Divine Sadness and the Flood

Q: How can we justify God’s total destruction of the antediluvian world by a flood?

There is no need for us to justify God’s decision to destroy the earth through a universal flood, because He was careful enough to justify this most dramatic decision in the biblical text itself. We should look at the human condition and at God’s reaction to it.

Increasing Corruption

After the Fall, the biblical text informs us about the damaging effect of sin in the human heart. The relationship between God and humans was permanently damaged, and humans themselves existed in a state of alienation from each other. Perhaps worse, a brother took the life of his brother, and the human race entered a process of radical spiritual differentiation. Humanity split up into those who served the Lord (the descendants of Seth) and those who abandoned God (the descendants of Cain). At the beginning of the Flood narrative (Gen. 6:1-4) the sons of God, the descendants of Seth, have been marrying the descendants of Cain, plunging the two groups into an unimaginable depth of moral, spiritual, and social corruption.

Corruptions of Humans and the Earth

The text shares with us God’s perception of the problem: He saw that “the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth” (Gen. 6:5, NASB). The evil nested in the human heart was unquantifiable. There was something evil and deeply wrong with humans. “Wickedness” (ra‘ah) does not refer to specific sins but to a state or condition that has totally invaded the inner being of humans to the point that every dimension of human rationality—as well as of the will (the heart)—was “continually” (literally, “every day”) inclined or striving toward evil. This is describing total corruption. Human wickedness had an impact on the land, and consequently it “was corrupted [shakhat, be ruined] . . . and filled with violence” (verse 11). The cause of this awful condition is not the land itself, but the corruption and violence of humans and animals (verses 13, 17). They are characterized by a corrupt way of life (verse 12).

While in the human heart there was wickedness and violence, the heart of God is filled with sadness.

God’s Reaction to Human Wickedness

God sees that humans have chosen their own course of action and not the one He intended for them. He “was sorry that He had made man on the earth” (verse 6). This debated phrase simply means that God experienced pain when looking at what happened to His creation, as it is immediately indicated: “He was grieved [‘atsab, to be sad] in His heart.” While in the human heart there was wickedness and violence, the heart of God is filled with sadness. Observing humans and beasts violently destroying each other, the loving heart of God grieved. Love could not be indifferent to such savagery, so it intervenes. God will bring it to an end through a global flood. The self-destruction that humans are inflicting on themselves through wickedness and violence is finally implemented by God (verses 11-13; the verb shakhat means both “to become corrupt” and “to destroy”). Surprisingly, this decision is explicitly assigned in the text, not to God’s loving wrath, but to God’s suffering love.

Out of love God makes two additional decisions. First, His Spirit will “not strive” or “be close” (yadon), pleading with humans forever, but He will remain close to them for an additional 120 years (verse 3). Grace lingers. Second, life on the planet will not be annihilated. God’s grace found Noah (verses 9, 18), who would become His instrument in the preservation of a remnant through whom God will bring into fruition His intention to save humanity, as recorded in Genesis 3:15. God committed Himself to preserve within the ark, not only humans beings, but also a remnant of “every living thing” (Gen. 6:19). A new beginning of grace will be dawning on our planet, pointing to the future arrival of the Sun of Righteousness, the Seed of the woman.