Thank you to Mark R for this message

Genesis 6

As we came to the end of Genesis 1, we saw how God looked on the earth and called it Good. (Genesis 1:31).

Yet a few hundred years later when Adam and Eve left Eden, God sees a very different world. Human sin has changed everything.

We see it in Cain murdering his brother Abel.

We see it here in Genesis chapter 6 in the mysterious words about the ‘sons of God’ marrying the daughters of humans.

There are various theories about who these beings are, for example, angelic beings, royalty, or maybe descendants of Seth.

What we do know is God’s response…human lifespans reduce to a maximum of 120 years, and the boundary between the spiritual realm and the earthly realm is established.

Up until this point, the spiritual and earthly world had been more enmeshed. Now the spiritual world is veiled from human eyes.

But the key thought coming out of these verses is found in verse 5 of chapter 6:

“The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.”

“The Lord saw…the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time”

This piercing analysis of the human heart is found in many other places in the Bible.

Does it mean human beings are incapable of doing good?

No, there are many, many acts of kindness being done right at this moment around the world, just as there are many acts of terrible violence in wars and in crime around the globe.

But the ROOT of all sin, wickedness, and evil is found in Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve choose to go their own way, rather than live under the sovereignty of God.

And anything we do that fails to acknowledge God for who He is, shows us the true state of our hearts.

Until we accept God’s diagnosis of our hearts, we are unable to accept God’s remedy for our condition.

And Genesis chapter 6 reveals that remedy.

We see it in verses 6-8.

First, in verse 6, “the Lord regretted that He had made human beings…”

The original Hebrew language suggests that this was not God feeling He had made an error in creating us, but that He was in anguish at the inclination of our hearts towards evil. God grieves over us.

Secondly, in verse 7, God pronounces Judgement over us. Evil and wickedness demand justice. We see that in the invasion of Ukraine. We see it in the cruelty of human trafficking, and in the concentration camps of WW2.

But thirdly, in verse 8, we read these words:

“But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord”

Noah found grace…or we could say, Grace found Noah.

In Noah’s story, we will be seeing how God’s rescue of Noah is a pointer to God’s bigger picture for all of us.

The  Ark is a picture of the way God saves all of those who come to Him, acknowledging the state of our hearts, but turning to His Son Jesus Christ, Who has taken upon Himself all our sins on His Body on the Cross.

The word for ‘Noah’ in Hebrew means ‘relief’ or ‘rest’

Jesus said: “Come to Me all you who are weary or burdened, and I will give you rest”

Let’s pause and pray that short prayer now, giving to Jesus the weight and burden of our sin, and finding in Him the true rest that comes from His finished work on the cross.


Category: The Bridge