REGRETS

Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

In Genesis 1 creation was "good". By Genesis 6 “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” In Genesis 1 God creates, everything is good and he hands Creation  to incorrupt man. With the story of the flood God takes the land from corrupt man. It is because of the condition of humanity that Scripture tells us the Lord is “deeply troubled" or "grieved”… his heart was filled with pain.

Have you ever watched the news or read an article about events in our world today or events in your town today and thought that people must be crazy? Have you ever thought that it seems like there are people out there whose every inclination is to do something stupid perhaps evil. Seems like there is a lot of it these days. The Wickedness of the human race leads to an emotional response from God. The first three words of the next verse are perplexing: "The Lord regretted...". 

How does that even happen? Does God really have regrets? Do you? In other translations that word regretted is translated as repented. Yeah, God repented...? It seems like it is not possible for God to repent at least in the way you or I might repent. 

To repent is to change direction. The word is intended to conjure up the view of someone moving in one direction and then, for whatever reason, moving in the opposite direction. This is what God does in Genesis. In Genesis 1 He was the Creator, in Genesis 6 He was uncreating. Motivated by "the wickedness of the human race" God decided it was necessary to do something different.

This begs the question: if God could find the need to repent of something would there be something that you or I could repent of? Is there somewhere in our soul, in our heart of hearts where we know we need to move in a different direction. God moved from Creator to Uncreator. What do you need to move from? What do you need to move to?

Just a Meandering Thought...