Did God Make A Mistake

by Rev. William B. Kellar
(Julian, Ca)

An old Bible I have has something someone wrote in it. “Think about Jesus and act accordingly.”

Many years ago I was talking with a friend of mine. He was actually more like a father to me. He was an interesting guy. His father was Jewish and his mother was a Christian and none of his parents converted. He celebrated Christmas and Hanukah. He knew a little of each of the Bible and the Torah. We were talking about God one time and he came up with something I never expected. He said God made a mistake. This was long before I had any aspirations about being a Pastor or even a Clergyman. When I asked why he thought that he said it was because he made the mistake of making the Israelites his chosen people. Since they didn’t spread his word like they were supposed to, it didn’t get to others and that is why God had to have Jesus come to Earth. I thought about that for a while and wondered how he could come up with a statement like that. Everything in the Bible happened for a reason. It was known by some that Jesus was supposed to come to Earth long before he did and it was told about even in the Old Testament. Back then even before I had a Theology education I thought my friend was wrong. So, did God ever make a mistake? Well let’s examine this a bit. He put Adam and Eve on Earth and they lived in paradise. The only thing they were NOT to do was eat of the forbidden fruit. But as it says in Gen 3:6

Was that a mistake God made? No. Both Adam and Eve did. Sodom and Gomorrah. Did God make a mistake there? God told Abraham that the two cities were going to be destroyed because of their grave sins. When Abraham pleads with God not to destroy the righteous people in those cities especially since his nephew, Lot, lived in Sodom. God tells him he will spare the cities if ten righteous people can be found. Most of the people were so wicked they even wanted to bring harm to angels Gen 19: 1-11.
19 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
Since ten righteous people could not be found in the cities they WERE destroyed. That wasn’t because of a mistake by God it was sin done by PEOPLE. So many other places in the bible show where people make mistakes and not God.
Scholars don’t really know how many books of the Bible Paul wrote. Anywhere between eight and thirteen. He made huge mistakes. He persecuted early Christians and thought it was the right thing. He didn’t even realize his mistake until he took a road to Damascus. Acts 9:1-20. He immediately realized he was mistaken about what he had been doing and started preaching about God. Again, it wasn’t God who made the mistake. It was Paul or Saul. Whatever you want to call him.
How about that thing about God’s chosen people? We find that in Deut 7 6-11

6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. 10 But
those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.
11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.
Was that a mistake? Of course not. Remember that God chose Abraham to grow the nation of Israel from. It was meant to be. But also remember that Jesus didn’t come to Earth because those Israelites failed to deliver the word to everyone including Gentiles. Isaiah 49:6
he says:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
That Light for the Gentiles was Jesus. It was not a mistake. It was told at the time God chose Abraham to be the father of a nation. I’m sorry to my friend but he was wrong. God’s laws are God’s laws and they never change. It isn’t him that makes mistakes it’s us. Even within churches that omit certain parts of the Bible to fit what the people in those churches want instead of what God wants. They will change God’s rules on things from homosexuality to abortion to marriage to… fill in the blank. I have tried to correct some of the people who do that by telling them God’s laws are the same today as they were back then as they always will be. One of the responses I get from that comment is that God made a mistake in not accommodating everyone because some people want things like abortion or same-sex “marriage”. He didn’t make the mistake friends. God is flawless. We can’t change his rules because we don’t like them. THAT is the mistake. This church is a Bible church. We believe in God and his laws and all parts of the Bible, both good and bad. Make no mistake about it. God is in charge and he has the ultimate say in everything. Let’s remind our friends and others to not make the mistake of trying to change the word of God to what we WANT it to say. Just keep the word as it is. Then there is no mistaking God’s word when WE spread it to others. We will make mistakes. We are human. When I make them I pray that God will help me realize the mistake I made so I don’t make it again. The worst mistake is thinking that GOD made a mistake.

Amen