Hi largely,
Isa 55:8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD.
Whatever God does is just and right and good, His ways are not the same as our ways. What God may do in order to bring about certain thing is always done to order to achieve a purpose and is never done for a malicious reason. At all times God knows what the end of any situation will actually be (Isa 46:10 ), He is not making His plan up as He goes along.
Here is an email that Ray discusses (in blue) how after king Hezekiah's prayer God decided to extend his life 15 more years than what He said it would be. Did God changes His mind about what He had already said or was this the intended outcome all along?
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php?topic=10718.0 ---
Subject: Can prayer change God's mind?
How would you interpret this passage?
It seems here that Hezekiah's prayer
changed God's mind on the matter of his time of death
COMMENT: It may "seem" that way to you, but I assure you God did not
"change" His mind, seeing that [1] He always knows the end from the beginning,
and [2] God doesn't "change" (Mal. 3:6, Isa. 46:10, Rom. 4:3 etc.). During his extended life,
which appeared to not be God's original will,
COMMENT: On what fact are you basing your assumption? Do you know what
God's "original" will was? Was it God's "original will" that Hezekiah die 15 years sooner
than he actually did? So did God "change" His mind and contradict Mal. 3:6? Was God
unable to "declare Hezekiah's true end of life from the beginning? So did God contradict
His declaration in Isa. 46:10)? Was God unable to "call" the correct date of Hezekiah's
death before he died and before He told Hezekiah that He would extend His life? Did
God contradict His statement in Isa. 46:10. Surely not. Hezekiah fathered one of the most evil kings
to come to Israel's history, Menashe
COMMENT: Your statement has absolutely nothing to do with whether God changes His
mind or not. Perhaps the Lord will give you what you ask for
even when he clearly states it is not what he planned...
COMMENT: Again, you are presuming something that is not Scriptural. Nowhere does
it say that God didn't intend "from the beginning" to extend Hezekiah's life beyond what
Hezekiah thought would be the end of his life. After all, cannot God change his will if he wants to?
COMMENT: But He doesn't "want to change" His will. His plans, purpose, intentions,
and will are perfect and never need adjusting or fine-tuning. Isaiah 38:1-5
In those days
Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death
The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said,
"This is what the LORD says:
Put your house in order,
because you are going to die; you will not recover
Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD,
Remember, O LORD,
how I have walked before you faithfully
and with wholehearted devotion and have done
what is good in your eyes"
And Hezekiah wept bitterly
Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:
Go and tell Hezekiah,
'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says:
I have heard your prayer and seen your tears;
I will add fifteen years to your life'
COMMENT: Were in all these statement does it say that God did not
know what He was going to do in Hezekiah's life BEFORE He extended
his life, or BEFORE Hezekiah was even born? It was from Hezekiah's
perspective that his life was extended 15 years. From God's perspective
He always knew exactly how long Hezekiah would live, and when Hezekiah
would die. The Scriptures do not contradict.-------------------------------------------------------------------
Also in Luke 24 Christ appeared (after His resurrection) to 2 of His disciples and they were caused not to know Him and there is an interesting point that Ray brings out in this little episode.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,7714.msg61399.html#msg61399 ---
Okay this in Luke is where after the resurrection and these two men that were disciples of Christ were going to Emmaus. Because they thought the jig was up and somebody had stole His body or something.
So Christ comes along and says ‘why are you so downcast?’ They said ‘haven’t you heard?’ He said, ‘heard what?’ They said, ‘we believe that this guy was the Messiah and they killed Him and besides all that today is the third day and the jig is up, it all over.’ So then He says to them;
Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
v. 28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and He (Jesus) made as though He would have gone further.
v. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them.
Of course they wanted to learn more about the Scriptures too and they thought this guy is amazing. But did you catch that? “He made as though He would have gone further.” Did Jesus Christ intend on going further that night? No. Did He pretend that He was going to keep going on down the road? Yes. Is that a little deceitful? Yes. Was it a good thing? Yes.
They said, ‘Where are you going?’ He said, ‘On down the road here.’ And they, ‘no no it’s late, come on in with us and we will get something to eat and chew the rag for a while,’ and so on. And He said, ‘Oh, okay.’ He knew that they would say that. He had got them so excided about the Scriptures, He knew they weren’t just going to say, ‘Oh okay good bye, see ya, that was interesting.’ They wanted more and He knew that. But He wanted them to desire and say, ‘no no we want to hear more come on in.’ So He pretended, He made like He was going further.
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So we know that there are some instances in the Scripture where God does seem to do differently than He first said, but did God miscalculation what He intended at first or was it actually intended to happen as it did as Ray shows?
In Exodus 32 God decided not to wipe out the nation of Israel. What I can see may be going on is that God needed to make Moses understand how he (Moses) truly felt about the Israelites. In order to make Moses realize how deeply he cared about them, God purposed that He take them away by wiping them out. Was this something God was debating on doing or just helping Moses see how much he (Moses) loved them, so he would be willing to do all he had to go through to help them. God may have been just using a little reverse phycology there it seems to help Moses understand.
Hope this is helpful.
mercy, peace and love
Kat