God
is Not Like Man
Numbers
23:19-20
19God is not man, that
he should lie, or a son of man, that he should repent. (Hebrew: נחם, here in
the hithpael imperfect, which means he will not arbitrarily change his mind,
will, actions, etc.) Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he
spoken, and will he not fulfil it? 20Behold, I received a command to
bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
This passage repeats and confirms
the manner Scripture envisions God’s immutability. It is not from an abstract
metaphysical perspective but from a personal and moral perspective. This is not
to say that God does not have an ontological immutability and only an ethical
one; rather, it is the case that Scripture teaches us about God’s ontological
immutability through his ethical immutability. Scripture tells us that we can
always depend upon the fact that God will be true to himself, which is the
essence of divine immutability. God will always do the right thing; all his
actions will be just; he will never lie; he will never act on a whim or be
impetuous; in short he will always honor who he is and what he has stated, for
they are one in the same.
As such, we can begin to see how
Aristotelian metaphysics can sometimes get in the way of how to understand God
and Scripture. Whereas the tendency of the former is to categorize God in
rather sterile and mechanical terms, the latter displays God in very personal
and moralistic terms. Although it is true that the God of Scripture is
omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, these attributes do not supersede or
overpower any of God's finer attributes (e.g., the personal and
moralistic attributes); rather, they coalesce with them. For example, common
child-like questions posed about God, such as, "Can God make a square
circle?" or "Can God make someone more powerful than himself?"
or "Can God make a rock so big that he can't lift it?" are designed
to make it appear that if God cannot do them then God is not all-powerful. But
all these types of questions are correctly answered in the negative not because
God is the "unmoved mover" but simply because God cannot lie. A
square circle is a lie. Someone more powerful than God is a lie. A rock so big
that God could not lift it is a lie. Hence, even though Scripture describes God
as omnipotent, it is a fact that God cannot do things that are untrue.
Therefore we must also conclude that God cannot do things that are logically
impossible. Hence when Scripture says that "with God all things are possible"
it is referring only to those things which do not infringe on God's
righteousness and integrity. Only things that are good and true are possible
with God (unlike the Devil who can accomplish his desires by doing good or
evil), for Scripture is equally clear that "it is impossible for
God to lie." (Robert A. Sungenis, The Immutable God Who Can Change His
Mind, The Impassible God Who Can Show Emotion [State Line, Pa.: Catholic
Apologetics International Publishing, Inc., 2016], 92-93)
