God is grieved about his plan?

God is grieved about his plan?

Genesis 6:6
The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

1 Samuel 15:35
Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the LORD was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.


I read these passages and was not sure what to think in light of Romans 12:2. Please post any thoughts you have.
 
Goldenroad- do think it grieved the Fathers heart to see His Son crucified? Yet in spite of His foreknowledge of this "behold the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" was set in motion. The fact is that God knew all these things but was willing to go thru all this pain and grief for you and me anyway! God's will is going to be done (He is soviergn) and He moves kings and common man alike into their perfect position to bring all He has planned to pass- but make no mistake:
Lam 3:32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
Lam 3:33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
God thougth we were worht every price He had to pay along the way to be with us- we are His delight and He will move heaven and earth to have us near- there was no price to great.
 
Hi Goldenroad!

When I reed those scriptures you wrote, I think that, as Boanerges said, God knew ALL the bad things all of us were going to do even before we were born, yet he chose to create us anyway. So, why is He grieved then? Well I think, and this is just my opinion(Idon't think I can find scripture to back it up...), that His grief is more for us and what our mistakes and disobediences will cost us and that is because He loves us so. You see, when Adam and Eve sinned, the cost was great for them and the rest of the world; and Saul... Well, his price was pretty big! God, acording to His word, does not want any of us to perish and yet some will. His grief, I think is for the loss of those people because His sacrifice was for them as well! Anyway, like I said, this is my opinion. What do you guys think?

Laura:)
 
Hi Goldenroad!

When I reed those scriptures you wrote, I think that, as Boanerges said, God knew ALL the bad things all of us were going to do even before we were born, yet he chose to create us anyway. So, why is He grieved then? Well I think, and this is just my opinion(Idon't think I can find scripture to back it up...), that His grief is more for us and what our mistakes and disobediences will cost us and that is because He loves us so. You see, when Adam and Eve sinned, the cost was great for them and the rest of the world; and Saul... Well, his price was pretty big! God, acording to His word, does not want any of us to perish and yet some will. His grief, I think is for the loss of those people because His sacrifice was for them as well! Anyway, like I said, this is my opinion. What do you guys think?

Laura:)

Thats an interesting thought though i interpreted it as meaning God regretted something. Thanks.
 
Hi again!

I just looked up the word "grief" in the 1828 Webster dictionary. I took someone's suggestion to choose the 1828 because of the amount of scripture refference Wester made when giving the meaning of the word. Anywho... The interpretation is long, but suffice to say it means pressure, oppression, sorrow, regret; I guess, in the light of this you could say that God regreted making man kind, but I don't think that's what those verses mean. As I said earlier, I think His grief is more like sorrow for us and the consequences our actions could bring on us, all of this brought on by His love for us.

Laura
 
'Adoptivemommy' has it correct. The original Hebrew texts indicate that due to Satan's rebellion at the Katabole, that God was forced to create an environment where 'man' could be born of woman in flesh bodies and be given free will to decide to either follow God or follow Satan. It was His plan to see which of us would follow the righteous path and which would be deceived by Satan and follow the path of evil. When the time period of Genesis 6 came to pass, the earth was filled with evil. Please read the text from the New Living Translation® below for an idea of what the Hebrew texts actually said. In these passages, the "Sons of God" are " Satan's fallen angels" or "Nephilim" (From the Hebrew: 'the fallen ones') - those who came to earth to seduce woman rather than being born of woman...

Genesis 6:1-8 (NLT), "When the human population began to grow rapidly on the earth, (2) the sons of God saw the beautiful women of the human race and took any they wanted as their wives. (3) Then the Lord said, "My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, they will live no more than 120 years."
(4) In those days, and even afterward, giants* lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with human women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes* mentioned in legends of old.
(5) Now the Lord observed the extent of the people's wickedness, and he saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. (6) So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them. It broke his heart. (7) And the Lord said, "I will completely wipe out this human race that I have created. Yes, and I will destroy all the animals and birds, too. I am sorry I ever made them." (8) But Noah found favor with the Lord." .....etc.....


God was saddened that He had to make His children go through the trials that they would face on earth in order to decide their own fate by way of free will - either eternity with God and Christ or the Lake of Fire with Satan.

[* ref: "heros, geber, or giants": offspring resulting from the union of Nephilim and human women.]
 
If we like Jesus began to see and understand the scriptures from the heart of a loving Father they seem to take on a whole new meaning- the Word of God is a love letter to us !

" Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
Joh 11:42 And I knew that thou hearest me always " - Jesus
 
Grieved

Hi Goldenroad,

What an interesting question.

Having no ready answer or opinion, I went directly to Strong's Concordance and then cross-referenced with Strong's Complete Dictionary of Bible Words (to get the original understanding of the Hebrew word - atsab).

The rendering there (ref # 6087 in Strong's system) is as follows:

a prim. root; prop. to carve, i.e. fabricate or fashion; hence, (in a bad sense) to worry, pain or anger; - displease, grieve, hurt, make, be sorry, vex, worship, wrest.
to afflict; - lamentable.

Interestingly, in the KJV, the word grieved is not used in the passage at 1 Sam 15:35, which reads there:
... and the Lord REPENTED that he had made Saul king over Israel. (emphasis mine).

Here are some renderings from other translations of the word grieved in 1 Sam 15:35.

Young's Literal Translation - repented
World English Translation - grieved
New International Version - grieved
King James Version - repented
Darby's New Translation - repented
American Standard Version - repented
New King James Version - regretted
The Message - was sorry

One last tidbit of info - in Strong's Concordance, there are 40 listings of scripture passages for the word grieved, using various Hebrew words which denote the implied meaning. The definition I have quoted above applies to only 8 of the 40 that are listed.

Methinks this will take prayer and meditation (maybe even medication)!

In Christ,

Peter.
 
Gracias mi amigos and amigas. I get the feeling that in trying to answer a question like this you need to understand God's motives which is impossible...so where does that leave me? Joyfully praising God for being incomprehensible.
 
Were it says He greived what it saying is that He had no delite or pleasure in our situation or in doing what he knew had to be done.
Many don't see it but God sacrifices for us. The sorrow and anguish over the lost. The sacrifice and rejection of His only begotten son so that we might be saved. God is not an emotionalless being .He feels our pain, He sufferes at our loss and it greives him.
 
An interesting topic we know by scriture that we can grieve and even quench God's Spirit:

Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

1Th 5:19 Quench not the Spirit.

Pehaps one should look back at the original reason for our creation to understand the motives and heart of God- man was created for fellowship and communion ( common union ) with God- that has aways been the hearts desire of our Lord to bring us into fellowship with Him- thus the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross- His plan was always to bring us back to His arms and anything to the contrary grieves His Spirit.
 
Gracias mi amigos and amigas. I get the feeling that in trying to answer a question like this you need to understand God's motives which is impossible...so where does that leave me? Joyfully praising God for being incomprehensible.

Hi again, goldenroad,

I respectfully disagree that we can be "Joyfully praising God for being incomprehensible."

God reveals as much about his nature as he deems we need to know (at the present time), through his love letter to us - The Bible. That we will be unable at times to fathom him, is made clear to us:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8.

Rather than being incomprehensible, God is transcendent; in fact, he transcends all. That being the case, is it any wonder there are things that will give us pause for thought when it comes to his actions or responses?

If we look at the situation in question - King Saul - we are given an insight to God's attitude at the outset and can see the dark clouds looming on the horizon. That God would "grieve" a situation does not necessarily mean that he would do it differently if it presented itself again. In this case, even though he knew it was to their detriment, he gave the ungrateful nation of Israel, exactly what they asked for - a King. Unfortunately for them, they were about to learn the hard way what it means to go against God's warnings (how many of us have learned to our detriment that sin and disobedience lead to all kinds of pain and suffering?).

But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you that they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."(emphasis mine)
I Samuel 8:6-9.

When we realize the history of God, Israel and King Saul, it is much clearer why God felt grieved or sorry for what had befallen them - even though he had clearly warned them of the folly of their decision. I think many parents of teenage children can relate to the feeling of being grieved in such a manner.

God bless,

Peter.
 
Hi Peter!

I love what you've written here! I especially love the last paragraph with the analogy about teenagers and their parents. I beleive the same thing and that is that God's grief is for us and the consequences of our dissobedience and sin, not for Himself. He, in my oppinion, cannot "regret" for Himself any decision He makes since He's known what decision He was going to make about a particular instance before the foundation of the earth!

Laura:)

Hi again, goldenroad,

I respectfully disagree that we can be "Joyfully praising God for being incomprehensible."

God reveals as much about his nature as he deems we need to know (at the present time), through his love letter to us - The Bible. That we will be unable at times to fathom him, is made clear to us:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8.

Rather than being incomprehensible, God is transcendent; in fact, he transcends all. That being the case, is it any wonder there are things that will give us pause for thought when it comes to his actions or responses?

If we look at the situation in question - King Saul - we are given an insight to God's attitude at the outset and can see the dark clouds looming on the horizon. That God would "grieve" a situation does not necessarily mean that he would do it differently if it presented itself again. In this case, even though he knew it was to their detriment, he gave the ungrateful nation of Israel, exactly what they asked for - a King. Unfortunately for them, they were about to learn the hard way what it means to go against God's warnings (how many of us have learned to our detriment that sin and disobedience lead to all kinds of pain and suffering?).

But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you that they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."(emphasis mine)
I Samuel 8:6-9.

When we realize the history of God, Israel and King Saul, it is much clearer why God felt grieved or sorry for what had befallen them - even though he had clearly warned them of the folly of their decision. I think many parents of teenage children can relate to the feeling of being grieved in such a manner.

God bless,

Peter.
 
Hi Laura,

Thanks for responding and your kind words.

My kids are all in their thirties now but I do remember, particularly with my son, a time in his teens where he seemed to have changed into some strange being. It was like living the movie The Bodysnatchers. It seemed as it he had been replaced with an alien replica. Fortunately, the son we had known returned to us some time during his early twenties.

God bless,

Peter.
 
It was like living the movie The Bodysnatchers. It seemed as it he had been replaced with an alien replica.

Hi again!

That's really funny:D . You know, I actually watched that movie. It was pretty strange!

I have 2 daugters, both under 1 yr and as sweet as they are, I am already starting to see some personality traits I'm not sure I like. I am sure that no matter how submited to God a household is, sometimes kids just go astray... It's not necesarily a reflection on the parents or their way of life. Sometimes kids have to figure things out for themselves. But, when they get hurt, their parents still grieve for them! So why would our Heavenly Father, who is the perfect parent, be any different, right?:)

Laura
 
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