And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of Man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually.
Before the flood, God reads the human race — not its behaviour alone, but the hidden springs behind it. Does that verdict cover one wicked generation, or every one of us? (Where the writers quote the older wording "imagination," the ESV reads "intention.")
The verse works in layers. Each one goes deeper than the last:
How piercing verse 5 is! Man's wickedness became great, or abundant, for he was wholly evil in the deepest springs of his being. His heart was evil; the thoughts of his heart were evil, and the imagination, which lay behind and prompted his thoughts, was evil. And all this was only evil — not one trace of good — and that continually. So before the flood we have the very same verdict about man that Romans 3:10-18 gives us. That passage quotes Scriptures which describe the condition of men after the flood.
God's judgment did not rest on one ground alone:
The Spirit of God has been pleased to state two grounds on which God brought the judgment of the flood on man. First, because of what he had done: "The wickedness of man was great in the earth." Further on we read that this took two forms, corruption and violence. They are the parent sins of Genesis 3 and 4... Second, because of what he was: "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Or, as the margin reads, "The purposes and desires of his heart" were such.
One writer weighs each word of the verdict in turn:
"Every imagination" — without exception. "Only evil" — without any mixture of good. "Continually" — without a pause. What a picture!
The verdict weighs more because of who reached it:
It would be hard to find a more solemn verdict. "Every imagination" of them was before Him. He loves to credit the least thought or feeling that is good, yet He saw nothing but evil all the day. He is surely the God of judgment, and after due testimony He will not be slow to carry it out.
If the evil lies in the nature itself, effort cannot reach it. One writer answers the obvious objection:
There is nothing good at all in our sinful nature. Even the most advanced believer said, "I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh" (Romans 7:18). But can it not be improved by diligence in prayer and watchfulness? No, never: it is wholly incurable... We may not be able to bend a bar of iron, yet it may be beaten out until it becomes quite flexible, but it is the same iron still. Its appearance has changed, but its nature is the same.
Does this describe only the people of Noah's day?
Was it true then? Is it true today? What does God see in the men of this day? What is the difference between the men of that day and this day? There is none. Man is man. You cannot change him. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?" (Jeremiah 13:23). No, and you cannot change man either. Take a drunkard, an unsaved man. Reform him and polish him up. He is still an unsaved man... There must be a work of God in his soul. Note the force of Scripture. Man is wrong at heart. "Out of the heart come evil thoughts" (Matthew 15:19). Men can read what is outside, but God reads the heart.
Sin ran its course, yet one man stood in a different relation to God. Where this writer says Noah "found grace," the ESV reads that he "found favor in the eyes of the LORD":
But "Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah." That is, God's favour rested on him. He was righteous himself, no doubt, but it all came through grace... But the earth was completely filled with violence. Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually; if sin comes in, it is sure to ripen up.
- Sight — God's verdict starts with what He sees. He sees the wickedness on the earth, and behind it every intention of the heart. He would credit any good He found there, and He found none.
- Source — The verdict moves inward through three layers: heart, thoughts, and the imagination behind them. The problem is what man is, not only what he does.
- Sweep — "Every," "only," and "continually" leave no exception, no mixture of good, and no interval of relief.
- Stubbornness — Polish cannot change a nature like this. Iron beaten flexible is iron still. Only a work of God in the soul changes a man.
- Salvation — In the same dark chapter, Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD. That favour rested on him as a gift, not as a reward.
And Jehovah repented that he had made Man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
Genesis 6 turns from man's spreading wickedness to how that wickedness struck God Himself. Can the God who knows everything regret what He made, and can a creature's sin really grieve his Creator?
God brought the flood for two reasons, not one. One writer sorts them into what man did and what man was:
The Spirit of God has chosen to tell us two grounds on which God brought the judgment of the flood on man. First, because of what he had done: "the wickedness of man was great in the earth." Further on we read that this took two forms, corruption and violence. Second, because of what he was: "every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually"; or, as the margin reads, "the purposes and desires of his heart" were such.
The verse names the LORD, not God considered in the abstract. He watches His creatures, and here He finds nothing to credit them with:
This is not God simply in His nature, but the God who concerns Himself with the ways of His creatures... He who loves to credit the least good thought or feeling saw nothing but evil all the day.
Older translations say God "repented." The ESV reads that He "regretted." Either way, the word does not mean what it usually means for us:
Much depends on grasping the meaning of the word "repent." In Scripture it does not usually mean remorse or sorrow, as so many think. It means a change or turnaround in the attitude of the mind... In any sense of regret or remorse about His personal actions, we are assured that God "is not a man that He should repent."
So God speaks here in terms we can feel. Writers note that these early chapters often speak this way:
No doubt, as is so typical of these early revelations, grace shapes the words in a childlike way for the heart and conscience of man. The LORD felt deeply what man ought to have felt but did not.
Words fitted to us are not words emptied of truth. One writer weighs what this grief must have cost God, then asks a hard question:
God is infinitely great, and His holy nature is spotless and pure. So His grief must have been infinite. Yet He must have known in advance that this great grief would come to Him through the fall and corruption of mankind. Why then did God make man, and then let him stay on earth after causing Him such untold grief?
Set beside the opening chapters, the verse reverses God's own verdict on His work:
At the end of Genesis 2 God called everything, man included, "very good." Once man had been very good in God's eyes. Now he was nothing but grief to look at. The break was complete.
If God can repent of making man, a believer might wonder whether He can repent of saving one. The distinction drawn is between an act and a gift:
The gifts of God are without change of mind on His part. When it is not a gift or a calling of God, He may repent. So He repented of creation (Gen. 6:6), as we are told; and He destroyed it. That was not a gift; but simply an act, however immense. But in sovereign love He calls poor guilty men to Himself to make them His own. He gives eternal life, for instance, or forgiveness of our sins, or the place of a child. Such gifts are the gifts and calling of God, and they come without any change of mind.
Grief is not God's last word about man. The delight He lost is found again in Christ, the child born at Bethlehem:
All this delight was changed; God repented that He had made man on the earth. But in the Child of Bethlehem man is recovered and set up again. God delights in this man, and no such change of mind is possible. No other object in all His creation could awaken the same delight.
- Seen — God judged what man did and what man was: corruption and violence outside, evil thoughts within.
- Felt — God found nothing good to credit in man. He felt what man should have felt and did not.
- Worded — "repented" means a changed attitude, not remorse. Scripture uses childlike terms so our hearts can take it in.
- Unchanged — God may repent of an act like creation. He never repents of a gift: eternal life, forgiveness, the place of a child.
- Restored — the delight God lost in the first man returns in Christ, and nothing can reverse it.