Have you ever loved someone so much that you were continually thinking about them? You couldn’t do enough for them. You gave them gifts, you spoke with them daily, and you did everything within your power to be good to them. Then, one day, the lines of communication broke down. They no longer receive your calls or answer your texts. You reach out in every way possible, but all your efforts fall short of restoring communication. Looking on from the outside, it seems they are going about life as usual, and it’s as if you never existed. You are grieved to the core of your being. You ask yourself what you can do to restore the relationship. Your love remains viable, even though you have been rejected.
In Genesis 6:5-7, we see God experiencing the rejection of His creation. God was not surprised because He knew that mankind would choose wickedness over Him. If you have ever watched someone you loved seemingly run to destruction, you understand a small part of what God feels. Your child is determined to have what they want, and you tell them what will happen if they continue down that path, but they won’t listen. In verse 5, God sees His creation choosing wickedness. Men’s thoughts and actions do not reflect the one who made them, but every thought and action was evil. Verse 6 reveals God’s response to humanity’s choice. It grieved Him in His heart. It was excruciating to see the beautiful creation that He had made given over to evil thoughts and ways. God repented, or rather changed His mind about the creation of man. Why? Because man’s attitude toward Him had changed.
Genesis 6:5 “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”
Can you imagine having a child, and they grieve you to the point you feel it would have been better if they had never been born? God had given man everything he could possibly need or want to live a beautiful life on this earth. Even after man disobeyed God, he made provision for the relationship to be restored. Despite all the good God had given man, in spite of all the love lavished on him, they continually rejected Him and rejected every attempt he made to bring them to repentance. God wanted to restore the relationship, but mankind did not. They left God with no choice but to destroy them.
Genesis 6:7 “And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”
What an awful time in history. This was a time when God regretted having created man. However, there is one bright spot. God sees Noah, a man who is walking with God. He is seeking to please God and to raise his family to love and honor God. Noah found grace because he demonstrated faith in God. Noah was spared and saved the same way we are when we place our faith in God. His sovereign grace, received through faith, justifies the believer before God, and the believer is declared complete in Him.
Genesis 6:8 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”
I look at the world around us and wonder why God is lingering in destroying the world we live in today. When you consider the vast population of the world, Christians are but a spattering across this globe. Yet, I believe it is this remnant that is holding off the wrath of God even today. This remnant of saints praying and begging God to deal with their loved ones, and bring them to repentance before it is too late. Many Christians are seeking God to bring our nation and government back by following godly principles and returning to our creed of “one nation under God.” God is hearing them and is extending an opportunity for repentance each day. However, one day God will say it again: ‘Enough,’ and the opportunities will cease. Time will be no more, and this world will be destroyed.
II Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
On that day, multitudes will wish they had not rejected God’s love, but it will be too late!
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