Why did God send the flood when He knew sin would continue after the flood?

When Adam sinned God cursed the ground — when all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth He sent the flood. But, neither the manner of His dealing with Adam, nor the fearful exhibition of His just wrath against sin could change man's heart. After the flood he was the same as before it. Punishment effected no change in his nature; the knowledge gained as an eye-witness, that God must act in judgment against the impenitent, left man, as regards radical alteration, just where it found him. This God saw, however much those just out of the ark might be ignorant of it, and seeing it spoke of it to Himself, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done;" a statement the more remarkable because none of the human race were alive that day on the earth but Noah and those who, in obedience to the word of the Lord, had entered the ark with him. Of them, the sole representatives of the human race on earth, before they had opportunity to manifest what they would be, God thus expressed His estimate, which differs very little from what He said before the flood.

But why these thoughts and purposes of God? Because of the sweet savour of the sacrifice. Man had not improved so as to furnish any reason for a change of dealing with him. The Lord's estimate of man after the flood differed little, if at all, from that before it. (Compare Gen. 6:5 with Gen. 8:21.) Before the flood God spoke of evil as being constantly in the heart of His creature man. After it He declared it was innate. "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." Beholding the active wickedness of man, God traced it back to his heart, every imagination of the thought of which was only evil continually. Viewing all that yet remained alive on earth of the human race, God declared that man himself was unchanged. "Only evil!" What a description of us all by nature! As children of Adam, then, we have nothing to boast of before God.

Noah did not go forth from the ark until God told him to do so. He went out as he came in, under direct instruction from God. And now we discover why the clean animals were taken into the ark in sevens and the unclean only in twos. True, it is an unclean world still, alas! and hence unclean animals easily thrive, and one pair would suffice for such, as against three pairs of the clean. But why the odd one in the seven? Because they were to be offered in sacrifice as a burnt offering at the very start of the renewed earth. The Lord knew that the flood had effected no change in human nature. Even in Noah and his family it was the same after the flood as before it. Verse 21 emphasizes this; and hence from the outset the new world could only continue on the basis of sacrifice.

In Noah's sacrifice we have the third type of the death of Christ. The first type, in Genesis 3, set it forth as providing a covering for the guilty sinner. The second, Abel's offering in Genesis 4, as the basis of approach to God. Now we have it as presenting a "sweet savour," or, "a savour of rest," to God — that in which He finds His rest and delight, in the excellence of which the offerer finds the ground of his acceptance. The term, burnt offering, occurs here for the first time, the particular significance of which we discover when we come to the book of Leviticus.

It is not difficult to discern an orderly progression in these three types. When awakened to our sinful state, the first thing we were conscious of needing was a covering — the root meaning of atonement — before the eye of a holy God. That was good, but we could not endure to be permanently at a distance. We must have a basis of approach to God. And even more than this; we must be in full acceptance to be thoroughly at rest there. If God finds a savour of rest in the death of Christ, we find there our rest too.

The promise, which closes Genesis 8, was based upon the sacrifice, as also was the blessing which opens Genesis 9. God knew what man would again prove himself to be, but He guaranteed that there should be no further judgment of the sort just executed. The flood had been of such magnitude that for just over a year seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and even day and night, had been obliterated. This was never to occur again. Indeed Genesis 9:8-17 show that God established a definite covenant to this effect, the token of which is the rainbow.

The Spirit of God has been pleased to state two grounds upon which God brought the judgment of the flood upon man. First, because of what he had done - "The wickedness of man was great in the earth;" and further on we read that this had assumed the twofold form of corruption and violence, those parent sins of Genesis 3 and 4, which will find their full consummation in the day of the Lord, the former in Jerusalem and the antichrist, and the latter in Babylon and the beast. 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.

Let us now turn back to the scripture we started with. I have not very much to say regarding it except this, that we have God's certain testimony as to what did take place, and what led to it. Well now, what was the reason of the flood? The sixth chapter of Genesis gives you the reason. It was this. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). What came up before God? Sin. What is sin? Man doing his own will. That is sin. Well, you say, Are not things altered now? Are our days not better? Do you think the men of the twentieth century are one whit better than the men of Noah's day? Not a bit. They may have more light, but they have more responsibility. "As in water face answers to face, so the heart of man to man" (Prov. 27:19).

What was the state of man's heart in Noah's day? "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" is God's allegation. 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?" (Jer. 13:23). No, nor can you change man as man. Take a drunkard, an unsaved man. Reform and polish him up. He is still an unsaved man Make him moral and respectable. All right, there he is, but he is still the same man, unsaved and unforgiven if he be not born of God. There must be a work of God in his soul. Mark the force of Scripture. Man is wrong at heart. "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts" (Matt. 15:19). Men can read what is outside, but God reads the heart. And what is His testimony? "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Well, you say, that is a dreadful character. I admit it. But the most solemn point is, that this is the truth, as to every man then and now. The Lord Jesus said also, "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts" (Mark 7:21). Where do they come from? The heart.

But there was more than that, and hence we read that "it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart" (Gen. 6:6). The next thing affirmed is the outward fruit of man's state: "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence" (ver. 11). Sin in the heart had led to outward evil ways, and deeds before God, that made it at length impossible for Him any longer to forbear, and He was compelled to bring in judgment. And mark again why He did it. He brought in the flood on the world of the ungodly. Now mark, it is a very serious thing to be an ungodly person. Who is that? Every person that is not washed in the precious blood of the Son of God is in that category.

What was the result of this trial? "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth" (ver. 11, 12). The evil rose to such a height, that God could no longer tolerate its existence; so the flood was sent to destroy man from off the face of the earth.

Noah had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and was, with his family, preserved to people the earth. Man was thus put on trial once more. After the flood, a new element was introduced to restrain the violence which had before filled the earth. The ordinance, "Whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," made man a check and a restraint upon the violence of his fellow-man. But how does man acquit himself under this new principle of human government, thus in its essence introduced? Alas! Noah, the one in whom the authority was naturally invested, debases himself with wine; and when thus degraded, his own offspring take advantage of his state to degrade him further still! Babel too, and the cities of the plain; Egypt, with its idolatries and oppressions; and the cities of the Amorites (see Deut. 18:9-12), all form specimens of what man proved himself to be in the interim between the flood and the giving of the law. Rom. 1:21-32 presents us with a gloomy picture of what man at this period proved the desires of his heart and the bent of his will to be; as well as of the consequences to which God gave up the Gentile world. But when He did thus give up the Gentiles, He made choice of Israel, that in His dealings with that nation, brought outwardly nigh to Himself and favoured with every possible advantage, further trial might be made, within a narrower sphere, of what the heart and will of man would produce. It was to this people that the law was given. And Moses, in recapitulating the dealings of God with this people in the wilderness, states that the object was "to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no" (Deut. 8:2).

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Could He be indifferent to the general state of man morally? It is not God simply in His nature, but He who concerns Himself with the ways of His creatures. Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. Nor would it be easy to find a more solemn appraisal: "every imagination" of them was before Him; and He who loves to accredit the least thought or feeling that is good saw nothing but evil all the day. He is assuredly the God of judgment, and after due testimony will not be slow to execute it.

Again, there is the Flood; it was sent as a divine protest against universal corruption, and as a terrible witness to God’s hatred of sin. Mercy did not interfere with the desolation of the forty days’ rain, nor the extinction of everything that had life, till the very mountains was submerged and the entire race (save eight) absolutely obliterated. Sin and judgment followed as cause and effect. Moral consequence was necessary in the maintenance of divine holiness.

Here again how observable is the transparent and self-consistent truth of scripture. The Statement before us may look at first unaccountable; but when carefully weighed and reflected on, the propriety of it becomes manifest. That man's being evil was a ground for sending the flood we can all see; but what depth of grace in the declaration that God knew perfectly the ruined condition of man at the very time when He pledges His word that there shall come no more flood on the earth! This is brought before us here.

Certainly God knew from eternity past that man would so greatly corrupt himself, yet we are told in verse 6 that He repented that He had made man on the earth. This surely indicates the depth of sorrow that God feels in contemplating the sin of mankind. On the one hand God's great wisdom and power is seen in His creation and also in His marvelous work of recovery after man's ruin; but on the other hand we see the reality of the feelings of His heart in reference to His creatures willingly choosing to rebel against Him. Though God is absolutely sovereign, yet man is seriously responsible and must be made to feel the results of his willful sin. Thus, God decreed that He would “blot out man — from the face of the land.” Yet animals, creeping things and birds are included in this awesome destruction, for man's sin has involved the rest of the earthly creation. People may say that when they sin it is only themselves thy have damaged, but man's sin always affects others too, even unreasoning creatures.