Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. (Genesis 6:5-6)

The Grief In God’s Heart

It is impossible for humanity to understand the vast emotions of compassion, love, mercy, grace, and longsuffering of the eternal Father; who created the world, formed the human frame and set in motion the universe; and to experience the grief that fills His heart when He sees how man fills his existence with wickedness. When the world was completed and the first day of the earth’s days began, there was a freshness of a new creation that is beyond the imagination. The sun shone brightly on a world that was as untouched by the pollution of hatred, prejudice, murder, immorality, and rebellion. Two people stood in the midst of the most incredible garden man would never know and they felt no sorrow, no pain, and no shame. Adam and Eve enjoyed the paradise of Eden but for a short time and then because of their disobedience lost the communion of God as He cast them out. Cain and Abel would never know Eden or men like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David would experience the joy of walking with God in the cool of the day. In the millennia that followed the final days of Eden, men multiplied on the face of the earth and terrible darkness overwhelmed their hearts. They turned away from God and became animals who abused themselves and others with the pleasures of the flesh, arrogance of pride and lust of the eye. In time the whole of humanity was so corrupt it would take a cataclysmic flood to cleanse the earth of all humanity save eight souls. As God looked upon His creation it grieved His heart to see what man had done. There was no joy, no happiness and no fulfillment in the things men sought. Their lives were ruined with the lust of the flesh and all they gained in life was left behind in death. The Lord God watched as His creation imploded with depravity, sensual immorality, hatred and wrath to no purpose. Humanity was a waste of carnal pleasures. This was not the reason God created man.

The language of the Holy Spirit as Moses penned Genesis is limited to fully express what it means when God was grieved in His heart. Fathers can feel a great loss or tragedy when their children rebel and turn their hearts away but how does man begin to fathom the incredible depth of God’s eternal love as He watches man over the centuries fight and kill one another, murder, rape and pillage His creation against one another? What does the Lord feel when He sees America murder more than sixty million babies in less than fifty years? How does the heart of God bear to see men and women exchange the natural use of what is against creation burning in their lust for one another committing what is shameful? The heart of God is grieved beyond imagination as humanity fills its heart with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, drunkenness and the debauchery of human fleshly pleasure. Homosexuality is an accepted norm which precedes the acceptance of pedophilia, bestiality and all perversions of sexuality. Mass shootings come in the decades of accepting the child in the womb as a ‘nothing being’ making the man more an animal than anything else as evolutionist would have the world believe. If man is just a creature that came out of the primeval ooze of millions of years of slime then human life is not sanctified as unique. To make matters worse, men point a bloody finger at God and blame Him for the miseries of the world. How does the heart of God take the abuse by the creation formed to show the glory of the eternal Father?

In the days of Noah, it grieved the heart of God that He had made man and He destroyed all but eight souls in the flood. As each voice cried out in fear when the waters covered the face of the earth, the grave resounded with an incredible noise as millions of lives were taken by the mighty hand of the Lord. It must not be forgotten that when the souls died on earth their spirits were received again by the hand of God who gave it. Every time a man dies his breath returns to God. How does the heart of the Lord take the sounds of man’s misery in death when there is no hope, no promise and no joy in their death? Save the eight souls who were saved that day, all of those spirits that returned to God were cast into a place of perdition. Another day is coming when the love of God will have to perform that same judgment. The Lord is not willing that any man should perish because it grieves His heart but His justice and wrath demands it. As God looks down on earth today and He sees the putridity of man’s desire for sin it breaks the heart of a loving Father who sent His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for the wretched creature called man. It does not matter whether we can ever understand how much God loves us but to accept His love we must know. His grace is so immense because sin is so great. Yes, the world is a dark place to live. Yet the light of God’s love beaming from His heart tells us there is hope. He loves me. He loves you. That is the part of God’s heart that warms my soul.