SUMMARY
The floodThe flood refers to the catastrophic deluge in Genesis. In the biblical account Noah, his family, and selected beasts survive the flood in an ark; thereafter they received a rainbow in the sky as a sign of God's promise. Many other cultures also have flood... More story begins by revealing not an angry God, but a God who grieves over what has become of the human race, even expressing sorrow at creating them in the first place (6:5-7).
ANALYSIS
The opening verses to the flood story are central to its interpretation. The initial statement about the human situation (6:5) provides the rationale for what follows: the great wickedness of humankind and the evil inclinations of the human heart. The words only, every, and continually specify the depth and breadth of human sinfulness. Genesis 6:11-13 will lift up the “violence” of human beings in particular. Notably, the flood story concludes with essentially the same description of the human race (8:21). In other words, the flood did not have any effect whatsoever on the sinfulness of humankind. God makes a decision to continue with the world even without any human change; the world’s future will depend upon God’s promises.
The basic character of the human heart is set alongside the response of the divine heart (6:6). God appears not as an angry and vengeful judge, but as a grieving and pained parent, distressed over what has happened. The NIV translation says it best: God’s “heart was filled with pain.” These remarkably expressed divine emotions, which issue in a decision to destroy all living things (6:7), are resolved on the side of mercyMercy is a term used to describe leniency or compassion. God's mercy is frequently referred to or invoked in both the Old and New Testaments. More in God’s choice of Noah and his family.
God’s regretful response to human sin assumes that human beings have successfully resisted God’s will for the creationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and... More. Such language thereby reveals that the flood was not planned by God, but was a divine response to human sin and its disastrous effects on the creation.
