Humanity in Sin Part 7 - God's Regret: Judgment and Mercy

This is my personal summary of the preaching of Rev.Dr.Stephen Tong on 11th March 2007 in GRIIS. It was preached in Indonesian and I personally translated to English. Newton Life has it preached in Mandarin with English translation.

Passage: Genesis 6:5-14

What does it mean when the Scripture said “God regretted” (v.6-7)? How should we interpret this difficult passage?

God has made man to have 3 main functions, i.e., king, priest and prophet. As a king, man is to rule over the world as the representative of God. As a priest, man stands between God and nature. As a prophet, man interprets the truth and communicates meaning. In the Genesis 2, man named all the animals. So hermeneutics is the task that has been given to mankind from the start.

After the Fall, our interpretation is influenced by our fallen subjectivity that no longer follows the Word of God. Hence the same thing can have different and even contradictory interpretations for different people. We have failed in our prophetic function.

The term ‘regret’ when used on human beings suggests that a decision has been made out of miscalculation and nothing can be done to revert it. In human sense, regret contains the element of inability. Hence, it is wise if we learn hard to minimize wrong decisions. A person who tends to make decisions too fast – out of self-confidence and lack of experience – easily regrets. Hence he often feels sad.

However, such human regret cannot be applied to God. We cannot use our created logic to impose it upon God who create logic and surpasses logic. The revealed things are given to us and the secret things belong to God. And in what He has revealed, we need to study very hard to understand well.

God cannot be overly self-confident because He is the Truth. God know everything from start to end so He cannot be wrong. When the Scriptures says God regrets, this term ‘regret’ is a borrowed term to help us understand the depth of the grief of God. God is the God of judgment as well as the God of mercy. God’s regret can be seen as the convolution of these two attributes. It is like two parallel train tracks that run in the same direction but never mixed. These two attributes are always there. But we face God’s judgment or God’s mercy due to our attitutes. When we persist in rebellion, we face His judgment. When we repent, we face His mercy. Hence man is what he reacts before God and our response to God determines our eternal destiny.

When wickedness increases on the earth, God wipe out sinners in His judgment but leaves a remnant who survives the judgment. And there are people whom He has chosed to save eternally, called the elect. The concept of remnant and elect runs through the Scriptures. This has been God’s way of working throughout history to bring out His redemptive purpose.

In the midst of a degenerate world, one man named Noah pleased God. God shared with Noah His will. Vision is God’s sharing of His own eternal plan to a special person (or some special persons) from among His chosen ones by His sovereign pleasure. Then there will be synchronization between man’s heart to God’s heart. Not all will receive God’s vision, only one or a few. But one who receives will later share God’s vision with the rest of God’s people. This is the way God has worked through history to bring His people to be partakers of His eternal plan.

God revealed His plan to Noah and gave him all the detail. Here we learn that we cannot do things according to our own design and need to learn to be patient in following God. Many people are impatient and move out of self-confidence because they are talented and and feel that they are too smart to serve in church. They need to learn to wait on God’s timing and leading.

Receiving God’s calling is not an easy thing but a heavy thing. One has to work very hard and there are a lot of sacrifices to make. Noah had to work hard for 120 years upon receiving God’s calling. God did not give him all the resources automatically but Noah had to work on them. In order to do the will of God, we need to deny ourselves, carry our cross and follow Him.

After 120 years, God destroyed the earth. Romans 2:4 reminds us that God’s tolerance is meant to lead us to repentance. The only reason why we still have time on earth is that we are still given the opportunity to repent. (Personal note: We need to treasure the opportunity before the time is up.)