1 Samuel 15: 11, 36

[Henoch]

When God says that he repenteth himself vs 11
But vs 36 says God doesn't repent
Does it mean that God really grieves over the effects of man's sin
But his eternal decrees are unchangeable
Or is it that the feelings of God in the Bible are anthropomorphistic?
Isn't it also very commonly stated that God is impassible/without passions? Does that mean God doesn't ultimately have feelings of grief or happiness?

 

[pgwolv]

Matthew Henry:

God determines Saul’s rejection, and acquaints Samuel with it: It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king. Repentance in God is not, as it is in us, a change of his mind, but a change of his method or dispensation. He does not alter his will, but wills an alteration. The change was in Saul: He has turned back from following me; this construction God put upon the partiality of his obedience, and the prevalency of his covetousness. And hereby he did himself make God his enemy. God repented that he had given Saul the kingdom and the honour and power that belonged to it: but he never repented that he had given any man wisdom and grace, and his fear and love; these gifts and callings of God are without repentance.

Matthew Poole:

It repenteth me: repentance properly notes grief of heart, and change of counsels, and therefore cannot be in God, who is unchangeable, most wise, and most blessed; but it is ascribed to God in such cases, when men give God cause to repent, and when God alters his course and method of dealing, and treats a person as if he did indeed repent of all the kindness he had showed to him.

 

[Elias_Amare]

Isn't it also very commonly stated that God is impassible/without passions? Does that mean God doesn't ultimately have feelings of grief or happiness?

James E. Dolezal

The dynamic stillness of impassible love and impassible jealousy is infinitely more vital and energetic than the most fervent instances of passionate love and jealousy imaginable. As impassible, God could not possibly be more loving, caring, or opposed to sin than he is from all eternity. God’s passionless love and jealousy are nothing but God himself subsisting as pure act, whereas their passionate counterparts within creatures are instances of actualized finitude. The distance between these two is nothing less than the distance between being and becoming, between God and all that comes to be through dependence on him.

 

[Ed Walsh]

Dear @pgwolv , or, PG,

I noticed your signature phrase above and I just have to tell you how much I am smiling at it. In our country, perhaps I'm the only one, but I wonder if others thought about your PG and mused, well, from a Christian you'd expect maybe a G rating. But PG is a whole lot better than R or X.

PG (I am indeed called by my initials)

 

[pgwolv]

Dear @pgwolv , or, PG,

I noticed your signature phrase above and I just have to tell you how much I am smiling at it. In our country, perhaps I'm the only one, but I wonder if others thought about your PG and mused, well, from a Christian you'd expect maybe a G rating. But PG is a whole lot better than R or X.

PG (I am indeed called by my initials)

Often, people don't catch my name when I introduce myself; for English people, my go-to is "like parental guidance". That usually gains a laugh and my name is normally remembered.

 

[No Other Name]

So when you were 13 years old ....

Never mind. I'll see myself out.

 

[No Other Name]

Hahaha the edifying emoticon is hilarious hahaha

I thoroughly enjoy you all here!

 

[Phil D.]

Hahaha the edifying emoticon is hilarious hahaha

I suppose it abstractly conveys "to build-up" ...

 

[MW]

When God says that he repenteth himself vs 11
But vs 36 says God doesn't repent
Does it mean that God really grieves over the effects of man's sin
But his eternal decrees are unchangeable
Or is it that the feelings of God in the Bible are anthropomorphistic?
Isn't it also very commonly stated that God is impassible/without passions? Does that mean God doesn't ultimately have feelings of grief or happiness?

If you look at the words e-motion and af-fection, you see that they contain within them two stages of inner life -- the stage from which one has come and the stage to which one is going. These are words that express the idea of "becoming." But God is most pure being -- He was and is and is to come, from everlasting to everlasting, the I AM, who does not and cannot change. He has no becoming. As such there is no place for a literal interpretation of such emotions and affections in Him. We understand them within the scope of biblical revelation as accommodations to our understanding. They are signs of His most holy will to indicate to us the things that please or displease Him. But God's good pleasure is in what He has willed to come to pass in time because all things are ordered for His own glory. Hence theologians distinguish between the will of sign and the will of good pleasure.