God's Grief Over Mankind

January 26th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

Genesis 6:5-6 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

Though God once “saw” His perfect creation and called it “very good” (1:31), now He is grieved by what He “saw,” for though man was once sinless, he had become utterly immoral. Cain’s offspring had introduced many things, not the least of which was polygamy through Lamech (4:19). Thus, his serpentine line opened the door to greater and greater corruption within the family. What God therefore saw was that “the wickedness of man was great on the earth,” for it had permeated every inch of society. There were simply no boundaries for man’s evil conduct. Man took as many wives as he chose, and under the domination of Satan and his evil powers, mankind was building a reputation as men of “renown” (6:4). Their power and domination over the world of that day was the fulfillment of Satan’s plan to overwhelm God, corrupt the seed of the woman, and ascend above the Creator. God had created man to rule over His creation, but his rule was coming to an end as God took note of what had become of His once great handiwork.

The text says of man “that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The word “continually” is literally “every day.” So “every day” mankind was concocting more and more evil in his “heart.” Of course the heart is the depraved mind of man—the epicenter of all he thinks and does. Man’s thoughts were thus snowballing from bad to worse, and the fertile ground of the mind that thinks continually of evil was producing a harvest of sinful and decadent behavior. This is said to have “grieved” God in v. 6 (cf. Eph. 4:30).

Verse 6 plainly says, “the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” Here we see an example of God’s emotions, for He hates sin. Of course God never changes, for He is not a man that He should change His mind or regret (1 Sam. 15:29). Wenham says, “when God ‘repents,’ He starts to act differently. Here and in 1 Samuel 15:11 and Jeremiah 18:10 He regrets some good thing He has done for his people, whereas in Exodus 32:12, 14; 2 Samuel 24:16; Amos 7:3, 6 He repents of some evil he is carrying out. That God should change His mind might lead to His being accused of capriciousness, which Scripture firmly denies… (Num 23:19; cf. 1 Sam 15:29). Such remarks obviously raise various questions for the doctrine of divine sovereignty and its correlate human responsibility, but theological systematization is hardly the concern of the biblical narrators. For them divine repentance is a response to man’s changes of heart, whether for better or worse.”

Contrary to humans, God is neither given to His emotions nor is He ruled by them. Since God is good in every sense of the word, when man turns bad, God does not change what He decreed as good. He will work good out of man’s wickedness (cf. Rom. 8:28), but He is always good. That never changes. God may change His plans to do good for people when they persist in sin (Jer. 18:10), and He may change His mind when they repent and do good (cf. Jonah 3:10). But all of this is within God’s perfect and unchanging will. His character never changes, though His actions might. God is longsuffering and never quick to judge. He always hates sin and is grieved by it. So, v. 6 is an attestation that God has not changed in His hatred for sin. He is both “sorry” about what had happened and “grieved” over it. The former means to have “emotional pain and regret,” and the latter is to be “highly offended; embarrassed; insulted.” The sin of man does not simply anger God, it prompts Him to judge those who have offended Him.

Food For Thought
People today take God’s grace for granted. Though God is love in every respect, His love entails wrath and punishment for sin. He is too holy and sovereign to tolerate sin for eternity. Those who bank on God’s mercy yet live their lives taking God’s patience and forbearance for granted are in for a rude awakening, for the prophets speak of great judgment on those who persist in their sins and allow the decadence of the world around them to subtly take them away. Evaluate your life today. Ask God to purify your heart that it be pleasing to Him. He is truly grieved when His people persist in sin. So don’t! Instead, walk in godliness to please Him.