If God is not a man, but Jesus is a man and Jesus is God is God a liar? Which God?
Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
2007-01-03 03:56:53 · 23 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
God later changed his mind when he made the complete OT irrelevant. I guess he did not change his mind before Moses wrote Numbers 23:19 but he is free to change it in Numbers 23:20 and on down. God is a very fickle being.
2007-01-03 04:01:43 · answer #1 · answered by ÜFÖ 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Numbers is from the Old Testament, which was written BEFORE God became a man in the form a Jesus. Also, even though Jesus is God and a man, He does not have the mind of a man, He has the mind of God, so He still does not lie or change His mind.
2007-01-03 12:04:08 · answer #2 · answered by Lady of the Garden 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
God Jehovah has never been a man. "You are not able to see my face, because no man may see me and yet live." Ex 33:20 He sent his son Jesus to earth to become a man.
Numbers 23:19 is saying that God can't lie like a man nor change his mind like a man. Everything God says and promises will come true.
Heb. 6: 18 " ...impossible for God to lie..." Isaiah 55:11 "so my word that goes forth from my mouth will prove to be. It will not return to me without results, but it will certainly do that in which I have delighted, and it will have certain success in that for which I have sent it."
2007-01-03 12:09:46 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Christian beliefs about Jesus Christ include that he was fully man and fully God. It doesn't explain how this was possible. God is not a man in the normal sense of a man (characterized in the verse as liar and changing his mind), and Jesus Christ was not a man in the normal sense either.
We also believe that God appeared as a burning bush, as a tongue of fire, as a dove, as a pillar of fire and to add that he appeared as a man doesn't seem too extreme. After all, nothing is impossible with God.
2007-01-03 12:33:59 · answer #4 · answered by Dr. D 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
When those words were written in Numbers, around 1475 BC, they were true. At that time God had not yet taken on him form.
As the "plot" of the Bible advances, there comes a moment whem he did. So not a contradiction or change, just an advancement to the next step of his plan.
2007-01-03 12:56:44 · answer #5 · answered by dewcoons 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
God didnt change his mind he did send his son to walk this earth as a man in human form only to die on the cross for our sins so that we might get to go to be in heaven with him some day So he made the promise and he kept his promise so therefore God is not a lair onlyy humans is God and Jesus was and is perfect and without sin God is love
2007-01-03 12:03:01 · answer #6 · answered by Gina S 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Another verse taken out of context. You need to read the paragraph above and below this verse to understand what it means. Sometimes you need to read the whole chapter.
Read Numbers 23:13-26. Balaam's 2nd oracle reaffirmed the Lord's determination to bless Israel. The iniquity in Israel was mercifully set aside by the Lord. and, therefore, would not stop His plan. The God who supernaturally brought Israel out of Egypt would give victory over all her enemies.
Numbers 23:19 where it says God is not a man is hereby explained: In contrast to the unreliability of man, so well seen in Balaam himself, God is reliable and immutable. He does not change; therefore, His Words always come to pass.
2007-01-03 12:10:32 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
The simplest translation I can offer is that the reference about God is..."not a man, that he should lie", by which man has the "ability to lie", therefore affirming He (God) is not a liar. The bible states that God cannot lie.
2007-01-03 12:27:00 · answer #8 · answered by James S 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Jesus isn't God, and God's not a man. The bible teaches the opposite, here's one real obvious scripture about that.
(Acts 17:30-31) God has overlooked the times of such ignorance, yet now [God] is telling mankind that they should all everywhere repent. 31 Because [God] has set a day in which [God] purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom [God] has appointed, and [God] has furnished a guarantee to all men in that [God] has resurrected him ["that man"] from the dead.
Obviously, Jesus is "that man".
2007-01-03 12:20:22 · answer #9 · answered by PFSHJ 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
You're mistaking the essential nature of God (which isn't a man)...with the incarnation of God (when He became a man).
Ontologically, God is Spirit. He isn't a man. That's what the passage in Numbers is referring to. However, in the Incarnation, He became a man. But this act didn't compromise His ontological nature.
2007-01-03 12:18:54 · answer #10 · answered by srprimeaux 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋