Genesis 6 - Part 6 - Does God make mistakes? I mean, He’s God, right?
I’ve done some pretty stupid things in my life that I have regretted. What about you? We all make mistakes. Some more serious than others. People in Noah’s day, however, couldn’t have cared less about their sin. They were totally corrupted by their sinfulness.
Genesis 6:5 says “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.”
So it must have been pretty serious when it says in Genesis 6:6,7 “So the Lord was sorry He had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke His heart. And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.” 8 But Noah found favor with the Lord.”
Notice Genesis 6:7 says God was sorry that He had made man. Does God make mistakes that He regrets? Does He have emotions? I mean He’s God, right? He is supposed to be perfect. If He can make mistakes then we really are in for a bad time. If He’s emotional then doesn’t that indicate weakness? And if he changes His mind all the time, where does that leave me? Doesn’t 1 Samuel 15:29 say that God “will not lie nor repent: for He is not a man, that He should repent.”??
I think it works like this. God makes certain promises to us based upon our response to Him. Like “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved”. That indicates that if we believe in Jesus we receive what He promised. If we don’t then we are under different promises and we are not saved. When we change our response to Him the outcomes change for us.
It’s not so much that God changes His mind, but it seems like it. The results of sin have always been death, (Romans 6:23) and all of us are born under the curse of spiritual death in that we don’t automatically have a personal relationship with God, and we are also under the curse of physical death in that we will eventually die, and eternal death in that God makes it clear that without Christ we are bound for hell (John 3:17-18. Revelation 20:15).
When we believe in Christ, one minute we are headed for hell and the next minute heaven. God changes His mind about sending us to hell when we believe in Christ. You see, it is not so much that He changes. The promises are solid and unchanging, as is the character of God. He is immutable or unchangeable. It is that we change and He responds to that change in order to save us. God’s attitude to us changes according to our attitude to Him.
“It’s not my fault? The angels made me! The aliens made me! The giants were there. I had no choice! The demons tempted me!” NO! You are responsible for how you respond to God. You are either for Him or against Him. There is no middle ground.
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8) What happens when God looks at you? Do you know the grace of God - the undeserved, unearned favour of God in your life that comes when you believe in Christ, trust in Him, and hand over your life to Him, and come under His authority in your life?
Noah made a choice towards God. God changed His mind towards Noah as much as He changed His mind towards the rest of the human race. I think Noah and his Godly family were in danger of being destroyed by ungodly people who had completely given themselves over to demonic influences by their own choice, so much so that they were totally depraved, and unredeemable. The only way to perpetuate any hope for Noah and generations to come and eventually for Jesus to be born into this world, was to send a worldwide flood.
“Noah was a just and perfect in his generations and Noah walked with God”(Genesis 6:9). When you believe in a just and perfect God, apparently His character is reflected in you. Noah wasn’t perfect in the sense of being sinless, but he did sin less as he trusted and obeyed a perfect God. What about you. When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we exchange our sin for His righteousness, and we come under the grace of God. It’s like an impenetrable umbrella. God’s grace is always there, but many choose to walk away from it. And they will receive God’s justice instead of His love and grace. What about you?
I encourage you to walk in the grace of God today.
