I may be misunderstanding what the two of you are saying. Do you believe that God's majesty and perfection are diminished by His creature's imperfection? Is that what you are saying?
I may be misunderstanding what the two of you are saying. Do you believe that God's majesty and perfection are diminished by His creature's imperfection? Is that what you are saying?
I don't think that either myself or r9etb have intimated that God is, somehow, diminished by His creation.
What I think we have said is that it is, actually, God's perfection juxtaposed against our own imperfection which creates the instances where the scriptures show God expressing moments of grief.
I have no doubt that God has an overweening plan which will bring Him the ends He desires, ... but the scriptures record that there are episodes of Godly grief along the way ... not unlike the grief good parents will experience as they strive to raise their children the best that they can.
The proper expression of grief does not diminish one (particularly God) ... any more than the expression of anger diminishes Him.
There is a (proper) time for grief.Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.