own heart. You respond to the correction. Saul, on the other hand, doesn't respond to the correction until it's too late. And that's where it's like, okay, this is a whole different ballgame now. But I want you to notice this because Saul doesn't repent. He doesn't make things right until after the super conviction comes on. But I want you to notice, that's where we get this next passage. He says, now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. And God knows the heart, and God knows what's actually the motivation here. And verse 26, and Samuel said, I will not return with thee. For thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected thee from being king over Israel. And Samuel turned and was about to go away. He laid his hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said, the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and has given it to thy neighbor of thine that is better than thee. And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent. And that's where we see this other passage where it talks about God not repenting. And the idea here, if you look in the context, is God has given his word, he will keep it. But there are times where in our sin, we build up to the point where God says, okay, we're done here. And it uses the language of he's repented him of this. So he's grieved at his heart over what's going on and he's now changing like what he does. So those are the main verses. Now, like I said, there's a lot of different views. One is anthropomorphic, which is just a big fancy word for it's using manlike language to describe God. And so you'll see it here, God's repentance is, it's simulating it like he's a man just to kind of get the point across. That's how some people interpret it. You can see the various views there. You also have the context differences. This is more where I go. The context differences, as you look at these passages, obviously in the one case, it's using the word in the sense of it's grieving him at his heart. And in the other sense, it's he's gonna keep his promises. And so when we talk about God not repenting, when you see that language used, it's typically saying God is not a man that he should lie. He's not a man that he should repent. So the idea is God is going to do what he says. But if you look at the context, you can see there are times where God says, I will do this with the implication if you follow what I've said. But then later, if mankind turns, God goes, I would have blessed you, but you chose to turn from me. But again, it's an implied commitment with some conditions. And so that's kind of the way I take it. Again, I use Nineveh as an example of that, where God says, Jonah, go to Nineveh, preach this, 40 days, you'll be overthrown. Now, did God lie there? No, because if Nineveh hadn't repented, they had 40 days before God was gonna wipe them out. That's what happens. And so that's this idea of Nineveh wasn't even given the option. They just took it and bowed down in worship to be like, maybe we can get off the hook. Maybe. And I find that fascinating that Nineveh, of all people, just were like, listen, God says he's going to wipe us out if we don't. Actually, there is no if we do. It's just he's going to wipe us out. Maybe he'll have mercy on us, and they just face down, even the animals are dressed in sackcloth. I mean, I love the story. But Jonah gets upset because he knows that was an option. He knows that was a possibility. And again, they're bitter enemies of Israel. They did brutal stuff to Israel, and Jonah of all people goes, I know God's merciful, and I know if they turn, he'll be merciful to them, and I hate that idea. And that's why he ran away, because he's like, I don't want them to be spared. And then when God spares him, he sits up on a mountainside crying about it. And God goes, Jonah, you're more upset over this little plant that grew up over you and shaded you from the sun. Don't you think I would be more upset over having to wipe out a whole bunch of humans that I invent? There's a bunch of little babies there that don't even know anything. He's like, I am choosing to have mercy and you're upset over that, Jonah. And so what this is doing is it's reminding us of the character of God, that God is abundant in mercy. He wants to have an excuse to be merciful. But when he looks down and he sees the abundant wickedness on the earth, he goes, I know your heart. I know where you are. Okay, we're done. But again, you do see the times where God then chooses. So I want you to notice in these contexts here, it is God saying, I'm gonna keep my word, I'm gonna be consistent with my character, and I will not repent of that. But then other times you'll see God pipe up and go, okay, I had patience with you all the way up to this point, and the grief is too much now. we're done. And so I want you to notice that. That's why some passage will say, God does not repent, because it's God will not go back on his word. But in other cases, it's saying God does repent in that you have now grieved him to his heart, and he's gonna do something. So I want you to notice that. But again, the anthropomorphic has some credibility, but I come back to the contextual differences here. If you look at the back, again, there is some theological nuance there. The idea is conditional responses, that's Jonah. Conditional responses is God says judgment's going to pour out, but if you repent, I'll let up. So that could be looked at as God repenting of the evil he intended to do. Okay, but that's the idea of God saying, you responded properly, so I'm going to let you have a reprieve. And then, of course, there's some harmonizing going on there, too. If you look at the summary, and so I'll let you read through those notes if you want to see who takes different views. Like I said, there's some truth in most of these points. But if you look there, you're going to notice that the traditional Christian response, and I do enjoy this, that as you study this out, it really doesn't matter what perspective of Christianity you come from. Like, you could have a pretty broad range of Christian views. And almost all of them are going to come back to this idea of what I've taught tonight. It's the idea that God's nature will never change, but his actions will change in response to humans repenting or not. The one that I do reject is the one you see there called open theism. Open theism, like I said, is the belief that God does not know the future. So it really denies the fact that God knows what's coming up, and that's just kind of an off-the-wall belief. But open theism, again, it rejects God's foreknowledge in any way. And so, of course, in that worldview, God could repent because he doesn't see what's coming. But in our view, where we know God knows the future, God knows exactly how mankind's going to respond, and what God is doing is he's saying, I'm giving you this space, but I'm also going to warn you as well. And mankind is left with a level of responsibility to say, you have the choice to repent or not. But again, you'll see various views of various stripes of Christianity there in the traditional Christian view. Again, I hesitate to throw Catholicism into the traditional Christian view, but the reason I do is because Catholics really like to claim everybody. So you go back through history, and it's like, this guy who is probably pretty perfectly orthodox in his belief, Catholics would be like, yeah, he was a Catholic saint. Yep, he's ours. So was he. Michael the Archangel, he's a saint, too. And they just grab everybody. And so it's kind of hard. There are some people in history who were popes, so to speak, but they were pretty consistent with their theology. And you're kind of like, you just grabbed everybody, didn't you? And so there are times where some of these guys, Some of them might be accurate in this point, but not in this. That's not the point of tonight. But the idea is God will foreknow the future. He knows about how far he's going to let man go. He will not change his nature. And so there you go, all right? And so that is repentance in the Old Testament. Like I said, there's a lot more other verses we can look at, but that kind of encapsulates a lot of what needs to be said on that issue, especially if you take the meaning of the word. The meaning of the word itself has the idea of I'm sorry about this, I'm regretting this, as in I feel grief over what is going on. And so God is going to, in a lot of cases, feel grief over the wickedness of man's sin. He will use the language in the Old Testament a lot of, I was a father to you. I was a father to you. I trained you. I lifted you up. I raised you out of the gutter, and you were mine, and I called you by my name, and you betrayed me. And he'll use that language to really help narrow it in to say, you were given so much, but you have not lived up to your side. Like, if I am a father, where is my respect? Where is my honor? And so you can imagine, if you're a parent, you can imagine the grief you feel when your child goes astray. And sometimes you could see it coming. And it still grieves you at your heart, because you go. So you can imagine how God would feel, who knows every action from the start, and he still makes that commitment, still gets involved and goes, I know you're going to backstab me right here, but I'm still going to put up with it. up until a point, and then judgment's gonna come. So, all right, so that being said, and again, this is why we're doing it tonight, because I do wanna answer questions or get some pushback if you have it, because there might be verses that you thought of that you're like, well, what about this one? And if I can't answer it tonight, then I'll put it on the study list, and we'll dig into it a little bit more next week. But that's where I try to put my notes together for ya, and that way you can have that information and kinda see how Christians through the ages and Jewish people through the ages have unpacked these ones. But questions or comments tonight on this? Martha? I don't think it's stated. So yeah, with Aachen, Yeah, I don't think that's, that's just God saying, hey, you ran out ahead of me. I didn't tell you to do that. And so that's not exactly what we're talking about. This is where God, he kind of puts up with something for a long time. So Genesis six is God putting up with mankind's evil for generations upon generations. And then finally it gets to the point that he says, okay, all right, the thoughts of all of your hearts are only evil continually. We're done. And that language is used, repent. It's not that God's character changed. His actions toward man changed because things reached a boiling point. So Mike. Yeah. So as far as like a promise, like you do this, I'll do this. Yeah. So he makes a covenant with Noah. So the Bible says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And so God chooses Noah, says, hey, you're going to be the one who survives the flood. And then after the flood, he makes a covenant with Noah. Yeah. So the references I would make is God, before this point, wasn't choosing to work through a specific group of people. It was almost like God was saying, I'm gonna let you guys do it your way. Okay, that didn't work. Okay, now I'm gonna work through a specific group of people. Okay, that didn't work either. I just want you to notice that. And so you'll notice he kind of narrows in and then Christ becomes that fulfillment of all things and kind of satisfies and then it kind of branches back out. You almost see God starting off broad, narrowing it in at Christ, and then everything opens up again. I can explain that a different way if I could draw it. But you'll notice that Yeah, he's not making any covenants with anyone yet. And so he just basically says, spread out, be fruitful, be multiplied. But the reason he judges people is just like when you look at the Canaanites, they didn't have any agreement with God either, but God said, you guys are involved in such wicked sin that the very land itself is about to spit you out. And then what he does is he turns around to Israel and he says, I want you guys to notice this. because if you start doing this thing, then the very land will spit you out too. And so he's almost saying there is kind of like a universal moral code that yes, Israel, you gotta wear certain clothes and plant certain fields and all that. That doesn't bind to the Canaanites. I don't care what they plant in their field. But there is a certain level of moral code that when you break it, yeah, I'm gonna judge you. And so I think there's some of that where God in just general terms is saying you need to live a certain way. Like you have a conscience, some of those things. So I think that's why he kind of loses it and says, okay, we're done. I don't know if that answered the question or, okay. Yeah. Yeah, and the way you see this is Deuteronomy has a table of nations. And so God chooses all these nations. And what's interesting is once the gospel starts going out, you see it going out to all those nations. And so it's almost like God says, I'm not going to worry about any of these nations other than Israel. And then through Israel, I bring the Messiah, and then I reconquer all those nations. And the Gentile, it's all under God's kingdom again. So it's just kind of interesting. And that's kind of beyond our scope. I just love how God basically says, okay, now I'm gonna work with everyone again. David. Okay, can you quote it first? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and you'll see, so it says, and Enoch walked with God and was not. So there were clearly still men who followed the Lord, but he hadn't chosen a group of people to work through. But yeah, Noah, he was a preacher of righteousness. I mean, the Bible talks about him preaching for 120 years or whatever. It talks about him preaching for a long time, Maybe just building the ark itself was a sermon. I don't know. But God clearly worked through Noah for a long time. So all right, Teresa. Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me of the passage, I think it's in Galatians, might be in Acts, I can't remember off the top of my head, but Paul is speaking, he says, hey, this time of this foolishness God winked at, so it's the idea of he kind of turned a blind eye to, okay, I'm gonna let this go, but it says what? Now he tells him to repent. He says, okay, now you've gone this way long enough, now it's time to come back. But he put up with the, behavior and he let it go and that's that's kind of the language you see here with Genesis 6 and and some of these other things where he lets the bad behavior go for a while and then he says okay now I'm now I'm calling it in yeah well and that's Genesis 6 the thought of their heart was only evil continually I mean it just you know Yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's Romans 1. Romans 1, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful, and so God turned them over, and they just got worse. And so that's why I keep stressing the idea of honoring God for who God is, being thankful to God for what he's done, and that will bring more illumination. The moment we say, I'm going to put something else in the place of God, an idol or whatever, I'm unthankful, God says, their foolish heart was darkened, and they sank deeper and deeper into that idolatry, became more unthankful, sank deeper into the idolatry, and that's the spiral. Martha? Yeah. Yep. And that's why I find it beautiful that for those of us who are saved, he says, if we, what, confess our sins, he is what? He is faithful and he is just to forgive us. And again, it doesn't mean like we lost our salvation and we need to get saved again. The Bible clearly says, if you could lose your salvation, you could never get it back. The idea is, we can sin, and God's justice is satisfied in Christ, and we can find that forgiveness. Ophelia? So, I feel like I know the answer to this question, but I want to ask it anyway. So, if God is omnipotent, and He is all, and He is part, then which way do we go? So I think that's where the better meaning of the word would be the sorrow, the sorrow aspect. But again, you can still, even if you like, there are times where as a parent or as a teacher or whatever, where I know exactly what's going to happen. You know, like I know them well enough that even without foreknowledge, I know exactly. And I still get to the point that I go, that happened. And I knew it was going to happen. And I'm still upset over it. So that's why I brought up the idea of necham, the idea of it can mean to be sorry. And so the translators, they're putting the word regret in there because that's the meaning of the word, but we understand there's a range of meanings even to the word repent that, again, sometimes you have to kind of go back to the original and you're like, oh, okay, there's a little bit. Because as the language changes, I mean, the King James was translated in the 1600s. As the language evolves, there are times where this word has completely swapped meanings to today. Now, I'm not sure what repent meant back then, but I know there's a few words that it's like, you sometimes have to go back to the original and go, oh, there was this nuance to it back then that we don't have anymore. And so sometimes if you look in the dictionary, it'll say like, archaic, and it'll give you an archaic definition for the word. That's an older meaning that has dropped off the language in the last 400 years. But even today, though, the idea of to be sorry, I think that's... Yep. Yep. Yeah, and some of that's the translators as they're working. So as you get into the New Testament, you'll see that the translator, because specifically, I know I'm talking King James here, not the Romanian, but the King James translators, they were working with committees. And so then they had kind of a stylistic thing to kind of bring it all, because if I'm looking at this word, I might translate it this way. So like Isaiah, translate it Isaiah. But if I'm translating it out of the Greek, I might translate it Isaiah. And so you'll see that even in the New Testament, where they just kept Isaias. And if we're not aware, we're like, who's that? That's the Greek version of Isaiah. It's just another way of saying his name. And so there might be a time like that where just for a stylistic choice, or maybe that was what they interpreted was the best meaning. And that's where we go back to the original language and we say, what does that original word mean? Is this understanding within the range of meanings of that word? Yes. Anyway, any other questions on that? Slavic? So yeah, and so to follow up that, I couldn't find the passage in Hebrews quickly, but Hebrews says, we have a high priest. We don't have a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity, but was in every way tempted like as we are yet without sin. And it talks about God. Like you said, it's a God who feels our pain, who carries our grief and our burdens, and understands our weakness. And even he says that after the flood. I understand they're men. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to destroy them like this again. I understand their flesh. So yeah, we have a God who cares deeply. And he still has to judge, but he's going to.