God’s Grief

“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.”  Genesis 6:5-6

When God made this statement, it had been several hundred years since He created man and woman.  We know from the account of Adam and Eve how they disobeyed God by eating from the tree that God had specifically commanded them to avoid.  However, Satan, disguised as a serpent, deceived Eve by lying to her implying that God didn’t really mean what He said, and she ate of the forbidden fruit and so did Adam.  After that one act of disobedience, the two of them were banished from the paradise in which God had allowed them to live with everything furnished.  They eventually had three sons, the first, Cain, who murdered the second, Abel, and the third, Seth, from whom came the line of the ancestors of Jesus Christ.

The world began to populate (we are not told in scripture from where the wives of the three sons came.  Some believe that Adam and Eve had daughters who became those wives.  Could God have made some other people?  It is possible because not every single thing that God did is recorded in scripture.)  As the population expanded, so did sin.  God chose Noah, a man of integrity who worshiped God, to build an ark to save himself, his family, and animals of every kind.  Everyone else drowned in the flood that resulted from 40 days of rain.  The world began to populate again from Noah’s three sons, from whom eventually came Abraham.  God called him to be the father of a great nation, Israel, God’s chosen people, and they were to show the world the glory of God.  They constantly faced enemies, however, some of these other nations influenced them to become idolatrous, and Israel suffered God’s wrath.  They also failed in their purpose to influence the known world to worship and serve the LORD God.

Fast forward to today.  Folks are still just as sinful as they were thousands of years ago, perhaps even more so due to the fact that there are billions of people on this earth now.  The vast majority are not followers of Jesus Christ.  As I have written before, there are many similarities today to what was occurring in ancient Judah at the time of the prophecy of Jeremiah.  God’s people had become rebellious in following their neighbors into idolatry, refusing to repent and return to the LORD.  He warned them that severe judgment was coming upon them if they didn’t return to righteousness.  True to His word, judgment came in the form of death to many and captivity for 70 years in Babylon for those who survived.  Who knows that what is occurring in our world today is not the beginning of a similar judgment from God?  The LORD had allowed an idolatrous, ruthless dictator, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to completely destroy Jerusalem, its buildings and its temple, and many people of Judah were violently killed by sword, disease, or starvation.

I am reading a book by Ray Stedman entitled “A Nation in Crisis” which is based upon the book of Jeremiah.  In his book, he wrote about the Russian writer and Christian, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who sounded like Jeremiah.  Mr. Solzhenitsyn was not afraid to speak out against the policies of the Soviet Union, and for this he was imprisoned and suffered much hardship.  After he was released, he came to the U.S. to receive an honorary degree from Harvard in 1978.  He gave a speech entitled, “A World Split Apart” which angered those on the left and those on the right on the political spectrum.  They all expected him to speak out against communism and its effects upon those who are forced to live within its boundaries.  However, that was not his subject.  Instead, he spoke against spiritual bankruptcy and the materialism of America and the West.  This was 44 years ago when he gave his speech, and our nation has sunk deeper and deeper into the depravity of sin.  How much worse will it get before God intervenes?  Can you imagine how it will be in another 44 years of spiritual and moral decline?  I personally can’t see how our world can continue on that long.

The people who heard Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s speech were outraged because folks tend to think that it is the other guy, other political party, or other nations which deserve God’s wrath to come down on them for their ideas, policies, and actions.  After all, we are the “good guys”!  Really?  God doesn’t see any of us as “good”.  As He said in the verse above, our minds are constantly going in the wrong direction.  God was grieved thousands of years ago at the evil of man, and I am sure that He is just as grieved today.  Who knows how long He will let this world continue on the downward slope to annihilation before He brings His final judgment?  Those who are Bible students can see the train wreck coming and hear the whistle blowing to warn those on the wrong track, but like the people of Judah, unbelievers are not heeding the warning.  God’s grace and patience will give way to judgment, may be sooner than later.  Even so, come Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20b).