“I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the LORD all that night. – 1 Samuel 15:11

“I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night. – 1 Samuel 15:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 24, 2016): 1 Samuel 15

If there is one thing that the current round of political debates prove, it is that we excel in describing the world through our own political glasses – we see and describe what it is that we want to see. Sometimes it seems that each candidate sees the world in their own way. Hillary Clinton has apparently found Barak Obama and had some kind of spiritual experience with him. Bernie Sanders wants to rewrite his record on guns, Donald Trump believes in freedom as long as it doesn’t include Muslims, and the list goes on. Fact checkers are kept employed every time someone speaks just to make sure that the words are on the level.

And maybe this should be expected, because in reality we all see the world through our own glasses. Objectivity is ultimately impossible. I am the product of the way that I was bought up, of the influence that my extended family has had me, my friends, my education, all of this has created who I am. But it has also created who I see God to be.

It might be that this verse is one of the most revealing passages when it comes down to the question of how we see God. Because how we interpret these words will dig deep into who we believe that God really is. Tradition seems to say that these words are intended to be anthropomorphic in nature – this is nothing more than God speaking as if he were a human. Of course, God being who he is and being unmovable and totally knowing everything, could never really regret anything. He knew, before he placed the crown on Saul’s head, that this man would end up being an unsuitable king. He knew exactly what Saul was going to do long before Saul actually did it. He had to, he is God. But the problem with that approach is that it raises other questions. If God knew that Saul would fail, why did he bother placing him on the throne in the first place? Were there really no other options in all of Israel for a suitable king? Or is it really possible that Saul was nothing more than a placeholder on the way to David?

But the question extends far beyond just the remaking of Saul as a king. It can extend even back into the Garden of Eden. If God knew that Adam and Eve were going to fail, then what was the point of humanity anyway? If this is true, then the character of God would seem to be in serious question. The question that comes from the opponents of Christianity would seem to be well deserved. How could a good God create something that he knew was going to become so evil. If humanity never even had a chance to do good, really, what was the point?

To be honest, with my cultural glasses on (and I might be wrong) this reasoning makes me very uncomfortable. I am much more comfortable taking these words at face value, and not as an anthropomorphized response of God. I am willing to re-examine some of the other scripture passages that lead us to believe in the unmovable, all-knowing God, than to re-evaluate passages like this one. I want to believe that God regretted making Saul king – that he did not know that Saul would fail him, just as he did not know that Adam and Eve would sin in the garden. Oh, he may have known that the possibility of failure existed – but he didn’t know for sure. With my glasses, I see a God who is moved by the things we do on the earth. A God who is excited over the good and deeply saddened by the bad. He is a God who moves through the experience with us, knowing all of the possibilities that lay ahead, but not sure of the turns that we might decide to take. I believe in a God who regrets and I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing, because in my mind it is an essential characteristic of a God who is good, rather than just one who is powerful.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 16