Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. – Jeremiah 26:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 17, 2014): Jeremiah 26

Isaac Asimov postulated in his “Foundation” series that the future could be mathematically discovered. While the individual future actions of a single person might be forever enshrouded in mystery, Asimov believed the future of large groups could be plotted fairly accurately. That was, unless there was an anomalous person that stood outside of the process and had the power to change the future. For Asimov, the future was more analogous to the movement of a river – you may not be able to predict the exact movement of each drop of water, but you can know with remarkable accuracy the path that the river is going to take.

One of the open questions in theology is this – how much is God moved by our actions? It is a question that impinges on so many other issues. Does God know everything about the future? Does God ever change his mind? How much do our prayers influence God? And if there is an area of theology in which I stand with the minority, this is probably the issue. I believe that God is a very passionate and responsive God. Every story in the Bible seems to carry a promise for those who dare to follow him – and a warning for those who don’t. I believe that prayer is effective. I know that prayer often changes me; that it has a very real effect on my priorities, but I also believe that sometimes my prayers change God. And sometimes God even changes his mind. Does that mean that maybe God doesn’t know the future? I suspect that Asimov’s thoughts might be appropriate. But in the case of God, I think it is possible that he not only knows the path of the river, but he also knows all of the possible paths for each drop of water, but maybe not the precise one that the drop will eventually take.

And that seems to be the direction that this passage takes. God indicates to Josiah that his mind is made up. In spite of the good things that the King had done, God was going to send Judah into exile. But the likelihood is that this communication between God and Jeremiah took place at an earlier time – at a time when God genuinely was not sure what was going to happen next. The likelihood is that Judah’s exile was on its way. That is definitely the way that the river was flowing. But maybe there was a chance that the nation would respond to Jeremiah’s words. Maybe Jeremiah could be one of the special ones that could change the course of a raging river. And maybe Judah would turn from her ways and return to the ways of God. And if they would do that, than God says that he would turn from the course of action that he had decided to take with the nation.

For me, passages like this one just indicate the depth of the passion of God. He is moved by our actions, and he is even willing to change his mind. And there is nothing wrong with that. It in no way limits God. It does stand as a testimony of how much God cares for us – and the influence that we have with the one who created us.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 7