This node was inspired by a comment in one of the
omniscience,
omnipotence and
free will discussions, which suggested that not only did God not know the future, but that humans had convinced God to change God's mind. (yes it's awkward, but the sentence is ambiguous otherwise.) Here is a short list with references and comments, feel free to add others.
Genesis 18:20-32
Abraham interceds for
Sodom. God said that he would destroy the place if there was iniquity there, and Abraham argues him down to sparing the city if 10 good men could be found. Whether this is God changing his mind is debatable, as Sodom gets destroyed in the end. (side note: God speaks of "go(ing) down to see" if Sodom was as bad as he had heard, suggesting that he is at least concealing omniscience)
Several times in
Exodus. Generally God getting fed up with the
Israelites and threatening to destroy them. Moses usually intercedes. (these are not clear, as sometimes it seems that
Moses is angrier than God.)
Ezekiel 4:12-15 God tells Ezekiel to cook his bread over human excrement as part of a prophecy of the Hebrew exile. When Ezekiel protests that he has never been
defiled, God allows him to use cow dung instead.
Matthew 15:22-28 and
Mark 7:25-30 A
Gentile woman asks
Jesus to cure her daughter and Jesus responds with "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" after further argument Jesus heals the woman's daughter because of the woman's great faith. Some commentators believe this incident encouraged Jesus to extend his ministry to the Gentiles.
Of course the tricky part of any of this is figuring out if God was saying what God meant, just testing the person God was conversing with, or if the account was edited later to make God seem more "human." (After all, what's
the point of prayer if it doesn't change anything?)