Jeremiah 18:8: “If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”
“Prayer does not change God, prayer changes us.” C.S. Lewis
This verse raises some questions in my mind. Does God repent? Does God do evil? From the renderings in this verse, this would appear to be true.
This prophecy is given to a nation that God has pronounced. We can only assume that it means the nation that he has pronounced judgment upon. The word rendered as pronounced is devar which, like most words in Hebrew have a variety of English equivalents. It does mean to speak, but more specifically it differs from another Hebrew word for speaking ‘amar in the sense that this represents words or a message from the heart, in this case from the heart of God. This does not have to be rendered as if God is pronouncing judgment on the nation, it could merely mean that He is warning the nation.
If they turn from their evil they will be spared. There are also a number of words in Hebrew for evil. This one happens to be ra’a’ which is spelled Resh Ayin and Ayin and represents an evil which results from abuse of leadership that causes grief and sorrow to those under that leadership. Therefore this is a warning to the leadership of the nation and a call for the leadership to repent. If they do repent then God will not bring evil upon them. This second word for evil is a different word, it is the word ra’ah which is associated with God is ra’ah which is a consuming passion. God will remove His consuming passion from them. Ra’ah is also the word for shepherd or friend. It could also mean the removal of the shepherding or friendship of God. This suggest that this evil is the lifting of God’s protective hand from those he has a consuming passion for.
There is a picture being drawn here. God is a God of love. He loves the world (John 3:16). Does sin change that love? According to John 3:16 it does not change his love, in fact it caused Him to make a sacrifice of His Son to remove that sin. God’s response to sin is not punishment, but doing His utmost to remove that sin. However, if someone does not chose to repent of that sin, there is little God can do short of violating one’s free will. The picture is one of a God who lovingly protects his people like a shepherd protecting his sheep. However, if someone is bringing grief or sorrow upon another, God would be forced to lift His protective hand from those causing the sorrow so as to protect the victims that He also loves. There is a teaching that everyone will eventually be saved and make it to heaven because God in His total love just cannot allow a person to go to hell. Yet this passage suggest that this is not the case. God is a just God and if man willfully rejects God, there is nothing God can do for that person. Everyone has a free will and can decide for themselves if they want God or not.
This passage says that God will repent of the evil or the lifting of his protection. The word repent that is used here is nacham which is the word for compassion. Thus, what God is saying is that He will have compassion on them and restore his friendship and hand of protection. But keep in mind that this is in a Niphal perfect form, in other words, this compassion never left, it has been there all along, His mercies or lovingkindness endures forever. The compassion and lovingkindness of God never changes because of our sin. Our sin just makes it impossible for us to receive the lovingkindness of God.
C.S. Lewis once made the comment that prayer does not change God, prayer changes us. Oh yes, we pray for a lot of things, finances, jobs, healings, relationships etc. Yet God can answer every prayer we pray with giving us just one thing, His lovingkindness. That would involve the restoration of our friendship with God. That is the restoration of His role as our Shepherd. He will be a Shepherd who will attend to all the needs of his sheep.
Scripture teaches us very clearly that God does not change. So why pray, why get millions of people to pray for something. Will the prayers of a million people change God’s plan? Will repetitive prayers change God’s mind about something. If that is the case we could do, like C.S. Lewis suggest and teach a prayer to a bunch of parrots and have them recite the prayer over and over until it finally persuades God to act.
Prayer draws us closer to God. Yet get a million people praying you have a million people who stop looking at themselves and open themselves up to God. As you draw closer to God, change starts taking place. The more that changes in you, the closer you get to the lovingkindness of God and the closer you get to the manifestation of that lovingkindness which may be a financial victory, a job or a restored relationship. But God has not changed His mind, he does not have an accountant type angel tally up the number prayers, He does not have an angel skilled in linguistics to make sure you used the proper words or syntax in your prayer, or you pronounced a Hebrew word right. What He does have is a heart that is as open to you as that nation in Jeremiah 18:8. That heart is filled with His lovingkindness that endures forever, but you cannot enter that heart until you have changed your will. The very act of prayer changes your willful self. It causes you to humble yourself and say: “not my will but thine.”
I once knew a man who worked for Campus Crusade for Christ and was deacon in his church. Every Sunday he and the other deacons in his church would get together for prayer. They would share prayer request with each other. One deacon requested prayer for an associate who had cancer, was dying and was not a believer. They all prayed for Charles Mitchell, that he would get saved and be healed. Week after week they prayed for Charles. “We’re praying for Old Charlie.” But Charles never accepted the Lord, was never healed. One Sunday my friend stopped and thought. “You know, I don’t care about Old Charlie, I just pray for him because the others would wonder why I didn’t pray for him. I was only praying for him to impress the others with my spirituality. Dog gone it, I’m going to really pray for Old Charlie.” And pray for Old Charlie he did. He prayed for him Monday morning. On Tuesday he prayed for him two times. On Wednesday, he prayed three times. By Saturday he was so burdened for Old Charlie that he was in constant prayer and that Saturday afternoon he was rushing to the hospital, ran into Old Charlie’s room and said: “Charlie, I’ve been praying for you all week you have to accept the Lord.” Old Charlie was so shocked that this stranger was praying for him that he did accept the Lord.
Prayer is indeed a tool, but not our tool to win God’s heart, but God’s tool to win our hearts.
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