changing my mind.....

I am always a bit amazed at the inability of kings in the Old Testament to withdraw royal edicts. Once they have spoken, they have spoken, and any measures to lessen the hand they have dealt have to be done with stealth and cunning - rather than simply saying -
" Sorry I made a mistake and I have changed my mind."

For example Darius sings a law saying anyone caught praying to the wrong God will be thrown to the lions. When he discovers that this affects Daniel he is powerless to revoke it (Link). The same is true in the Book of Esther when the king has signed an interdict against the Jews - the only solution is to give them every warning that the kings own forces will ride against them - not to pull back the attack  (Link)

Thank goodness there is no rule saying anything similar to us - we always have the chance to turn ourselves around. Whether we take it or not is a different matter. After all how often do we tell ourselves that we just cannot go back on something, because........

We can, however stupid we may feel, always say sorry and always set out again. Some mistakes take a lot of fixing with those around us but our guarantee is that a simple sorry and resolve to do better next time is all God needs from us to make things new.

I am not sure how good I would have been as a ruler who was regarded as infallible - it is a nice idea, but in reality the ability not to be human and make mistakes would be both frightening and crippling.