Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #10 of Genesis, chapter 6 and we are going to read Genesis 6:6-7:

And it repented JEHOVAH that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And JEHOVAH said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

I will stop reading there. Again, this is the time prior to the flood when God is giving space of 120 years. It is the length of time Noah will have to construct the ark, but at this point God is declaring the reason why He is going to destroy the first earth with a flood and it is because He looked down and saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. We discussed how this is the fallen nature of sinful man. It is not just when a man actually murders someone or when a man steals or lies. We recognize those things as sinful and, yet, God is able to look deeper than we can see and He looks upon the heart of each unsaved individual and He sees only evil continually. Therefore, it provokes His wrath and it says in Genesis 6:6:

And it repented JEHOVAH that he had made man on the earth…

Then at the end of verse 7, it also said, “For it repenteth me that I have made them.” God says twice that He repented of having made man. We find language of God repenting in Numbers, chapter 23 and this verse has to be considered when the Bible says that God repents of something. It says in Numbers 23:19:

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

In this verse we are told that “God is not a man…neither the son of man, that he should repent.” Naturally, that seems to contradict what we read in Genesis 6, verse 6 or what we read in Jonah where God repented of the evil that He said He would do. It appears to be a contradiction, but the Bible says that God is not a man that He should repent. How do we solve the seeming contradiction? It is very simple. God is not a sinner. He has not committed sin that would require repentance as it does with mankind. Man has sinned. Man has rebelled against God, so man is in need of repentance. He needs to repent of his sin, but God is not a man that sins and needs to repent.

On the other hand, the word “repent” is a word that means to “turn around” and reverse your course and God can perform an act like the creation of the world where He created man as good. If all had continued that way, man would have lived forever and there would have been no need for God to “repent” of creating man. But because mankind fell into sin by transgressing the Law of God and doing evil in His sight, God repented that He had created man, meaning that He is going to destroy man from the face of the earth. He first placed man on the earth to populate the earth and to have dominion over it, so it is a kind of “turning of events” and a turning from the original direction at the beginning. It says in 1Samuel 15:28:

And Samuel said unto him, JEHOVAH hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.

Samuel is speaking to King Saul and he is making a reference to David. God has taken the kingdom from Saul and given it to David. It says in 1Samuel 15:29:

And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

Here, there is a similar statement about God repenting. But then it says in 1Samuel 15:35:

And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and JEHOVAH repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.

Do you see how God uses the idea of repenting? First, He repeats what it said in Numbers 23 about God not being a man that He should lie or repent, but then a few verses later we read that God repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.

You know, these are the types of statements in the Bible that some critics point to and they say, “You see, there are contradictions in the Bible.” However, the fault lies with the critic that is just a casual reader and is not taking the time or consideration to see what God is saying.

Again, it is very simple: God is not a man that He should lie or repent. He is not a sinner, so He requires no repentance in that respect. On the other hand, God made Saul king and after Saul did wickedly in rebelling against God, God determined to take the kingdom from him and his house and give it to David, so the Lord repented in the sense of “turning about” or changing course and the throne would no longer go through the family of Saul but to David and his descendants. That was the “turning.” It also shows us that when God makes this kind of change, there is no sin on God’s part. When God repents of a course of action it is still all within the predetermined counsel of God. He knew what Saul would do before He made Saul the king. He knew the very moment that Saul would commit the action and what He would do in taking the kingdom from him. It is not that God was taken unaware and God did not think that Saul would be a faithful king. God set up Saul to rule for a particular period of time and then He took the kingdom from him and gave it to David, according to His sovereign will.

Likewise, God knew before He created the world that Satan would fall by entering into the serpent to deceive Adam and Eve. God knew they would sin by eating of the tree that God had said, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” God knew all of this in advance and, yet, God did not stop it. He permitted these things to happen, but He is not responsible for man’s sin. Man is the responsible agent toward God and each one of us is responsible for our own actions. Every human being created in the image of God is responsible to obey the Creator and His Law. Failure to do so is not God’s fault. It is our fault. It is our sin. Yet, God knew all that would occur and, of course, He permitted it in order to unveil His glorious Gospel program and His magnificent salvation plan, and so forth, as He put this world on display to the principalities and powers.

So when we read that God repents of a course of action, it is only in one sense. Overall, whatever God does is in keeping with what He has decreed in His determinate counsel and foreknowledge to happen. That is the idea we see in Genesis 6:6:

And it repented JEHOVAH that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

The Hebrew word translated as “grieved” is Strong’s #1647 in the concordance. It can be used to denote sorrow. For instance, it says in Nehemiah 8:10-11:

Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of JEHOVAH is your strength. So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved.

The word “sorry” is our word and the word “grieved” is our word. So when we read that it repented JEHOVAH that he had made man and it “grieved” Him at His heart, it does have the idea of sorrow.

Also, it says in 2Samuel 19:1-2:

And it was told Joab, Behold, the king weepeth and mourneth for Absalom. And the victory that day was turned into mourning unto all the people: for the people heard say that day how the king was grieved for his son.

If you want to see how grieved David was you can go to 2Samuel 18:33:

And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!

It reveals great compassion and tremendous emotion. The king had a strong desire for his son to be spared, so he was grieved for his son, weeping and lamenting. All of this is involved because we must remember that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And who are the wicked people? The wicked people are men and women that were created in the image and likeness of God. Remember God “called his name” Adam. God was Adam’s father and men are the offspring of God and, yet, they have rebelled. They have shaken their fists at God. Because of this, it is true that God must judge man and destroy the sinners out of the world. He must bring death to the unsaved because that is what the Law demands: “The wages of sin is death.” God must be just and fulfill His own Law and, therefore, He is about to destroy the world because man had been committing evil continually in his heart and God has witnessed it and the wrath of God will fall upon the first earth and He will destroy it with a flood, but it grieved God at His heart that He must respond in anger toward these people that had originally been created good. It is not a pleasant thing. Remember that the Lord Jesus wept over Jerusalem. It is not something that God takes lightly when He must bring judgment upon the churches and upon the people that bore His name or that He must bring judgment upon the people of the world.

This word that is translated as “grieved” is also found in Isaiah 63 and it is translated as “vexed.” It says in Isaiah 63:10:

But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.

This is the idea this word carries and it is a sorrowful thing that this must be, but it is what God must do because His Law has been transgressed.

Let us go on to Genesis 6:7:

And JEHOVAH said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Early on we saw that when man fell into sin, God had warned them that in the day they ate thereof they would die. They did die in their soul existence and the Lord pronounced a curse upon the man, the woman and the serpent, but this is really the first time that God gives more detail about what “death” involves. Previously, it had the idea that they would cease to live, but now God is saying, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth,” and He is letting man know that sin will not just bring about death. In the case of Cain, God also drove him out and there was separation and movement away from God, but now the Lord is giving more specific information that not only will man die and be separated from God, but he will be destroyed from the face of the earth or from the creation. This not only applied to man, but it applied to beasts, the creeping thing and the fowls of the air. Four groups are listed, pointing to the universal scope. It would be a worldwide decree that would affect every living creature, both man and all the other living creatures on the earth. It really impacted the whole creation. It was God’s plan to wipe man off the face of the earth due to his sinfulness. That was really devastating news that God was revealing. It just got worse and worse. Man would die and man had been dying for almost 6,000 years from creation and the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. Also, there had been some that were driven out from the presence of the Lord, like Cain and his descendants that became wanderers and lived in the land of Nod. They were a different line and not a line that had identification with the line of God any longer.