God was not angry when he decided to destroy the whole human race with a flood. God was sad. I want to destroy things when I am angry, so I assumed God must be angry if he destroyed everyone on earth, but the Bible tells a different story.
“When the LORD saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time, he was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth. He was so filled with regret that he said, “I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them” (Genesis 6:5-7). I get angry when I see corruption and violence, but God feels sad.
The story of creation tells us that in the beginning God was pleased with everything he made. And people were the highlight of God’s creation… “God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female, blessed them, and said, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control” … God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased” (Genesis 1:27-31).
Over time, creation changed from good to bad. God came to regret everyone he had made except Noah. “Noah had no faults and was the only good man of his time. He lived in fellowship with God” (Genesis 6:9). God said to Noah, “I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die, but I will make a covenant with you” (Genesis 6:17-18).
God planned to destroy everything, but Noah made him reconsider. God saved Noah and Noah’s wife and Noah’s sons, and Noah’s son’s wives, and pairs of every kind of animal and bird and God gave the world another chance.
The flood did not change human beings. Soon after they got another chance, they filled the world with evil and violence spread everywhere. But God changed.
God said, “Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time. As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night” (Genesis 8:21-22).
God decided to keep giving people another chance.
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