One of the best ways to learn about how God views a subject
is to look at examples in the word of God.
This can be for any subject.
For repentance, Adam and Eve were sort of sorry.
Cain was sorry he got caught
and he cared more about his own hide than that he offended Father God.
The one that stands out to me most in the early years: Jacob and Esau.
Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew.
He did not honor his birthright, which was of utmost importance.
(We also now have a birthright in the spiritual sense.
Let that be important to us)
For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing,
he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears. Hebrews 12:17
This is also the Esau that the Lord said he hated.
We wonder how that can be.
One explanation and the most obvious is that God looks on the heart.
We cannot see what God sees.
God did not explain exactly why He hated him when He said that,
but we can look at the whole story and see what Esau did and said
and how he disrespected a very honorable position.
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Romans 9:13
God honors and appreciates true repentance.
We can compare King Saul’s lack of repentance with King David’s repentance.
Saul had lost his dedication to the Lord. He was caught up in being a King.
He was the top dog. It is more complex than that, Saul had offended the Lord.
David was the man God chose to replace him.
He was a unlikely fellow, very young and on the smaller side.
David knew the Lord and he knew God was with him.
We see that when was not afraid of Goliath
and he knew Goliath was out of line to defy the armies of the Living God:
And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying,
What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine,
and taketh away the reproach from Israel?
for who is this uncircumcised Philistine,
that he should defy the armies of the living God? 1 Samuel 17:26
David had experienced God’s strength and victory.
David was a man of God, a man of valor unto the Lord.
King David had Uriah killed so he could have his wife.
The Lord was very angry about this. In scripture, though David did sin,
that was the only time of sin that God mentioned when He spoke of David.
God always spoke of David with affection and appreciation.
The earthly lineage of Jesus the Messiah was from the lineage of King David.
Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord,
and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him
all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. 1 Kings 15:5
David failed as a human.
God knew David’s heart.
God always values true repentance.
Saul did not have true repentance so God replaced him.
And God repented, which means He regretted, was sorry that he had.
It repenteth Me that I have set up Saul to be king:
for he is turned back from following Me,
and hath not performed My commandments.
And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night. 1 Samuel 15:11
We cannot be fake with God. He knows. He sees all and He expects our all.
Without true repentance, we are not going to be invited into the innermost courts of God’s throne where He dwells, where we will enter into His holiness.