How Bad Does it Have to Get

How Bad Does It Have to Get?

Genesis 6 through 8 could take us many directions. We could focus on Noah, one of only two men said to have walked with God. We could look at the ark and its design, or stand in the Creation Museum’s ark. We could take up the questions the passage raises. Who are the sons of God and the daughters of man? Some say the line of Seth and the line of Cain, with the devil trying to corrupt the seed of the woman. Some say kings. I lean toward the view that they were fallen angels, as James Montgomery Boice held and as 2 Peter suggests. Some friends of mine follow teachers who make this about UFOs, and I cannot imagine spending my days on that. What does the 120 years mean? Why did the animals suffer? I have a long list, but we went to the truth in every passage: “God is always the hero of the story.” It is not Noah, not Moses, not Paul, but what God is doing. I saw three things in this passage.

God Sees Sin

Verse 1 says that when man began to multiply, daughters were born. When you multiply people, you multiply sin. In premarital counseling I give couples a book titled When Sinners Say I Do. One person has enough sin for one, and marriage doubles it. “Where a bunch of sinners are, there’s a lot of sin happening.” A 2017 survey found that 67 percent of Americans agreed that they were sinners, about 28 percent were relying on Jesus because of their sin, one in ten said they were not sinners at all, and more than half said it would be fair for God to judge sin, though most thought hell was too harsh. One estimate said billions, but the next week I corrected it to about 7 million people on the earth at the flood. Either way, eight were saved, so this judgment was not flippant.

Verse 5 says the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We can be smug and think of sin as outside the church. “I don’t have a problem with anyone else greater than I have a problem with DL Moody.” If we lose the battle in our mind, we lose it in our bodies and life. Verses 11 and 13 say the earth was corrupt and filled with violence. There is a song whose only words I know are bad to the bone. “We’re not only bad to the bone, but we’re bad all the way to the heart.” We need rescue.

God Responds to Sin

He responds first with patience, and “if God is so patient with sinners as followers of Christ, shouldn’t we be patient with sinners?” The 120 years in verse 3 may be the limit on man’s lifespan or the warning of coming judgment. Enoch preached judgment, according to Jude, and he named his son Methuselah. If you do the math, Methuselah died the year of the flood. Peter says the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah while the ark was built. The world seems to be going to hell quickly, and the reason is that God is waiting and waiting. “If anybody goes to hell for all eternity, it’s not because God wasn’t waiting and it wasn’t because God wasn’t patient.”

He responds with emotion. Verses 6 and 7 say the Lord regretted that he had made man and it grieved him to his heart. I do not believe in open theism. God is all knowing. It is like a parent who disciplines a child who then runs away. You would still do the right thing. The text shows us God’s heart: “our sin grieves the Lord. It breaks God’s heart.” The grief here is the word for the pain of childbirth and of working the ground. When did you last consider how your sin affected God?

And he responds with judgment. I believe the flood was worldwide and inescapable. Since Genesis 3, death was inevitable. Jesus said in Matthew 24 that as in the days of Noah, people were eating, drinking, and marrying until the flood came. It will be the same when the Son of Man returns.

God Offers Grace

Verse 8: Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. “But before judgment is coming, grace arrived.” Grace is unmerited favor. It was not that Mike Stalnaker is a nice guy and has a nice wife. I am a sinner who deserves the wrath of God, and he gave me his favor. Noah and his family were saved in spite of their own sin, by faith. They were safe in the ark. We are in Christ and rescued from judgment. And those who receive grace respond. After the flood Noah built an altar and worshiped. We should be humble, because we do not deserve salvation; worshipful, because God thought of us; and tender, because many do not understand the gospel, including loved ones, neighbors, and co-workers.