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What is the significance of Joel 2:13–14?
“Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him…?”
As we have seen, God’s willingness to alter his course of action—even after he’s prophetically announced it—is portrayed as an attribute of greatness in the Bible (cf. Jon. 4:2). God doesn’t change in any respect in which it is wrong to change, but he does change in every respect in which it is good to change. His magnificent flexibility is evident throughout Scripture but is incompatible with the belief that God’s knowledge of future free actions is exhaustively settled.
Category: Q&A
Tags: Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Open Theism
Verse: Joel 2
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