God’s Response to a Sinful Humanity, Part 2
And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Last Friday we covered how God displays emotions and at times changes how He deals with human beings—but His nature and plan never change.
Today we will cover the second part of this verse, which reveals that God “was grieved in His heart” because of the sin and suffering the antediluvian society had brought upon itself.
This teaches us that God experiences sadness as a result of human sin and suffering.
God literally felt regret and displeasure at the moral downturn of humanity. God’s core nature is love (1 John 4:8). God cares for human beings (1 Peter 5:7), and His whole plan is designed to help mankind have happy, fulfilling lives and eventually be ready to live eternally in His family (John 10:10; 3:16; Hebrews 2:10). He gave humanity His law to provide the instructions that would reveal how to live a happy and fulfilling life (Deuteronomy 5:29).
When human beings are ignorant of or disregard His law and live in a way that brings continual negative consequences, God experiences both anger and sadness. He does not enjoy punishing sinful human beings. God specifically tells us that “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezekiel 33:11). God felt the same grief when He could no longer work directly with the nation of Israel as a result of their national sins (Psalms 81:11-13; 95:10).
Jesus Christ, who was God in the Old Testament, demonstrated this same emotional response when He confronted sin and suffering throughout His human lifetime (Luke 13:34; John 11:35).
To learn more about this topic, read “Genesis 6: Does God Make Mistakes?”
Tomorrow on the Daily Bible Verse Blog: “God to Destroy Mankind, Part 1.”
