Some have argued that Scriptures say that God cannot become human because all men are liars. They quote Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, and Hosiah 11:9. I intend to address each of these Scriptures in turn. But it should be recognized that if God cannot become a man because all men are liars, then we cannot trust even Scriptures about the nature of God because it was also written by the hands of men who are all liars. But if we can accept that the inspired Word of God can be brought forth through men, then how much more will Messiah always speak the Word of God about whom even the prophets prophesy of his glory and righteousness.
So let us consider Numbers 23:19. Before we delve into the translation of this verse, let us consider who is saying it and in what circumstances. This verse comes from Balaam, an otherwise false prophet whom God had to rebuke through the mouth of a donkey because Balaam was being reckless in his way. And it was Balaam who taught Balak to entice the Israelite into sin by putting their women in front of the Israelite army. Further, Balaam did not say, "This is what the LORD says" in reference to this verse, it was his own idea. And the whole emphasis of the verse is to show that God cannot be made to change His mind like men are. And it may well have been true at that time that God was not a man.
The Hebrew for this verse is shown below with the direct English translation under each word. Remember that Hebrew is written from right to left.
The most direct English translation would be:
"It is not true that God is a man and He will lie and a son of man and He will change His mind."
The question is does this verse unequivocally state that God can never become a man. Some would prefer to distribute the leading "not" to every phrase beginning with "and" so that it would be interpreted as,
"God is not a man, and he will not lie, and (he is) not a son of man, and he will not change his mind." But there is only one "not" at the beginning of the sentence, and it negates the collection of all the phrases that begin with "and". So it would more directly read: "The following is false: God is a man and he will lie and (he is ) a son of man and he will change his mind." This is a negation of a conjunction of statements, and as such it is equal to a disjunction of negative statements. It is equal to saying,
"Either God is not a man, or he will not lie, or (he is) not a son of man, or he will not change his mind." And this sentence is true when all the individual statements are true. But it is also true if only one of the individual statements is true. So God can be a man as long as he does not lie. This verse simply means that God cannot both be a man and lie.Next, let us consider 1 Samuel 15:29. This verse comes from Samuel who is considered a prophet. But Samuel did not say, "This is what the LORD says", in reference to this verse. And Samuel was only trying to convince Saul that God cannot be intimidated into changing His mind like men are. And again it may have been true that God was not a human at that time.
The Hebrew for the relevant part of this verse reads:
This verse is most directly translated,
"For He is not a man to lie".Some would like to end the quote with, "For He is not a man." But the sentence goes on with a qualifying phrase, "to lie". This verse only states that God is not a lying man. It is not an unequivocal statement that God can never become human.
So let us next consider Hosiah 11:9. Hosiah is prophesying in this verse, and these are meant to be taken as the words of God. However, this verse can be translated a couple of different ways. The context is that God has just got through saying (through Hosiah) how the Israelites had forsaken God and turned to idol worship and how God had planned to destroy them but that His compassion was aroused to not destroy them.
The Hebrew for the relevant part of this verse reads:
