The Heart of the Matter: Judgment, Grief, and Grace Text: Genesis 6:5-8
Introduction: The Unraveling World
We come now to a passage that is a bucket of ice water to the face of modern sensibilities. Our therapeutic, man-centered age wants a God who is a celestial grandfather, endlessly affirming and entirely manageable. They want a God made in their own image, a God who would never, ever bring judgment. But the God of Scripture is not manageable, and He is certainly not a doting grandfather wringing his hands in the corner. He is the sovereign ruler of the cosmos, holy and just, and He is the central character in the story. We are not.
The world before the flood was not a primitive, brutish existence. It was a sophisticated, technologically advanced, and profoundly wicked civilization. The long lifespans meant that knowledge accumulated at a staggering rate. Adam could have known Methuselah, who in turn could have known Shem. Imagine the collected wisdom, and the collected depravity, passed down through generations. But their progress was not toward God; it was a headlong sprint away from Him. They were building their own towers of Babel long before Babel. This was a world unraveling, a world where the image of God in man was being systematically defaced and marred by sin. It was a world that had forgotten its Creator, and a world that God was about to uncreate.
This passage presents us with a divine diagnosis of the human condition, a glimpse into the divine heart in response to that condition, a declaration of divine judgment, and the first mention of a glorious, unmerited reality: grace. This is not just a historical account of a long-ago flood. It is a revelation of the character of God, the nature of man, and the pattern of redemption that echoes down to our own day. If we do not understand the world of Noah, we will not understand our own. For as the Lord Jesus Himself told us, "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man" (Matt. 24:37).
The Text
Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And Yahweh regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
And Yahweh said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I regret that I have made them.”
But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.
(Genesis 6:5-8 LSB)
The Divine Diagnosis (v. 5)
We begin with God's assessment of the human race.
"Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5)
This is one of the most comprehensive statements on the doctrine of total depravity found anywhere in Scripture. Notice the layers of this diagnosis. First, God "saw." This is not a casual glance. This is the penetrating, all-knowing gaze of the Creator. He sees past the external respectability, past the religious charades, and looks directly at the heart, the very center of man's being.
And what does He see? He sees that the evil of man was "great." This was not a minor infraction. The infection of sin had metastasized. It was not just external acts, but internal corruption. The text drills down to the source: "every intent of the thoughts of his heart." The word for "intent" here is yetzer, meaning the imagination, the very forming capacity of the mind. Every fabrication, every plan, every desire that bubbled up from the core of their being was corrupt.
And the corruption was total in its nature: "only evil." There was no admixture of good. This does not mean that men were incapable of civic good or acts of kindness toward one another. Of course they were. But it means that none of it was done for the glory of God. It was all tainted by the rebellion of a heart set against its Maker. The operating system was corrupt. And finally, it was total in its persistence: "continually." There was no break, no respite, no moment of genuine, God-honoring thought. From morning to night, it was a constant stream of pollution flowing from a poisoned spring.
This is the biblical doctrine of man. We are not basically good people who occasionally make mistakes. We are fallen creatures, born in rebellion, with hearts that are, as Jeremiah puts it, "deceitful above all things, and desperately sick" (Jer. 17:9). If we do not start here, we will never understand our need for a savior. We will think Jesus came to offer some helpful tips for self-improvement. No, He came to raise the dead. This verse describes a spiritual morgue, and the whole world was lying in it.
The Divine Heart (v. 6)
In response to this pervasive wickedness, we are given a startling look into the heart of God.
"And Yahweh regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." (Genesis 6:6 LSB)
Now, we must tread carefully here. Does God "regret" things in the same way we do? Does this mean He was surprised by the outcome, that He made a mistake? Not at all. The Scripture is clear that God is omniscient and immutable; He knows the end from the beginning and He does not change (Num. 23:19). This is what theologians call an anthropomorphism, speaking of God in human terms so that we might grasp something of His nature. It is an accommodation to our limited understanding.
But while it is an accommodation, it is not a fiction. It tells us something profoundly true about God. The word for "regretted" here carries the sense of a deep sigh, a profound sorrow. The word "grieved" is a word of intense emotional pain. It's the same word used to describe the anguish of Jacob's sons when they heard their sister had been violated (Gen. 34:7). God is not a stoic, unmoved deity like the philosophers of Greece imagined. He is a personal God, a relational God, and sin is a violation of His good creation that causes Him genuine grief. It is a personal affront.
His grief is the holy sorrow of a loving creator who sees His masterpiece defaced. It is the grief of a father whose children have run headlong into rebellion and ruin. This does not mean He lost control. His grief is not weakness; it is the holy reaction of His perfect character to the ugliness of sin. He is not wringing His hands; He is expressing the profound offense that sin is to His holy nature. This grief is what fuels His righteous judgment. A God who was not grieved by such evil would not be a good God.
The Divine Judgment (v. 7)
God's grief leads directly to His verdict and sentence.
"And Yahweh said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I regret that I have made them.”" (Genesis 6:7 LSB)
The judgment is as comprehensive as the sin. The verb "blot out" is a word of erasure, of wiping a slate clean. God is going to de-create. He is going to return the world to the watery tohu wa-bohu from which it came. Notice that the judgment extends beyond man to the animals. Why? Because man was the federal head of creation. When the king rebels, the whole kingdom is thrown into turmoil. Man's sin corrupted the entire created order over which he was given dominion (cf. Rom. 8:20-22). The pollution of the crown jewel of creation necessitated a cleansing of the whole realm.
This is a terrifying display of God's holiness and justice. God is the Creator, and therefore He has the absolute right to do with His creation as He sees fit. He is not a cosmic bully; He is the righteous judge of all the earth, and He will do what is right. The modern world recoils at this, but that is because the modern world has no category for the holiness of God or the heinousness of sin. We think of sin as a minor foible. God sees it as high treason against the King of the universe. The flood is not an overreaction. It is the only fitting reaction of a perfectly holy God to a world saturated with evil.
The Divine Exception (v. 8)
Just when the sentence seems absolute and the darkness total, a single shaft of light breaks through.
"But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh." (Genesis 6:8 LSB)
This "but" is one of the most glorious turning points in all of Scripture. The entire world is under a sentence of death, "But Noah..." The word for "favor" here is the Hebrew word chen, which is the Old Testament equivalent of the New Testament word charis, or grace. This is the first time this word appears in the Bible. And it appears right where you would expect it to: in the midst of total depravity and righteous judgment.
Now, we must read this carefully. The text does not say that Noah was a righteous man, and therefore he found favor. The next verse will tell us that Noah was righteous and walked with God (Gen. 6:9), but that is the fruit of this verse, not the root. Grace is the cause; righteousness is the effect. Noah did not find favor because he was good; he was good because he had found favor. Grace always comes first. It is God's unmerited, unearned, sovereign kindness bestowed upon a sinner.
Why Noah? The text does not say. It was a sheer act of sovereign election. In a world where every heart was only evil continually, God set His favor upon one man and his family. This is not because Noah was inherently better. He was a sinner saved by grace, just like us. He was a brand plucked from the fire. This favor was not just a sentimental feeling in God's heart; it was an effectual favor. It set Noah apart, preserved him, and made him the vessel through whom God would preserve the human race and the promised line of the Messiah (Gen. 3:15).
Conclusion: The Ark and the Cross
This historical account sets the stage for the gospel. The world of Noah is a picture of our world, dead in trespasses and sins. The flood is a picture of the coming judgment that all men deserve for their rebellion against a holy God. And Noah's ark is a picture of Jesus Christ.
The ark was God's provision of salvation, a refuge from the coming wrath. There was only one ark. There was only one door. You were either in the ark or you were out. There was no middle ground. And so it is with Christ. He is the only refuge from the judgment we deserve. "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Peter makes this connection explicit, saying that the water of the flood is a type of baptism, which now saves us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:20-21).
Noah found grace. He did not earn it. He did not deserve it. It was a gift. And that is the only way any of us can be saved. We are all adrift in the floodwaters of our own sin, deserving of God's righteous judgment. But God, in His great love, has provided an ark. He has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear the flood of His wrath on the cross in our place. He took the judgment so that we could receive the grace.
The call of the gospel is the same as God's call to Noah. The rains are coming. The judgment is certain. Flee to the ark. Enter in through the one door, who is Christ Himself. Do not trust in your own righteousness, for it is a leaky raft that will be swamped in the storm. Trust in Christ alone. For just as Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, so all who are in Christ are looked upon by God with that same unmerited, saving favor. It is all of grace.