Grieved in His Heart

The Lord was sorry

that He had made man on the earth,

and He was grieved in His heart.

Genesis 6:6

In the account of the flood, we see a part of the heart of God. We see that He grieves. He grieved over the wickedness of man’s heart to the point of being sorry that He had even created man. I see God’s grieving heart, and I immediately go to my own life and wonder how much grief my sins have laid upon the heart of God. How many times did I break His heart; how many times do I still break His heart?

I took a trip to Poland with the March of Remembrance and Hope in 2006 and walked through Auschwitz and Majdanek and other concentration camps and spoke with Holocaust survivors. My eyes were opened to the severity of the wickedness of the heart of man and the fact that sin is a contagious disease.

The Word tells us that “bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). I saw this verse lived out through the heart-wrenching stories of those who lived through this era of history.

Irving Roth was one of the survivors with whom I spent the most time. He also has written Bondi’s Brother, a book sharing his story. Irving shares in his book about a soldier that he met while he was a young teenage prisoner of Auschwitz.

This soldier had been wounded in battle and had been transferred to Auschwitz to recover. He had been around the world in battle. He was not aware of what these prisoner camps really were about, and he didn’t understand what Irving could have done to be there. Irving explained to the soldier that he was there because he was a Jew and these camps killed Jews.

The soldier thought this was crazy and even accused Irving of telling a fib. He knew there was a war raging, and he couldn’t understand why his country would be killing men who could be fighting for it. Irving tells how the soldier reached in his pocket and gave him a piece of candy, the first he had tasted in years.

Weeks later, Irving saw this soldier again; whip in hand, beating and cursing the Jews along with the rest of the Nazi guards. This soldier could have gone in and made a difference, but instead his morals were corrupted by the company he kept.

Oh, precious one, this is why we need Christ. God tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. This is a valid statement. If you attempt to deny it, you have never really looked at your heart.

In the account of the flood, we also see the reality of the judgment of God. He says that there is still yet another judgment to come, but this one will be final.

This is the hope God gives. He offers salvation from his judgment; salvation to those who humble themselves and walk in his ways and obey his Word. He offered an ark for a man named Noah. Noah was the grandson of Methuselah, the great-grandson of Enoch, the man who walked with God.

We must know that Enoch shared with Noah about the judgment that was to come, so when God appeared to Noah and told him to build an ark in the middle of a desert and told him that it was going to rain (something Noah had never seen) for forty days and forty nights, I am sure his great-grandfather’s words rang loud in his ears and in his heart. Not to mention the Creator of the universe, Elohim, had assured him of this truth.

God did not send His judgment without warning, just as His future judgment has not been and will not be loudly declared. We can praise God for the assured fact that just as an ark was prepared for any who would believe and climb aboard, God has sent us another ark, the Christ.

The sad thing is that in Noah’s ark there was much room. All who would believe were Noah and his family, yet God had allowed the design of the ark to carry many more, yet no more would come.

Just as there was room in the ark, there is room in Christ. There is room at the cross for all who will believe and come.

Oh Father,

Your heart breaks and grieves over the sin and fall of Your creation, yet even in our sin, Your grace abounds. You have never pronounced judgment without reaching out and offering salvation to any who would believe and come. Thank you for sending Jesus Christ, for in Him I am safe. He is my refuge and my shelter from the storm.

Thank you for not giving up on me and for sending people into my life to share with me about the judgment that is to come and about You, the God who judges sin but in His loving-kindness, has made a way for salvation from this coming judgment.

This sin, this disease, I receive at birth, I did not choose it; it just is, and in this life, my disease can become stronger and completely destroy me, but you sent the Great Physician, who can heal my disease and cleanse me.

Oh Father, I am so thankful that part of my salvation, part of the promise in the new covenant, is a new heart; a heart that no longer desires to sin, but desires to walk in your ways because it simply loves You and wants to please You.

My Jesus, be glorified in me.

In Your name I pray,

Amen.