Jonah 3:10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Does God relent? Does he change his mind based on the behavior of human beings? It's certainly more difficult to say no when you see this verse and a few others like it. So how do we understand this? God had warned Nineveh through Jonah that destruction was coming. They believed God and repented. Does this verse show a genuine response to their repentance from God or not?
Let's consider this statement in the light of other Scriptures.
1 Samuel 15:29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret."
Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Malachi 3:6 "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
Psalm 119:89 Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.
Psalm 33:11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
The consistent testimony of Scripture is that God is immutable (he never changes). God's eternal counsel is absolute. If God does not change his mind, then this means we cannot understand the statement in Jonah 3:10 about God relenting in the same way we would a human being.
Often when the Scriptures describe God in his interactions with humanity, we see something that is known as anthropomorphic language. This means that God's actions with humanity are presented in a language that we can understand on our terms. God doesn't change and yet he has genuinely interacted with humanity according to his will. To truly understand the intricate details of how God's sovereign, eternal will operates in real human history is truly above our pay grade, but this language helps us to understand that God genuinely does interact with us.
If, on the other hand, this verse does mean that God does change his mind and is directed by man's actions, God loses all sovereignty. This type of belief system is known as open theism. It is an unbiblical philosophy about God that contradicts his very character. Open theism also gives us no confidence about our future. If God's will can be directed according to the actions of his creation, we can have no certainty about his hold on our future with him.
The beautiful reality about God's immutability is that we can have absolute confidence in God's eternal decrees. When God saves, he will absolutely save, because he has willed it from eternity. Our confidence in God's hold on the future is made even more amazing when we understand that in the working of real history, God genuinely interacts with us.
I can't explain this further, but I'm so thankful for the fact that I can have utmost confidence in God who holds my future, and sincere intimacy with my God who really does walk with me in this world.