Some have argued that the solution to the problem lies in the fact that prayer changes God's mind. They say He awaits our prayers in order to give what we ask. God reacts to or requests and is pleased to give us only when we ask from Him what we desire.
While some are willing to admit that God has His own counsel and plan according to which He does all things, they insist that God will alter His purpose and change His plan in accordance with the requests of people. In fact, the more earnest and fervent prayer is, they claim, the more likely is the possibility that God will change His mind. If a well-known person in a church is very ill and seems about to die, prayer vigils are held, prayer chains are organized, prayer meetings are called, and members are urged to fervency in prayer so that this person may be spared. If in the face of death, the person recovers, this recovery is ascribed to the power of fervent prayer. Such an idea of prayer is best expressed in the well-known motto found on the wall in many homes: "Prayer Changes Things."
There are even those who admit that God's plan is eternally fixed and cannot be altered by anyone under any circumstances, but who nevertheless pray as if their prayers just might persuade God to alter what He had determined to do. They are not so much interested in the abstract question of the immutability of God's counsel; they are interested in the practical question: Can God be prevailed upon to alter what seems to be His purpose? And they pray as if this were indeed possible.
There even seems to be some support for this contention in Scripture, and those who argue that God's plan can be altered are quick to point to these passages. One such passage is found in the history of Hezekiah, the good king of Judah. This history is recorded in Isaiah 38 with parallel passages in 2 Kings 20:1-11 and 2 Chronicles 32:24. The passage in Isaiah reads as follows:
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thous shalt die, and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, and said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city. And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that He hath spoken; Behold I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees it was gone down (vv. 1-8).
It would seem, at first glance, that while it was indeed God's purpose to take Hezekiah away by death, Hezekiah succeeded in prevailing upon God to change His mind. This is the way many explain the text, and they find in it a clear command to bring fervent prayers to God in the hopes that God will be persuaded to do something other than He intended.
If such were the interpretation of Scripture, it would be in clear contradiction to other passages, which teach that God never changes His mind. This is, for example, the teaching of Isaiah 46:9, 10:
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
God says the same thing in Malachi:
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed (3:6).
How are we to explain this seeming contradiction?
Before I go into this question, it is well to remember that Scripture often speaks in similar language. When Israel was at mount Sinai, the nation was guilty of worshipping the golden calf. God threatened to destroy the entire nation at that time but was apparently dissuaded by Moses' intercessory prayer (Ex. 32). We are told repeatedly that God repented of some evil He had threatened or of some action He had previously performed (Gen. 6:6; 1 Sam. 15:11), although we are also told, in connection with Saul's disobedience, that God does not repent (1 Sam. 15:29). Part of the prophecy of Balaam was, "God is not man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: He hath said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" (Num. 23:19).
The New Testament also has an example of Jesus' apparently changing mind at the request of two disciples. After His resurrection and in His appearance to the travelers to Emmaus, Jesus acted as if He would continue His journey when, in fact, He knew He was going into the house of the two travelers to reveal Himself as the resurrected Lord (Luke 24:28, 29). He left the impression that He was dissuaded from His plan by their invitation.
The use of the word "repent" in Scripture is called anthropomorphism, that is, a figure of speech in which certain human qualities or actions are ascribed to God so that we who are mere mortals can understand somewhat better the transcendent God. In like fashion, Scripture ascribes to God eyes and ears, hands, and feet. But we are not to think of this in earthy and human terms, for these figures of speech must be interpreted in the light of and in harmony with God's other attributes. They are intended to help us understand God's works.
On other occasions God reveals Himself as changing His mind for purposes of instructing His people in important truths. When Israel sinned at Sinai, God said He would consume the people, but God spoke in this way to show how we always deserve nothing but wrath. Just as Moses, the type of Christ, saved Israel by His intercessory prayer, so we are saved by the intercessory prayer of Christ. The lesson is that, apart from Christ, we are the objects of wrath.
Anthropomorphisms are authentic and truly tell us something about God. But the word "anthropomorphism" is somewhat misleading. It suggests that what characterizes us is the reality, while the analogy in God is the figure. But it is the other way around In God is the reality; in us is the figure or shadow. Scripture speaks of God's right hand, for His is the real right hand after which ours are patterned. Repentance in us implies change, but not in God, who changes not.
So it is in the case of Hezekiah. While all the details that surrounded the announcement of Hezekiah's death are not mentioned, from other parts of the same narrative we are told why God told Hezekiah he would die. God sent this illness on Hezekiah just at that point when Judah could not afford to lose its king. Disaster would have been the result of Hezekiah's death. Jerusalem was surrounded by the armies of the Assyrians under king Sennacherib. The mighty armies of Assyria, before whom no nation could stand, were threatening the city and mocking Hezekiah's God. Hezekiah and Judah had no strength to resist the fierce onslaught. Hezekiah's death would have forced Jerusalem to surrender.
God showed Hezekiah, therefore, the hopelessness of the nation's plight in order that the nation might know that its strength was only in God: "I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: I will defend this city" (Isa. 38:6).
More importantly, God showed Hezekiah that Jerusalem would be preserved because of the faithfulness of His covenant promises to send Christ. This too Hezekiah had to learn.
In the parallel passage in 2 Kings, we read in 21:1 that Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, assumed the throne at the age of 12. That means that Manasseh was born during the fifteen years which were given to Hezekiah after his illness. If, as was usual in Judah, the firstborn was given the kingdom, then Manasseh was Hezekiah's firstborn, from which we may conclude that Hezekiah had no children prior to his sickness (2 Chron. 33:1).
We do not know why Hezekiah had no children. It may be that, deeply involved in Judah's reformation, he had simply neglected the responsibility to marry and bring forth seed that would sit on David's throne- a seed that would eventually be Christ Himself. It may be also that God had given Hezekiah and his wife no children. In any case, the point is that Hezekiah did not merely pray to God to have his life extended because he wanted to live awhile longer. He prayed because he was deeply concerned for Jerusalem, the city of God, and for a son to sit on his throne. The death of Hezekiah involved not only a loss of a king in Judah at a very critical time, but it also involved God's own promise to give sons to David to sit on the throne until Christ Himself would establish the throne of David forever (2 Sam. 7:12-16). The prayer of Hezekiah was based on God's own promise.
Why then did God send Isaiah to Hezekiah with the solemn announcement "Thou shalt die, and not live?" Evidently it was God's purpose to bring Hezekiah to the awareness of his need for a child. Through this message that Hezekiah would die, God taught Hezekiah the important lesson that the coming of Christ was the goal and purpose of God and that Hezekiah had to have a son in order that this promise might be fulfilled. If Hezekiah had been neglectful of his calling, God used this to rouse Hezekiah to a sense of his own obligations with respect to the promise.
God always works His purpose in our lives. Sometimes He works in a pedagogical way so that we may know His purpose and appreciate the glorious way in which He works. When a teacher asks one of her students a question in the classroom, the conclusion must not be that the teacher does not know the answer and is trying to gain some information from the pupil. The teacher is teaching the child to think, and the teacher ascertains at the same time whether the pupil has learned his lesson.
God had determined in His counsel that Hezekiah would be childless until the nation of Judah was threatened with extinction. God had determined eternally that Hezekiah would be made aware of the need he had for a son. God had determined that Hezekiah, in the consciousness of his need for a son, would pray earnestly to God. God determined that in the way of this prayer a son would be born to sit on Judah's throne. Also God determined to preserve the seed that would eventually bring forth the Christ. God showed Hezekiah in an unmistakable way the faithfulness of His promise.
Our prayers do not change God's mind. In fact, he who humbly seeks God's face in prayer would not want it any differently, not in the direst circumstances. It might seem that way in times of extreme trial, but when we think about it, we know better. I have often said from the pulpit that if I had the slightest notion that my prayers would alter the mind of God, I would never dare to ask God for anything. After all, we don not know what is best for us- not any more than a two-year-old child knows what is best for himself. We cannot tell what is necessary for our salvation. Only God knows. He always does what is good and right. He always loves us. He always seeks our salvation.
Prof. Herman Hanko
When You Pray, pp. 48-53
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