Genesis 6:5-6 – The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
This week, I was working on the sermon on Noah and the Flood, and I started thinking about what we learned last week in Genesis 6, that the “thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” in those days.
I found that hard to imagine that people could be only evil and then a curious thing happened. I turned on the TV and a movie called The Purge was on. Now, I don’t endorse this movie for you or your children but, if you’re not familiar with it, people in this movie are getting increasingly more wicked and, to allow for people to let out their wickedness, people are allowed to do anything from raping to murdering to pillaging and looting for one solitary night.
In Genesis, this was how people had become for entire lifetimes and generations. We started with Adam and Eve, who were created perfect, and, once they sinned, between Adam and Noah, there were over 1,600 years of sinful, evil men and only Enoch, right in the middle of the genealogy, walked with God. To save him from all the evil and reward him for his faith, God took Enoch to Heaven in his body, and he didn’t have to taste death.
Once God took Enoch, He saved Noah, and he was gracious and patient enough to wait 120 more years as men did continuous evil on the earth while Noah preached and prepared for the Flood. It may be easy for people to think that God is mean and vengeful because He wipes out most of the people but, actually, He’s gracious and patient to wait 1,600+ years and then another 120 to start over.
There were only eight people on the entire planet that went into the ark out of millions or even billions of people on the earth at that time. It was time for a hard reset as God “regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” because of all the evil man now did. The ark is a picture of what will happen at the end of time when Jesus returns.
In light of Genesis 6:5-7 and 2 Peter 2:4-9, why did God send the flood?
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