Bible Study: Genesis

Lesson 6: Genesis 6- 9: The Flood

Prologue Continued

C. Exposition, 5-8

1. "The Lord saw": Compare this statement with Genesis 1 where the Lord saw and deemed good the work of his hands. Now God sees only wickedness and evil. The Flood is portrayed in terms of recreation, the recreation comes because the goodness of God's original creation has been undone.

2. These verses also present one of the severest and most comprehensive condemnations of mankind in the Bible. The wickedness of man arises from his heart, "the locus of thought, feeling, volition and morality" (Waltke). The very core of man's being is corrupted.

3. The Lord's grieving and repentance

a. The emotions attributed to God in these verses has been a source of some controversy, ancient and recent. Classic Christian theology has conceived of God as both immutable (unchanging) and impassible (untainted by emotion). These verses have been taken anthropomorphically.

b. It should be noted that all language of God is anthropomorphic. The question may be what reality in God is being portrayed by these words. We should not conceive of God in such a way that he is devoid of emotion, but we should be careful to immediately associate the emotions we experience with those of God even if we describe them with the same terms. Our emotions are tainted by sin and thus corrupted. Yet some point of contact must remain for language to mean anything. Thus we can speak of God's grieving and have some idea of what that means and at the same time understand that his grieving is not univocal to ours.

c. Regarding God's repentance or apparent change of mind regarding his creation, we must also speak with qualifications. Yes, God reacts to human developments, but we should not imagine that this is for the same reasons that humans experience regret or disappointment. Language here is probably less than adequate, but at the very least we can sense the intense displeasure of God.

d. The judgment of the Flood is announced here although the exact means are not yet stated, but the cataclysmic nature of the judgment is evident. Hope is also presented in the allusion that Noah found favor with God.

4. "the world that then was"

a. 2 Peter 3:5-7 seems to divide human history into two distinct ages with their own fulfilled history. He contrasts the world that then was with the world that now is.

b. The world that then was came into existence out of the waters and had its day of judgment in by water. The Flood then is not only an act of destruction but also of recreation.

c. As such then the world that then was is a paradigm for this present age. Creation out of water, Adam and Noah, fall of Adam/fall of Noah, conflict of the seed and coming judgment.

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