The Grief of God

There are moments described in Scripture which create such a sense of emotions that we are often overwhelmed and left speechless.  Such a moment was that moment when the Lord God walked into the Garden looking for a disobedient Adam and Eve and opened with his question, "What is this that you have done?" (Genesis 2:13) announced that a Pandora's Box had been opened.  It is surely the question of a heartbroken God.  As we reach the 6th chapter of Genesis there is another such moment.  Such wickedness and evil had come upon the earth that the Lord was sorry He had made humans to walk on the earth. 

 

About that moment the Word says, "...it grieved Him to His heart.  So the Lord said, 'I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created...for I am sorry that I have made them."  (Genesis 6:6-7)  Every now and again I hear some old timer wonder how much longer the earth can tolerate all the evil that seems to be raining down upon it.  "I don't know how much God will stand before He comes to straighten it out," is usually how the conversation ends.  Certainly, that moment before the story of Noah begins is a moment that there are limits to the evil God will tolerate before He acts.

 

But, it seems a more important truth being spoken in these words is the hate God has for sin.  When He sees it in us, it must make Him grieve beyond measure that anyone would have such disregard for the loving sacrifice of His Son on the hill called Calvary.  There have been those moments of hard and honest confession when we were sure that God regretted creating us because of the way we sinned against Him.  And, surely, there have been those times when we wondered if there was still any forgiveness left in the mercy of God for us.  This thing of God's mercy is truly something that leaves us overwhelmed and speechless.