Exodus 32 · a question people ask
Did the LORD change his mind?
The chapter says, "So the LORD turned away from the evil which he said he would do to his people" (32:14), the very thing Moses asked for: "turn away from this evil against your people" (32:12). The Hebrew verb in both verses is nacham (see the word study). Elsewhere the same verb is used to say that God does not repent: "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent" (Numbers 23:19). In one chapter it says both: "It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king" (1 Samuel 15:11), and "the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent" (1 Samuel 15:29). Christians who hold each view below take all of these verses as true.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
His purpose doesn't change; the words describe what people saw
Those who hold this view start from verses like "For I, the LORD, don’t change" (Malachi 3:6) and "the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow" (James 1:17). They read "the LORD turned away from the evil" (32:14) as describing God's dealings as Moses and Israel saw them. On this view, the warning of 32:10 was spoken to Moses, and Moses' prayer and the LORD's answer were both within God's unchanging purpose: he had sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Israel (32:13), and he kept that oath.
Malachi 3:6 · James 1:17 · Exodus 32:10-14
He truly responds to prayer and repentance
Those who hold this view start from what God says about his own warnings through Jeremiah: "if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them" (Jeremiah 18:8). When Nineveh turned, "God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them" (Jonah 3:10), and after Amos prayed, "The LORD relented concerning this" (Amos 7:3). Joel says the LORD "is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity" (Joel 2:13). On this view, what doesn't change is God's character, and it is his character to answer when Moses prays (32:14).
Jeremiah 18:7-10 · Jonah 3:10 · Amos 7:3 · Joel 2:13
The verses
“Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath, and turn away from this evil against your people.”
“So the LORD turned away from the evil which he said he would do to his people.”
“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and he won’t do it? Or has he spoken, and he won’t make it good?”
““It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” Samuel was angry; and he cried to the LORD all night.”