I was reading Genesis earlier this week and I was struck by the passage that speaks of God being grieved in his heart for having made man and sad/disappointed enough that he was going to destroy the whole world. Plants and animals too, not just the people. I wondered, what changed in his mind that he was ready to destroy everything but then a short time (cf 2 Peter 3:8) later he himself died for our transgressions.
I know Ephesians 1:10 says that at the fullness of time Christ appeared on the scene… but why was that fullness not when he was so moved to destroy everything?
Was it because he had not yet developed a relationship with his creation the dying for our sins would matter to us? Was it because he hadn't imparted the Law and therefore we had no recollection of our transgressions for it to matter that he dyed for our sins? Was it to demonstrate the futility of life apart from him? Was it to show us that when we are left to ourselves we will self-destruct and destroy even the beauty of the world? Was it show that being a good, moral person who does what is right still isn't enough without Christ at the center of our lives?
I don't know.
What I do know I that God was saddened enough by how his creation turned out that he wanted nothing to do with it. I know that God couldn't bring himself to destroy all of it (Noah & his family & the animals were saved). I know that God made a covenant (that is a deal) to never do that again. And he STILL died for our sins.
Whatever God's reasoning, timing and planning were without we would not have the opportunity to know him. We also wouldn't have a God who disappointment in the most of intimate ways.
God was sad.
He was disappointed.
Many of us have been there. Many of us know what God must have been feeling.
What better God is there than one who can say, "I feel your pain!"?
-- Eli
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