If you have been keeping track, you may notice that Genesis introduces God to us. One begins to understand the nature of God as they consider His actions. First we notice God’s power. That God for some reason or another desires, or desired, to create. Moreover, God created everything with a purpose. Man, specifically, was created with both a purpose and a blessing. When the created things act against the intended purpose, curses follow. Even the curses, however, are merciful compared to what curses God could make. Thus far, God has not utterly wiped out creation.
When we arrive at man’s condition in Genesis 6 it is described as without hope. Every inclination of the thoughts of man’s heart tends toward evil at all times. This is a powerful indictment and yet, the Genesis writer writes that God was grieved and His heart was filled with pain.
This all powerful God, who out of chaos and barrenness can create with simply a spoken word feels grief and pain. God feels grief and pain. What causes God to feel grief and pain? The evil bent of man’s heart. That man’s heart is inclined toward evil and not toward God. That man has fallen short of his purpose. These things grieve the heart of God.
God regretted making man. What sort of God feels regret?
And yet, just as God declares He is going to destroy mankind, the writer of Genesis interjects, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”
How does man find favor in the eyes of God? The writer continues. Noah was righteous and blameless among the people of his time. Echoing the epitaph of Enoch, we read that Now walked with God.
God feels pain over those bent towards evil, yet is pleased with those who walk with Him. Noah was a comfort to God. When Lamech named Noah, which sounds in Hebrew like the word “comfort,” he stated that Noah will comfort us in “our labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.” Note that Lamech failed to mention that the ground was cursed because of man, and how this may allude to the evil heart’s of man – that they blame God for what they caused. But also note the irony – Noah did not bring comfort to the men of his age, but comfort to God and to the men to come.
God feels pain, grief, and as we learn pleasure. God created man in His own image and the writer of Genesis is implying here that our own emotions are part of that image.
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In Masaccio’s early depiction of the “Expulsion from the Garden of Eden”, the artist chose to render Adam stumbling out of the garden with his hands over his eyes. The obvious reason was that Adam wished not to look upon his nakedness, but the less obvious reveals the actual intent of the artist. Adam could not accept the harsh reality and consequences of his choice. Maybe one of the most painful results of sin is that we can not bear to acknowledge our own culpability, at which point, how easy it is to blame God. Unfortunately through the very act of blaming God for our paradise gone wrong, we forego the need for repentance. If God caused it then I see no need to adjust my posture. Furthermore because He caused it, it is unfair and I am now entitled to something better then this. This slippery slope of destructive thinking is a great tool in the hands of the deceiver.
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