"When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it" (Jonah 3:10).The idea that God has repented of an evil "which he thought to do to his people" (Exodus 32:14) raises a lot of issues and sparks some intriguing discussions regarding the omniscience and benevolence of God. Taken at face value, it tells us that our "man with the plan" isn't very decisive at all. It implies that he might not know everything, or, that he might know all things, but he likes to play with our fears in order to get us to repent--that he is, essentially, a fundamentalist preacher threatening us with hell and damnation lest we repent from our thoroughly evil ways. However, I was thinking about all this and I finally came to an understanding about this idea that I can be satisfied with: his dithering is due, neither to indecisiveness nor cruel omniscience, but to love.
Let's think about it for a second and ask ourselves one question: How can we believe in a benevolent being who loves us beyond our understanding, whom we are destined to spend not just a lifetime with but an eternity, and who, at the same time, takes delight in teasing us with suffering or in inflicting pain upon his "good" creation (Genesis 1:31)? Something doesn't quite add up here. Either God wants the best for us (Jeremiah 29:11) and wants us to respond to him freely, or he delights in the suffering and angst "of the living" (Wisdom 1:13). 
When people talk about how God is going to punish us for our sins, they usually refer to three events from the Old Testament, all of which were quoted above, namely: Noah's Ark (Genesis 6-8ish); the disobedience of Israel during their exodus (Exodus 30-33ish); and the story of Ninevah (Jonah). However, almost every time they miss one key passage from each of these stories. Here's a quote from the story of Noah and the ark, for example:
We know that there are consequences to all of our actions: often negative consequences from our negative actions, and positive from the positive. I'll give you an example.When my wife and I were still dating, I went out one night and had ten too many Guinnesses and three too many shots of Jamesons. Needless to say, I wasn't feeling too well the next day. The problem was, though, I ended up missing out on a date we had planned for the following day, which she was really looking forward to.
Since our individual sins can have negative effects on the people and circumstances in our lives, as the above anecdote shows us, then what about corporate or even global sins? I don't think that we need to look much further than the Global Warming issue to see how our corporate sins (that is, sins committed by members of a group or community) effect the natural world. The consequences, by the way, are speculated to range from slight climate changes to a second ice age. So, we can see, at least in theory, how our sins (or negative choices) can have a global effect.
Hmm ... sin, global effects ... does this remind us of anything?
When people talk about how God is going to punish us for our sins, they usually refer to three events from the Old Testament, all of which were quoted above, namely: Noah's Ark (Genesis 6-8ish); the disobedience of Israel during their exodus (Exodus 30-33ish); and the story of Ninevah (Jonah). However, almost every time they miss one key passage from each of these stories. Here's a quote from the story of Noah and the ark, for example: "... the Lord said in his heart, 'I will never again curse the ground because of man ... neither will I ever again destroy every living creature ..." (Genesis 8:21).So, when we read in Jonah, and elsewhere, that God repented from wanting to cull the sickly human race, it is implying one of two things: one, that our benevolent Father shamefully plays with our aversion to pain, or, two, that there is something more going on here--especially if we realize that our sins have far-reaching effects.
Instead of portraying a Dithering God or a sadist, I think that we are getting a glimpse of a God who is aware of the just recompense of our sin, but who is willing to do something about it which would diminish or banish its necessary punishment. This premise is particularly evident when we consider the example of our redemption won by Christ's suffering and death (Isaiah 53:5). The question then becomes about why a loving and all-knowing God would allow evil to exist (by evil here, I mean the deprivation of good). The answer is that he allows evil to exist simply because he loves us.
That is, to remove evil from the world he would also have to get rid of our free will--the freedom to choose good and evil. As I said in another post, such an action would be antithetical to what he is calling us to do: to freely choose to be with him, in spite of the ritz, glamour, and lure of sin.
What about his dithering? Let's look at Global Warming for example. What we have is a series of events, instigated by human sin and negligence. Global Warming, then, becomes a necessary consequence of both our corporate action and inaction. If God were to "change his mind" like he did in the story of Ninevah, for example, then through some sort of Divine Intervention, the ensuing storm of Global Warming would be quelled. Now, since God is omniscient, by virtue of what it means to be "god," the Biblical language for such an action is that God "changed his mind." Whereas the reality is that he intervened and stopped an event which was actuated by our freedom to choose good and evil. This is, of course, different from saying that God created Global Warming as a consequence of (pick one): abortion, euthanasia, and genocide; embryonic stem cell research; the exploitation of people and the environment; neglect of the elderly, the sick, and the marginalized; and last but not least, corrupt politicians and community (and church) leaders.
The thing is, and here's the irony in all of this, it is anti-christian to claim that God is out to get us. Instead, he never ceases to call us back to him, despite our negative choices. In fact, it doesn't even matter how many positive choices we make throughout the day, he will unceasingly call us back to him regardless of which choice we are inclined to act on. He calls us back to him because of who we are as human persons, made in his image and likeness, and not because of what we do or don't do.
It doesn't matter what we have done or what we continue to do, he will never stop loving us; he will never stop giving you and me the freedom to choose good or evil, because to do so would diminish the value and dignity inherent to us as human beings.
"... I set before you life and death ... Now choose life ..." (Deuteronomy 30:19).
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