When God has Regrets...

I have read through the Bible every year for several years now and each journey brings fresh insights of who God is and how great He is. No other book is like this. You can read Moby Dick hundreds of times and be bored out of your mind. Read the Bible hundreds of times and be changed.

This week’s reading brought me to 1 Samuel 15 where Saul commits a catastrophic act of disobedience. God gave him a specific command through Samuel--

I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey (Vv. 2-3).

It is a huge deal when God “takes note” of something. He had not forgotten the detestable nature of the Amalekites’ sin and had waited these years for the right time to administer justice. He chose to do so through the man that He appointed the first king of Israel. But the bigger picture here was that God was giving Saul an opportunity to show himself an obedient vessel to use in carrying out His purposes. And at this critical moment, Saul failed miserably.

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction (Vv. 8-9).

So not only did Saul disobey God, he dishonored the name of God by devoting to destruction (a sort of sacrifice to God) what was worthless. God’s response to this type of disobedience and dishonor is chilling. He said to Samuel--

I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments (V. 11).

God plainly says that He regretted (the word is translated “repents” in the KJV) making Saul king. God is not man. He does not sin or have to say “Oops!” So why would He ever have regrets? To hear God express regret seems confusing. But we should read further. Samuel declared later after confronting Saul with this sin--

And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for He is not a man, that He should have regret (V. 29)

The Hebrew word here for “regret” means “to breathe strongly” (like a heavy sigh). In its negative definition it means “to avenge.“ I understand the Bible to be saying that sometimes, as in this case, the sinful responses of people result in God refocusing His attitude in another direction. Human regret is regret over a mistake we made, or sorrow that we got caught. By itself it doesn’t result in us doing anything about it. But God’s regret is refocusing His attitude to deal with sin that has dishonored His Name. He “will not” (v. 29) have regret by allowing His glory to be diminished by man. This is a primitive particle that, when put before the verb, means “never.” God will never let this sort of thing go. He will deal with Saul’s sin because it dishonors His glorious Name. And if you read the story, you know what God does. Saul and his family are removed from the royal lineage.

My question today is very simple. Have I made any choices in my life that have brought God regret? Have I dishonored His name? And what am I doing about it? God’s wants us to align our wills with His so that regret is resolved with righteousness. I want to be diligent to confess the sin in my life and seek after God’s approval daily. I don’t want to just sweep it under the rug, or chalk it up to difficult circumstances like Saul did. I’m praying that you will make today the starting line for living a regret-free life. Whatever you need to do to make things right, do it right now. If you don’t, God will.