1. I think it's interesting how God regrets. It kind if seems uncharacteristic of him. If He is all knowing, then wouldn't He know that the people of Noah's time would be evil. Before He even created them? To me, regret usually happens when one makes a bad decision... Can God make a bad decision on accident? Or even on purpose?
2. And along the same lines...His solution to the problem was death. To wipe them out. Only for the world to be filled with more evil. Did He think wiping the earth would be a reset button? No, because He knows everything... So it was just a punishment. As well as a precursor to death being the payment for sin.
3. And the most interesting epiphany of all. Death doesn't solve evil or win. LIFE does. Every time God killed because of sin or evil, it was always replaced with another set of evil. It wasn't until he followed death with LIFE that sin was vanquished.
It sure did take a lot of death before He decided to introduce LIFE. Don't you think?
I don't know- I didn't go to seminary. This may be elementary. But I thought it was weird that God regretted and then killed only to have the same problem appear. He had to have known? What was the point of doing it wrong for so long?
Great points and thoughts. I hadn't thought of these. That's what is going to be so great about this blog is seeing others views and thoughts and this makes me go deeper into my understanding. I've read through a lot of the Old Testament over the years and I always struggle because of all the evil that there is. But your right, then He brings us LIFE.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about why God waited to take care of the sin problem as well. Is that what you were asking? Then again, when I read the story of Noah I it causes me to think about how patient God is with his people. He gave them (us) another chance.
ReplyDeleteHi! Rheba here. There are so many questions that we don't know the answer to and probably won't this side of heaven. I too wonder sometimes, "well God is all knowing so why does he allow this"? He gave Adam and Eve priestly responsibilities to care for the Garden of Eden and specific instructions on what tree not to eat from and yet somehow evil came into the garden. They rebelled against God and chose to disobey him. (By the way, could all the animals talk to Adam and Eve in the garden? Because there seems to be no surprise mentioned that the serpent was talking to her by them or God. And the serpent being Satan was not even mentioned. I know after they leave the garden, God tells them the animals will fear them. Just a random thought.) God is our father and like any parent, even though he knows we will disobey, he is still grieved when we do. The evil and violence on earth had become so bad he couldn't allow it to continue unpunished. There would still be evil people but there was also that important thread of good also. And in Genesis 4:7 God tells Cain that "sin is crouching at the door. It's desire is for you, but you must rule over it." So we are all out here existing with sin crouching at our door everyday and we must be aware of that and ready to resist it and not let it rule over us. With God's help only can we do that.
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