Lesson 13 Man’s Heart - God’s Heart

                              Man’s Heart - God’s Heart

                                            Genesis 6:6-9

The children born of Adam’s seed began to multiply on the face of the earth. Sons and daughters were born to them. In Eden Adam and the sons in Seth’s line were preachers of righteousness. Eden was a Theocracy under the rule of God, with Adam and righteous descendants representing the authority of God. This did not ensure everyone born in Eden would choose to become a born again son of God. Cain had gone out from the presence of God to build the world city system of an organized civil society. There wealth and power ruled under the old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who is the subtle god of the age, and the prince of the power of the air. This did not necessarily mean that all born in the city would follow the false teachers of the city to not choose to believe Jehovah God and receive His Gift of righteousness and eternal life in His Covenant Son.

Everyone born into this life on earth in the flesh must have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shined into their heart. Each one has the freedom of choice of God’s will that he become a son of God, born from above. The Gift of God’s Son, in whom is eternal life for the mortal body and righteousness for peace of mind and joy of heart for the soul, is freely given.

Man is freely justified - made righteous and acquitted of all charges of sin and guilt through faith in God’s Anointed Covenant Son, whom we know as Jesus. The Gift must be freely received. No one is coerced into becoming a son of God through birth from above, birth through the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God sent down to man from heaven above (see Jn.1:1-14; 1 Pet.1:17-23).

As we have seen, the righteousness of God through faith in His Anointed Covenant Son was being preached. This gospel of the Son is the power of God unto salvation to whosoever believes (Rom.1:16). The Spirit of God was striving with men individually as the light of the knowledge of the glory of God was being shined into the heart (Gen.6:3; 2 Cor.4:4).

The Hebrew word in Genesis 6:3 translated “strive,” or “contend” in some Bible translations, has also been translated “reprove.” It is a legal term and speaks of the Holy Spirit as a prosecuting attorney cross-examining the witness to reveal his guilt. The righteousness of God and His justice sits in judgment upon mankind and man must be made to see it. Man is responsible for the choice he makes and one will receive a just retribution. God will allow man the “life” or “death” of his choice.

One hundred twenty years before the judgment of great waters was to come, through His preachers of righteousness, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah, Jehovah warned man, mere flesh of humanity, that if he chose to remain flesh and would not choose to be born again and become a son of God, that the Holy Spirit would no longer sit in judgment on man, but judgment would come and take them all away from off God’s earth. God gave man 120 years to repent - to change his mind and believe into His Son, whom He was sending, and receive the eternal life for the body that he might live again after death by being raised up out from the dead - in a deathless and glorified body.

During this time another community came to be upon God’s earth. Prior to the creation of man, one-third of the angelic creation, sons of God [Elohim] by right of creation, had left their place as ministers of God’s government and their dwelling in heaven with their Creator to follow Satan in his contest with the Son of God to have God’s Kingdom for himself and his cohorts (see Rev.12:3-4; Is.14:12-17; Ezek.28:12b-18). These, with the world rulers of darkness, were building the world city to take over mankind with their lies of deceit.

At the time Jehovah forewarned His creation of man that His Spirit would not always convict man of the pride of his heart being lifted up against his Creator, Moses recorded that some of the sons of God [the angelic creation], who had defected with Satan, had a plan of their own. They would marry daughters of men and have sons of human flesh, whom they could train with their supernatural wisdom. They could, in this way, take the earthly kingdom for themselves.

“And God [Jehovah] saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. And it repented Jehovah that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at His heart. And Jehovah said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the birds of the air; for it repents Me that I have made them’” (Gen.6:5-7).

Jehovah traced the wickedness to its source - to the thoughts of the imagination of man’s heart - to the inner man dwelling in the body of flesh. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Prov.23:7a). Out of the thoughts of the intentions of the heart proceed the actions (see Mt.15:10-11; Mk.7:14-23).

Mankind is born into this world in a body of human flesh. He comes into the world with no understanding of the things of God or of the things of the world. He is taught as he grows. The inclination of his thoughts is to have his own way. It is evident from the time the baby can make his desires known, that he turned to his own way.

Having one’s own way is against the very purpose of one’s being. Mankind was brought into being for one purpose - to become a son of God and live in God’s Kingdom forever. Man in the flesh must be turned from his own way to choose to go the Way God has provided as an exodus out of a defiled creation of man to become a son of the living God, born of God (see Jn.14:6; 2 Tim.1:9-10; Tit.1:2).

God’s desire is to have each one born of the seed of man, born of the flesh, as His very own son forever. God provided man eternal life for the flesh body (see 1 Cor.15). God provided man a means of being born again of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, through obeying the truth concerning His Anointed Son and receiving the righteousness of God and the eternal life in the Son (2 Cor.5:21; 1 Pet.1:17-25).

Jehovah God gave man witnesses to the truth which must be obeyed - One must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God - an everlasting Kingdom (Jn.3:3-8; 1 Pet.1:9-12; 2 Pet.1:20-21). One must have eternal life for the body. Man is not complete without a body. Without a body man is unclothed (2 Cor.5:1-4). He has no tent for a dwelling. God has provided a way to preserve man wholly, spirit, soul and body.

Since Adam, man had had the witness of God’s word against the witness of his own thoughts of his imagination. He had the witness of the glory of God as seen in the figures of the true Anointed Son of the Covenant. The luminaries were silent preachers of the gospel of the Anointed Son, who is the power of God unto salvation for whosoever will believe (Gen.1:14-19; Ps.19:1-6; 97:6; see Rom.10:14-18).

There is only one true witness for man as to who God is and as to who brought him into being and as to why he was brought into being and as to what the future holds. Man has had from the beginning, and still has, the written word of God - first in the heavens. A second written witness was added in the record of the Scriptures kept by the sons of Israel - God’s own nation. From the beginning, the Holy Spirit has been testifying to the truth of God’s word to convict the heart of the hearer of the word. Also the Creator has everywhere stamped Himself upon His creation as a witness to Himself being the Creator of all things having been made by Him. Man has witness to Jehovah, the personal covenant-keeping God, and he has witness to Elohim, the mighty God, who has power to perform what is promised. Man is without excuse.

In the beginning, when men began to multiply upon the earth, they had the written witness of the heavenly luminaries. They had the stamp of the Creator on His creation and they had the true prophets of God preaching the righteousness of God through faith in the coming Covenant Son with eternal life for the flesh body. And they had the Holy Spirit bearing witness to the word being preached (Gen.6:3).

When they began to multiply, men also had the draw of the world city built in defiance of the word of God. They had the false prophets preaching another gospel and there were the nephilim who were into occult teaching and practices. But God saw the true source of the wickedness on the earth was the thoughts of the imagination of man (Gen.6:5). Mostly man chose to remain flesh. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually - “all day long” (Jay Green, The Interlinear Bible, Hebrew/English).

Every inclination of the thoughts of man’s heart only evil - only that which God does not approve - only evil all the time. The idea being in the sense of a purposeful formation of thought in man’s heart. The plans of the innermost being, what was framed in man’s mind in his thinking and desired in his senses was continually evil. Man’s thinking and planning motivated him to pursue the corrupt behavior of the pride of his self-will. The thinking framed in man’s mind was only imagined.

“And it repented Jehovah that He had made man on the earth and it grieved Him to His heart” (Gen.6:6). The Hebrew word for “grieved has the meaning “to cause pain.”

What God had proved in His collective test in Adam was proved individually as each one of mankind was born into the world. On the face of all the witness to the truth of the Word of God man kept turned to his own way by his own deliberate choice to remain flesh and to not receive the Gift of righteousness and the eternal life shared in the Gift of the Anointed Son of the Covenant.

Men loved the darkness of their imagination and they would not open their hearts to the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. They refused to see the truth concerning the word of God. You must obey the truth and be born from above to enter the Kingdom of God as living sons (see Jn.3:3-8, 17-21).

In God’s Kingdom the “Royal Law is Love” - Love of God - Love for one’s neighbor - Love for others (Mt.22:37-40; Jn.15:12-13; 1 Jn.3:10-14; 4:7-21). Self-love is destructive. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes into Him would not perish but have eternal life” to live forever (Jn.3:16). Through being loved of their Maker, man could learn to love.

The Hebrew word “repent” in Genesis 6:6 does not have the meaning that Jehovah changed His mind concerning having made man. Jehovah did not have a change of mind concerning His Covenant to make man in His image. Those of mankind that must be destroyed caused Jehovah a different thinking about having made them.

Jehovah is all-knowing. He need not change His mind concerning His doing. It is man who must be dealt with according to man’s thinking, man’s doing. This causes Jehovah thoughts of pain and grief.

Man, in hardening his heart against the voice of the Spirit and in refusing to mix the gospel of the Covenant Son with faith to receive the righteousness of God and the eternal life for the body, had destroyed himself. Having chosen to remain mere human flesh with the life in the blood, each one was a vessel fitted for destruction.

The earthen vessel, a body of human flesh, would one day stop breathing and return to the dust of the ground and perish forever. The personal being who lived in it had destroyed himself. In not receiving the eternal life in the Son, there would be no power to raise up the body out from the dead (see Rom.8:5-11). In not choosing to become a son of God, the personal being could not enter the Kingdom of God and he would have no life on earth. While on earth, that one loved his darkness. In the end, that one must be put into outer darkness forever (Jn.3:17-21; Mt.22:13; 25:30).

This grieved God at His heart. The thoughts of God’s heart concerning the wickedness of these men caused great pain to God’s heart. He is under the righteous necessity of a just judgment and it must be carried out. He will carry it out collectively and put a stop to the corruption and violence and begin again (see Gen.6:11-13; Is.28:21-22).

Jehovah’s thoughts concerning these ungodly sinners greatly pained Him. It was not only that He must be just and deal so severely with this creation of man, but He is pained that He brought them into being at all. It would have been better for them to never have been born. It would have been good for these ungodly sinners to not have been brought into being than to suffer what they had brought upon themselves. Rightly understood, Moses’ record reveals the tender compassion for these men who would not have Jehovah’s Covenant Son for their Lord.

We are reminded of the Lord Jesus’ denouncing the sin of Judas Iscariot. “Woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been good for that man if he had not been born” (see Mt.26:20-25; Mk.14:17-21; Lk.22:21-22). It would have been good if Judas had never been brought into the world that he would do such wickedness and then with great remorse confess he had betrayed innocent blood, but would not repent and cast himself on the mercy of God and believe the grace of God and receive the Son of Man to be his Savior (see Mt.27:3-5; Ac.1:15-20). How little Judas knew God.

Judas was not born to betray Jesus. Judas was born to become a son of God. He was privileged to be chosen to be under the teaching of His Master for four years (see Ps.41:9; Ac.1:17). Judas heard the truth over and over but he lived in the imagination of his heart. Judas thought he would be someone with power and authority in a kingdom which did not exist except in the minds of Jews who were looking for an earthly kingdom. Living in the imagination of his heart, Judas missed the calling to become a son of God and live in the real Kingdom designed and purposed by Jehovah God in His Covenant Son.

Jehovah is reluctant and, with deep regret, contemplates the thoughts of the hearts of the men whom He purposed for His sons, and makes the decision to destroy them. It must be done. It is the only right thing to do. It is retributive justice. These ungodly sinners made a choice to not receive eternal life in the Covenant Son. They were a mere creation of flesh bodies. But they would not obey the truth to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God and live forever in God’s Kingdom. They must be destroyed from off the face of God’s earth.

The thoughts of God’s heart were real - hard, cold facts. The desires for the wicked sinners must be yielded to. They would not have His desire for sons of God. Those thoughts caused God great pain. The grief for man that man, in choosing his darkness, must suffer the consequences of his own doing - pained God at His heart (see Ezek.18:23, 30-32; 2 Pet.3:9).

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah” (Gen.6:8). God has one man, Noah, who found grace. Jehovah sees a righteous man, one who has believed into the righteousness of God through faith in God’s Anointed Covenant Son. Noah heard the voice of the Spirit in the preaching of the gospel of the Covenant Son. And Noah turned from his own way of darkness and he obeyed the truth made known in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Noah put his faith in the coming Covenant Son of God, who would come down to earth and become sin for His creation of man, that individually His creation of man might become the righteousness of God in Him (see 2 Cor.5:14-21).

“These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Gen.6:9). Like Enoch, it is recorded that “Noah walked with God.” For two to walk together they must be in agreement (Amos 3:3). Walking together shows a close personal relationship.

“Noah was perfect in his generations.” How was Noah “perfect” or “upright”? Noah had received the Covenant Son. Noah, in becoming the righteousness of God, had received eternal life. Noah was born from above. His body would die and return to the dust of the ground but in The Resurrection of Life it would be raised up out from the dead - deathless and glorified (see Jn.11:23-27; Rev.20:4-6). Noah was complete, preserved, spirit, soul and body (see 1 Thess.5:23-24).

Noah could say, as Job did, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin is destroyed [lit. struck off], yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job.19:25-27a).

In the beginning Jehovah began multiplying sons of man upon the earth through one man, Adam. He would wipe the ungodly sinners off the face of His earth and begin again through one man, Noah (Gen.9:1). All is not lost. Noah carried the seed for the coming Covenant Son. One of Noah’s sons will carry the seed (Gen.9:26-27). The Covenant Son of Jehovah will be born of a virgin, born the Savior of the world!

This concludes our lesson.