God's Grief over Humanity's Fall (Genesis 4-6:7)
After the original sin, did God regret making man? Find out how sin separated us from God, yet now have a hope in Christ.
Genesis 4-6:7
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
Have you ever felt like the whole world was going to hell?
There was a point in history where this was more than a trite saying. From Genesis 4-6, humanity takes a very dark turn. Adam and Eve’s son Cain murders his brother Able, and from there, the world slowly dissolves into chaos. In Genesis 6:3, the author reveals that one of the results of this sin is a reduction in the number of years men and women would live. Whereas someone like Methuselah could live 969 years, now “…the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.’”
This changes everything, and as Gordon Wenham writes,
As often in Scripture the punishment is made to fit the crime. Grasping at immortality through these liaisons, man is sentenced to live a maximum of 120 years, roughly a sevenfold reduction over the average lifespan of the antediluvians. Though some of Noah’s immediate descendants live longer than this, their lives are much shorter than the pre-flood patriarchs. The Pentateuch shows that by the time of Moses one hundred and twenty was regarded as the greatest age a man could hope to reach.[1]
Genesis 6:5-7 shows us the depth of this depravity when the author writes,
5 When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, 6 the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved. 7 Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” 8 Noah, however, found favor with the Lord.
A few more textual notes. Referring to verse 5, John Walton writes, “Hardly a better description of total depravity can be given.”[2] Gordon Wenham notes, "The Lord saw" is used in other passages to introduce a decisive divine intervention. And Jewish Historian Umberto Cassuto says, “It does not denote sudden perception but the consideration of a state of affairs that had long been in existence, and on account of which a decision has to be taken.”[3]
While scholars have debated what God meant when verse 6 says He regretted making man, Wenham adds, “That God should change his mind might lead to his being accused of capriciousness, which Scripture firmly denies: ‘God is not a son of man that he should repent’ (Num 23:19; cf. 1 Sam 15:29).”[4]
The use of the word “regret” here doesn’t imply God made a mistake in creating humanity. Instead, it conveys his incredible sorrow.
Whereas Genesis 3 shows how sin can destroy intimacy with God, Genesis 4-6 show how widespread sin can lead toward destruction. This should humble us as we start our day and cause us to think more deeply about how sin in our lives can result in destruction in our homes.
A Meditation to PRAY
Praise | Lord, I thank you for creating a world that was good. I praise you for making me in your image.
Release | Today, I confess any areas of sin in my life. Rid me of pride, bitterness, anger, or unhealthy sensual desires.
Ask | Give me strength to overcome sin in my life. Help me to see the world with your eyes, not my own.
Yield | I yield my desires to you today. Make me like Christ.
A Challenge to Act Like Christ
It’s easy to look at this world and think what could have been. But I think of this story from Sandra Richter, who writes:
I will never forget a lecture I heard in seminary in which my teacher nearly shouted, his voice breaking: “We should not be surprised that in this fallen world babies die or marriages fail; we should be surprised that some babies live and some marriages thrive.” What my teacher was trying to communicate is that the world is fallen, the flesh is rotten, the fabric stained, the water foul. So although our tendency is to ask why God does not step in to stop one particular instance of abuse, one murder or one corrupt official, in truth, the only way to fix this cycle of sin and death is to stop it, tear it down and build again.[5]
Thankfully, we serve a God who did just this. When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the penalty for sins past and future. And because of Him, we can live forever.
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[1] Gordon Wenham
[2] John Walton, NIVAC
[3] Cassuto, 1:302; cf. 30:1, 9; 50:15
[4] Gordon Wenham
[1] Sandra Richter, The Epic of Eden, 117.
