Flood - Erosion of Humanity and the Heart of God

Thursday, October 1

Let’s reread Genesis 6:5-13- 5The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

How does God respond to the wickedness that he sees? Before we get to “wiping the slate clean”. Notice vs. 6- 6The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
 
Unfortunately, that word regretted isn’t a great, translated word. The Hebrew word is naham which means comfort. BTW- Remember what Noah’s name means? Comfort and rest…. But back to God, the imagery that is taking place here is this, God needs to comfort himself, or another way to say it, offer himself strong comfort to the emotion he is having.
God’s response to the people and the land is grief, pain, his heart is broken for the state of humanity. God is essentially saying, “I gave you life, the earth, a path of goodness and you did this, ruined it, a path of ra, destruction. I’m in pain with what you’ve done with what I’ve given you.”

It doesn’t say that God was angry, it says that he was in pain. God had a broken heart for his creation. The dilemma is that God, out of his creative love, created humanity, to rule and care for one another and the land. But now humans are the problem because they are multiplying evil all over the land, it is ruined, what is God to do?

God hands the land over to destruction because the humans have already set the destruction in motion. They ruined the land and God hands them over to what they have chosen.

What’s interesting is the word corrupt, is the word sahat, which we said was ruined or destroyed, that is the same word God uses verse 13, sahat. God is handing them over to what they have already done.

If you want to pause and read Romans 1:18-24 it essentially is saying, “God will give us over to what we desire.” Which includes ra, wickedness, evil.

God is not a detached judge issuing a cold verdict. He is a Father whose heart broke over what his children had chosen. His pain over sin is inseparable from his love for the sinner. When you consider the ways you have fallen short this week, do not run from God. Run toward the one whose heart breaks because he loves you.

Take a moment with Run to the Father.