Jeremiah 20:7—Did God deceive Jeremiah?

Problem: The kjv of this verse reads, “O Lord, thou has deceived me, and I was deceived.” But, God is a God of truth who cannot lie (Heb. 6:18), nor can He tempt others to sin (Jas. 1:13). How then could He deceive Jeremiah?

Solution: The Hebrew word (patah) translated “deceived” by the kjv does not imply moral deception here. It can be translated “induced” or “persuaded” (nkjv and niv note). It simply means that God persuaded or constrained Jeremiah into a ministry of which he was not fully aware of all the consequences. But this is a good description of marriage. And who but the most cynical would insist that all romance and courtship are moral deception simply because the couple could not foresee all they were getting into.

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Problem: According to this verse, “with God all things are possible.” However, Hebrews 6:18 declares that “It is impossible for God to lie.”

Solution: The context in Matthew indicates that Jesus is speaking of what is humanly impossible, whereas, Hebrews informs us that some things (e.g., lying) are actually impossible for God. Note that in the former passage, Jesus said, “with men this is impossible,” indicating that He was only speaking of what was humanly impossible, but not divinely impossible. However, there are some things that even God cannot do. For example, He cannot do anything that would contradict His nature, such as, cease being God, or be unholy, or do what is logically impossible (like making a square circle, or forcing people to freely love Him). God cannot make a stone so big that He cannot lift it, since the created cannot be greater than the Creator. However, God can do anything that is possible to do. He is all-powerful (omnipotent), the “Almighty” (cf. Job 5:17; 6:14; 42:2).