Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Grief of God and the Grace of God (Gen 6:6-14)*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on March 1, 2009/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

In Genesis 6 this evening we will consider the world that once was, the world that perished and why, and how people can be saved from God’s judgment on a wicked and perverse generation, We concluded our family foundations series in Gen 6:5 a couple weeks back, a verse that’s the first and perhaps fullest verse in the O.T. on the radical corruption or total depravity or extensive sinfulness of the human race.

But verse 5 of course is not the end of the story … God’s story has more than sin and bad news.

As we continue studying Genesis on Sunday evenings, we will see tonight the first explicit mention of 2 important words and themes that also run through Scripture: “grace” and “righteous”

 

The concept of God’s grace of course can be seen in every chapter, but the actual word first appears in Gen 6:8.

And though the word “righteous” does not appear until this chapter, of course there were righteous descendents of Adam and Eve, including Abel (Heb.

11 and 1 John 3 call him righteous) and there was Enoch who walked with God and was taken up to be with God without dying.

But the actual words “grace” and “righteous” appear here for the first time, and naturally, grace comes first, before righteousness, and grace causes it.

God’s grace is the only way sinners can be righteous.

Genesis 6:5-14 (NASB95) 5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6 The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

7 The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

8 But Noah found favor [NKJV “grace” better] in the eyes of the Lord.

9 These are /the records of /the generations of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. 10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Noah can be contrasted with ungodly Lamech in Genesis 4, who also had 3 sons, and was from the line of Cain.

The NT calls Noah a preacher of righteousness, but Lamech, the great-great-great grandson of Cain was a preacher of wickedness.

*4:23-24:* Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, Listen to my voice, You wives of Lamech, Give heed to my speech, For I have killed a man for wounding me; And a boy for striking me; 24 If Cain is avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”

 

- Lamech’s message was one of vengeance, Noah’s one of mercy.

- Noah was a godly influence on his family, Lamech very ungodly.

- Lamech took life of others over lesser offenses to him; Noah offered life to others who had committed great crimes against God.

- God reiterated His original creation design to Noah and his wife and family be fruitful ~/ multiply after the flood; Lamech murdered human life instead of multiplying it and departed from God’s design for marriage and family by having two wives

- Lamech is the last name mentioned in the ungodly line of Cain in chap.

4; Noah is the last name mentioned in the godly line of Seth

 

25 Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, /she said, /“God has appointed me another *offspring* in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.”

Notice that she saw Seth as being appointed by God.

Notice also the word “offspring” or “seed” – this is the same Hebrew word used as the promise in Genesis 3:15 to Eve of a “seed” of the woman who would defeat Satan and undo the curse because of sin.

Perhaps Eve is thinking Seth is the promised “seed”?

Luke 3 does confirm that Seth’s line was the godly one that produced the line of Israel through the line of Noah and his son Shem, culminating in the Lord Jesus who is the ultimate fulfillment of Genesis 3:15.

26 To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh.

Then /men /began to call upon the name of the Lord.

However optimistic Eve was about Seth, by the time Seth’s son is born, the very name he used was not so optimistic about a human solution to the problem of sin.

The name Enosh is related to the Hebrew word for frail, weak, sick – used in Jeremiah 17:9 “the heart of man is incurably sick ~/ desperately wicked” (cf.

Ps 8:3).

There may be an intentional connection between the meaning of the name here and the next phrase – as mankind realized the hopeless terminal problem of sin, and the radical depravity manifesting in Lamech and others in prior verses, it was then that men began to call upon the name of the LORD as their only hope.

Chapter 5 then picks up on this other line of Adam to Noah, and there is an even more striking comparison between Adam and Noah, the first and last names mentioned in this chapter.

*5:1* This is the book of the generations of *Adam.*

In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.

3 When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of /a son /in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.

Every name in Genesis 5 has the phrase “and he died” with two exceptions – the first is Enoch who v. 24 says “walked with God.”

The second is his great-grandson Noah (one of a few in all OT who it says “walked with God” and even fewer who were never died).

Enoch escaped the judgment of death falling on all others in the chapter because God took him /up/, and Noah escaped the death that fell on all others /in the Flood/ because God took him /out/ of it, which would be a picture of salvation by grace for all time.

God rescues those He has made righteous so they will live eternally.

*5:25* Methuselah [/Enoch’s son/] lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and became the father of *Lamech* [/notice another Lamech, this one in the godly line/] … 28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and became the father of *a son* [/notice again attention drawn to a male offspring/ /– there is intentional emphasis and indication they were looking for the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15, one to deliver from the curse, which next verse develops further/] 29 Now he called his name Noah, saying, “*This one* will give us rest from our work and from the *toil* of our hands /arising /from the *ground* which the Lord has *cursed*”

 

This makes clear that those in Adam’s line of Seth who called on the LORD had heard of God’s word of curse and promise, not only about a male offspring, the wording here also comes from Gen. 3:

 

17 Then to Adam He said, “… *Cursed* is the *ground* because of you; In *toil* you will eat of it All the days of your life.

18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground…

 

So there is a connection between Adam and his male descendant Noah, explicitly and implicitly, there are many positive parallels:

-         Noah and Adam both fathered 3 sons (Genesis traces lines)

-         both Adam and Noah “walked” with God and God spoke with both directly and audibly and both received His grace

-         both had God parade all the animals in twos before them

-         both are the recipients of the blessing and charge to be fruitful and multiply and both received a Divine covenant

-         both enter a new world as the only family unit on earth

-         the first act recorded outside the garden in Adam’s family was worship by sacrifice, same with Noah outside the ark

-         both Adam and Noah were workers of the soil

-         both sin through the fruit of a tree (Noah with wine later)

-         both father a wicked son who is under a curse (Adam’s son Cain receives curse, as does Noah’s son Ham)

-         just as Adam’s conduct accounted for the spiritual shape of the pre-flood world, so Noah’s conduct accounts for the spiritual shape of the post-flood world

 

Now look at 5:29 again because there’s a deliberate connection in the very verbs used about Noah’s birth, and the sinful state of the world in Genesis 6:6 which caused God to send the flood:

“this one will give us *rest*” – root word for sorrow, here with the connotation of comfort from the deep sorrow of sin

“from our *work*” – root for work or make (here what man makes)

“and from the *toil*” – root for pain

 

In Genesis 6:6, the same Hebrew verbs appear in the same order:

“The LORD was *sorry*” – same root for sorrow

“that He had *made* man” – same root for /make/, here the /work/ of God’s hands on the earth, but same root as work of man’s hands, man who was made from the ground

“and He was *grieved*” – same root for pain

 

So the introduction of Noah when he’s born suggests he is the one chosen to bring some remedy or rescue to this intolerable situation.

The language for work and ground also comes out of God’s curse in Genesis 3 – in some way Noah is hoped to deliver from the consequences of the fall into sin.

In some ways he does, but in other ways he points forward to the ultimate Deliverer~/Savior Jesus

 

*1.

The Grief of God*

 

Verse 6 is one of many places where the KJV text says the Lord repented, which is not the best translation and would certainly be confusing if that was the only translation you have.

The word can be translated as “repent” or “relent” in the sense of changing course in some forms and places where it speaks of man (although the usual Hebrew term for repenting~/turning from sin is a different word than this one).

Of course Scripture teaches God never sins or repents of wrong actions, and God never changes His mind.

Num.

23:19 “God is not a man that He should lie nor … repent”

1 Sam.

15:29 “God is not a man … that He should repent”

Psalm 110:4 “The Lord … will not change His mind”

Mal.

3:6 “For I, the LORD, do not change ..”

 

The HCSB translates this word in Genesis 6:6 as “regretted” but probably the other translations are better to use the phrase “sorrow” or “was sorry.”

NIV: “The Lord *was grieved* that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was *filled with pain.”*

This Hebrew stem of the verb ‘occurs forty-eight times in the OT, and in thirty-four of these the subject (expressed or implied) is God … [and the stems have] six basic meanings: (1) suffer emotional pain (*Gen.

6:6*); (2) be comforted (Gen 37:37); (3) execute wrath (Isa.

1:24); (4) retract punishment (Jer.

18:7-8); (5) retract blessing (Jer.

18:9-10); (6) retract (a life of) sin (Jer.

8:5-6).’[1]

The exact expression in Genesis 6:6 (/yinnāḥem/ /YHWH/) only appears twice more in the Pentateuch (Exod 32:12, 14) where God “changes” his stated judgment against idolatrous Israel because of the intercessory prayers of Moses: “Then the Lord relented [/yinnāḥem/] and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened” (Exod 32:14; cf.

Ps 78:40–41).

Because God is love and by nature a Savior and compassionate, He at times averts His judgment (ex: when man repents, but God is not really repenting).

In the Exodus 32 passage and others like it, J. I. Packer explains: ‘The reference in each case is to a reversal of God’s previous treatment of particular men, consequent upon their reaction to that treatment.

But there is no suggestion that this reaction was not foreseen, or that it took God by surprise, and was not provided for in his eternal plan.

No change in his eternal purpose is implied when he begins to deal with a person in a new way.’[2]

God is complex; immutable (unchanging in being) /and inscrutable/ (far beyond our minds).

God decrees and announces things He’ll do in His sovereign plan that He doesn’t enjoy doing (ex: judgment to the wicked): “I do not take pleasure in the death of the wicked.”

In other places in Genesis this same Hebrew word “sorry ~/ sorrow” is used for the depths of sadness or mourning, such as in the death of a beloved family member.

This word has been defined as heart-rending, literally taking a deep breath because of great pain.

As one explained it, God being sorry or sorrowful here over sinful depravity does not mean creation was out of His control, or that God hoped for something better but was unable to pull it off.