God Does Not Change - Jonah

 Jonah 3:10 (ESV)

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.

The doctrine of the immutability of God states that God does not change in His essence.   God cannot change because that would mean we cannot trust His promises.   God cannot change because that would mean we cannot trust our salvation.  If he was fickle He could loves us one day and be angry at us the next.   That would not be a God we could love.   The glory of God is that He is immutable.   However, we read in the above passage that when the people of Nineveh began to repent after hearing Jonah’s message, that God “relented” of the promise to bring disaster on them.   At first blush this sounds like God changed His mind, which what the word “relent” can mean.   However, if we truly understand the situation we would understand that God is acting as the God He promises to be.  God in His divine essence is to be a gracious, loving and forgiving God.   He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance:

2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

So, we ought not take from the above verse that God changed His essence, but rather fulfilled His promised that if someone repents and seeks Him, He will provide salvation to them.   God relented to the extent that He moved from one part of His essence (to punish evil with His wrath) to another part of His essence (to provide salvation to those who repent).  God did not change who He was in this passage.  God fulfilled who He is.