RELENTING GOD - C: 24th Sun in OrdTime

First Reading – Exo 32:7-11, 13-14 (11 September 2022)

“So the Lord relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people” (Exo 32:14).

The passage above appears to be scandalous: How can God, the infinite Almighty and All-Good Being, ever relent? Isn’t it that God is dubbed in the Thomistic philosophical tradition as the Unmoved Mover, which means that he cannot change nor be influenced by another?

In our first reading, God clearly altered his decision after being swayed by Moses. Initially, God was filled with anger after learning that the Israelites whom he delivered from their centuries of slavery in Egypt betrayed him by adoring a molten calf that they themselves had created (v. 8). In his dismay, God told Moses his violent plan: “Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them” (v. 11). Here, God explicitly declared his intent of punishing and destroying the evil Israelites for their idolatry. However, Moses bargained with the Lord, pleading: “Why, O Lord, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel….” (vv. 11, 13).

Upon hearing Moses’s arguments, God relented and changed his mind on punishing his beloved people.

English biblical versions render Exo 32:14 with a variety of verbs. The New International Version uses “relented” in reference to God’s action (see also English Standard Version). The American Standard Version features “repented” (see also Word English Bible) while the New Revised Standard Version employs the phrase “changed his mind” (see also Good News Translation). We notice here that biblical translators are divided on what particular action the Lord did: Is it a decent relenting, which means that he backpedaled from his harsh plan, seeing that such is not helpful? Is it a real repentance, wherein God was emotionally disturbed that he committed a great disservice to his people? Or is it a mere change of mind without any show of remorse on his part, after probably rationally reckoning that Moses’s view truly holds water?

The original Hebrew used for this action word is yinnachem from the nifal form of the root word n-ḥ-m. Literally, yinnachem suggests the sense of an emotional activity, which can mean any of the following: “to regret, to become sorrowful, to regret something;” “to be sorry, come to regret something;” or “to console oneself … to observe a time of mourning” (cf. HALOT). In the Old Testament, this motif is typical of God, who can repent or relent over an initial decision or remorseful situation, viz., Judg 2:18, Am 7:3, Jon 3:10, among many. The text of Jonah in his prayer to God reflects this divine nature:

“For I knew that you a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jon 4:2).

If God is a forgiving God and is consumed by his immense love for mankind, he is therefore governed by the rule of love, which includes emotional pain (grief, regret, sorrow, anger, frustration) as well as emotional joy (contentment, happiness, and bliss). In this regard, we, as his creatures, ought to operate in the same dynamic, where it is normal to have emotional bursts and struggles, yet, always moving towards attaining emotional tranquility and peace at the end.

- Rex Fortes, CM