And Jehovah said, I will destroy Man, whom I have created, from the earth -- from man to cattle, to creeping things, and to fowl of the heavens; for I repent that I have made them.
God here decides to wipe out the human race He had made, along with the animals, birds and creeping things. The verse raises two hard questions: can God feel grief, and can God change His mind?
Grief at the heart of God
Scripture here speaks of God in human terms. One writer explains why:
Verse 6 tells us how all this affected the Lord. Here for the first time Scripture gives God human feelings. Only in this way could we understand such a matter, and there is nothing out of place in it, since God made man in His own image and likeness. But God's thoughts and feelings must be far deeper and far higher than any man knows. How great His grief must have been! All was good at the start. Now all was so detestable that nothing could meet the case but the total destruction of mankind, apart from a few, and of the living creation God had entrusted to man.
The verse also uses God's personal name, "the LORD" — Jehovah in older translations — and not the general word "God." One writer explains what that name signals:
The name Jehovah is needed where the point is not nature but relationship — the feelings and the position it brings.
What God's "regret" does not mean
The verse ends with God saying He is sorry He made them. That sounds like God admitting a mistake, and one commentator draws a careful line here:
But here we must make a distinction, or we will certainly go badly wrong. Scripture says here that the LORD repented of mankind, whom He had made on the earth. His work is a thing quite different from His purpose. Corruption spread all through it, and He had no duty to keep in existence what existed only to His dishonour. On the other hand, when a prophet cried out against a great city because of its wickedness, and its people repented at the preaching, God repented of the harm He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it… But here we are not told of the slightest effect.
Another writer contrasts God's creation with God's calling:
God did repent of creation, in the state it had reached… But God's calling is His purpose. He has sworn in His holiness, and He will not repent.
"Whom I have created"
God does not describe the doomed race as strangers. He calls them the ones He created. Some deny that unconverted people are God's creatures at all. One writer answers that teaching from this verse:
Genesis 6:7: God says, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land." But according to this teaching, He had not created at all what He was going to destroy.
Why animals fall under the sentence
The sentence reaches past people to beasts, creeping things and birds. One writer draws out what that says about sin:
Yet animals, creeping things and birds fall under this awesome destruction too, for man's sin has involved the rest of the earthly creation. People may say that when they sin they have damaged only themselves. But man's sin always affects others too, even creatures that cannot reason.
The story does not end there. The same writer points to what waits for that fallen creation:
The creation fell with the first man. But God's word says all its groaning waits for the triumph of the Second man, when the sons of God are revealed. What joy to know it!
A decision spoken to a friend
Notice who hears this sentence. God does not just announce it from a distance. One writer traces how personally He acts here:
How much interest the Lord God takes in the whole state of things in that day! Just as we all feel, His eye affects His heart. And then, just as we all do, He takes counsel with Himself… And after all this, just as we ourselves would do, He settles His mind and tells it to a friend. He passes it to the ear, the heart and the sympathies of another.
Noah's response shows what the warning was for:
His faith accepted God's warning, and that warning moved him to fear. Fear moved him to act.
Summary
- Grief — for the first time, Scripture gives God human feelings. His grief runs far deeper than any grief we know.
- Regret — God repents of His work in its ruined state, never of His purpose. He has sworn to His calling and will not repent of it.
- Created — the people He judges are still the ones He made. Judgment does not cancel His place as their Creator.
- Reach — the sentence spreads from man to beast and bird. Sin never stays inside the sinner, and creation's groan waits for the Second man.
- Result — God tells the decision to a friend. Noah's faith turned that warning into fear, and fear into action.