Noah, Springboard for Righteousness
“When human beings began to increase in number on the earth” (Genesis 6:1), the pollution that came from them dissipated the reality of Yahveh God’s presence. Sin had already entered the picture through Adam and everyone was born with the inclination to sin. “The Lord (Yahveh) 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” (Genesis 6:5). Evil all the time is a pretty bad scenario. “The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart” (Genesis 6:6). Does our heavenly Father grieve—the One who created us in His own image to be like Him, to reflect, know, love, adore, glorify, praise, and honor Him? Yes, He was pain-stricken.
Does He feel any different now? Probably worse, after all, there are more people on the earth whose hearts are filled with every evil inclination all the time. How much more grief, how much more pain, how much more jealous anger and wrath can cause Him to say, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created … for I regret that I have made them (Genesis 6:7).
Now if we think of this as just a little story to play Noah’s ark with the animals, that is grievous. Yahveh our God is showing us something about righteousness, pointing to the reality that when He has had enough, He has had enough. He did it before, and He will do it again. He hasn’t changed, and we haven’t changed. The inclinations are wrong, evil all the time for most people; and every now and then, for some, we hit the mark. This is why He says He wants all of our hearts, so that all of our hearts are filled with all of Him. Then all the inclinations of our hearts are good and not evil.
He goes on to say, “for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of Yahveh” (Genesis 6:7-8). Everything else is on one side of the spectrum: grieving, paining the heart of the Creator because of their evil inclinations, but Noah, but you, but me. He has given us everything so that, if we set all our hearts toward finding Him, He promises we will be spared. We will be on the other side of that but with those who will be spared from destruction.
