The word means "a feeling of sadness, repentance or disappointment." It comes from Old French, where greter means "to weep," so to "regret" means "to weep again" ... or something like it. Someone recently asked me, "Do you have any regrets?" It turns out it's a harder question than I originally thought.
On the surface, everyone has regrets, from "I shouldn't have eaten the whole cake" to "I shouldn't have married that person." Everyone has them. But the real question was about long-term ... something you continue to regret. And I think it's a complicated answer ... to believers. Do we regret ... sins? If "regret" means "repentance," then we have to. But ... what about long-term? Now it gets sticky. On one hand, we're tempted to think, "If I hadn't done what I wasn't supposed to, or if I had done what I was supposed to, things would have been better." Is that true? I think it's not. Consider some examples. If Joseph's brothers had not sinned, God's plan to save Israel would have failed (Gen 50:20). Yes, their intent was evil ... but God had different ideas. Or take Judas Iscariot. He furthered God's plan for our salvation by betraying Christ. Absolutely necessary, but Jesus said, "For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born" (Mark 14:21). Again, that "both-and" function, where, yes, it was sin and wrong, but it was God's plan. In fact, we all know "that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Rom 8:28), which obviously includes sin.
I believe in a Sovereign God. He does whatever He wants. Everything that occurs does so by His hand or His permission. So, yes, we sin, and it should be regretted, but, we are forgiven (so we don't have to keep regretting it) and He always uses it for good, so there is no need for long-term regret. We can let it go. Which, of course, isn't always easy, is it?
5 comments:
Maybe this is a minor quibble, but I don't think that YHWH's plan would have "failed" had Joseph's brothers acted differently, I think that YHWH would have achieved His ends through other means. The reality is that things happened the way they happened and YWHW's plans did use evil for good and YHWH did fulfill His goal of sending Jesus to die for our sins.
Given a sovereign God, then could you not argue that regret is pointless as YHWH can use "all things" to "work together for good" even those things which are evil?
At my age, I have a good-sized list of regrets (not like Frank Sinatra with his “too few to mention”). (Perhaps I’m too introspective and analytical, and maybe it’s one way my good memory does not serve me well. In any case, I constantly declare, “I coulda, shoulda, woulda…”)
I concur that the bigger picture is two-sided: On the one hand, God uses all things we humans do--the best of which is never totally flawless--within His plans. His sovereign power, omniscience, resourcefulness, and creativity permit Him to work all circumstances together for His purposes (to me, that is one of the most awe-inspiring aspects of His nature, as it boggles my mind how He works “around” us imperfect beings). On the other hand, we don’t have God’s abilities, so individuals will still live with the repercussions of their blunders and poor choices--that is the human experience, afterall. While God will “salvage” those regrettable events to “make the best of things,” we often cannot. Bottom line, though: “Nothing is wasted with God”--whatever we humans end up doing. God is like those artists who take scraps of junk or ordinary objects and make works of art from them.
P.S. As I commented at your 6/10/25 post , a desire to know how God used all things together for His purposes--in spite of all my missteps--is one of the reasons I anticipate a “replay of earthly events.”
True ... but ... clearly God's plan was to save Israel through the sin of Joseph's brothers (based on the text cited), so THAT plan would have failed and God would have had to scramble to come up with something else. I'm joking at that last part, but God clearly planned it that way, so that way wouldn't have happened ... as planned.
Regret in the long term is pointless. Regret ... repentance ... is essential in the short term.
I guess it depends on what "the plan" is. If "the plan" is to get to Jesus sacrifice on the cross and reconcile sinful humanity to YHWH, then the details of how to get there seem less important. Which balances with YHWH's sovereignty and His ability to control events.
Clearly He did plan it that way, and clearly it happened as He planned. Yet I don't think that His ultimate goal can be thwarted by the actions of humans.
I agree that regret as a precursor to repentance is important. Beyond that, it almost seems selfish.
What would be the better term than regret for wishing you'd been more obedient, while acknowledging the good plan of God in the ways things happened?
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