Scripture Notes: God Was Grieved (Genesis 6)

Not all that many generations had passed since the time of creation and the time of the first human sin, but the world had steadily grown worse and worse. People were consumed by hatred and lust and greed. Their sin expanded exponentially, and wickedness reigned over the whole world. 

Genesis 6 tells us that for each human being “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5). In other words, people had drifted (perhaps run?) far away from God. They had allowed evil to get into their hearts and minds and control them from the inside out. They stopped listening to God, stopped obeying Him, stopped even trying to know His will. Instead, they focused on what they wanted, whether it was good for them or not, and it was not good.

All of this grieved God “to His heart,” and He “was sorry that He had made man on the earth” (Gen 6:6). We have to be careful, of course, when we attribute human emotions like this to God, for He is not subject to them as we are. But God allows this kind of description as an accommodation to help us understand Him just a little bit in a way we can grasp. 

So what does it mean that God was grieved and sorry? The verb translated here as “was sorry” can indeed mean exactly that, but it also carries nuances of being moved to pity and having compassion and suffering grief. God, of course, does not regret having made the world or human beings because He made everything out of His great love, and that great love does not change. But He wants us to know that human wickedness and sin sadden Him as well as offend Him. Human beings have fallen from the state of grace and innocence, and this grieves God all the way to His heart. 

After all, God wants only the very best for us. That is love. We humans have a knack for choosing exactly what is worst for us. But God has a plan, right from the very beginning, to redeem the human race. Our job is to enter into that plan and do our part to ease the grief in God’s heart.