The world that God created had been corrupted by sin. This devotional reading looks at how God decided He was going to punish the evil people and fix the corruption.
Nuggets
- The vast majority of the population on earth were filled with corruption that led to violence.
- God will allow this corruption and violence in His world only so long before He will mete out punishment.
Moses was ping ponging here. He wrote four verses about how evil the world was. Then he wrote three verses about four of the eight people that were ark riders.
Now, Moses was back on the evil in the world. But he was setting the stage for God’s action on the disobedience.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Creating Everything theme, click the button below.
Devotions in the Creation’s Do-Over series
Violence on the Earth
“Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt” (Gen. 6: 11-12 NLT)
The vast majority of the population on earth were filled with corruption that led to violence.
There is one thing the New Living Translation doesn’t say. “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence” (Gen. 6: 11 ESV emphasis added).
God always sees what is happening — good or evil. He knew corrupt humans had turned against a true relationship with Him.
But look at it another way. The way God sees it, anyone who breaks His laws and commandments is corrupt.
Fuller said that this is a result of the marriages between sons of God and daughters of men (Gen. 6: 2). Satan’s influence corrupts humans.
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In other words, compromising with the worldview corrupts disciples — which leads to the Church having corruption in it. We are still there today — maybe even worse than the Days of Noah.
The perversion of God’s creation led to violence.
Violence is an overarching terms for a lot of different acts. Smith gave us the list of oppression, tyranny, persecution of good men, injustice, and cruelty to expand on what those acts look like.
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Worldview people want the power to keep doing whatever they want to do. Some try to repress any opposition to their way of thinking.
They do this through mistreating those who think opposite of them. They do this through unfair treatment and being downright mean at times.
Think how Noah would have been treated. He would have been laughed at, in the least. He probably was mocked and belittled.
These are the actions people take. From where do they come?
Some comes from selfishness. Those worldview people want what they want, and they don’t want anyone, especially God, to tell them what they can or can’t have and do.
Maclaren expanded on that. He wrote, “When the bonds which knit society to God are relaxed, selfishness soon becomes furious, and forcibly seizes what it lusts after, regardless of others’ rights.”
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The polar opposite of this corruption and violence is walking with God. The absence of God in our lives allows this corruption to enter us.
Punishment for the Earth
“So God said to Noah, ‘I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!’” (Gen. 6: 13 NLT)
God will allow this corruption and violence in His world only so long before He will mete out punishment.
Ooo, baby. I bet Noah heard those words from God and went, “Wait! What????” Then he shook in his sandals.
Maclaren explained what this sentence teaches us. He wrote, “A very profound truth, not only of the certain Divine retribution, but of the indissoluble connection of sin with destruction.”
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God will pass judgment on our sin. It is in retribution for our disobedience. The ultimate judgment on sin is death and utter destruction.
Yes, beginning at Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden, death has always been a result of sin. Before Adam and Eve bit, there was no death.
True, Adam’s physical death took 930 years to happen. God had already said that was going to change to 120 years (Gen. 6: 3).
Spiritual death had already occurred. Faith and obedience reversed that.
But we’ve already said that the corrupt world was not interested in following God. They wanted to continue on as they had been doing.
God said, “No. I’m done.”
What does the verse say? “Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near” (Isa. 55: 6 NLT emphasis added).
Look at this verse in Isaiah. “But the godless are like thorns to be thrown away, for they tear the hand that touches them. One must use iron tools to chop them down; they will be totally consumed by fire” (II Sam. 23: 6-7 NLT).
Just as they did, we bring this punishment on ourselves.
Time is going to run out. God isn’t always going to be near. Don’t be caught in an unsaved condition.
But why did God punish all creation for the sins of humans? Kalisch reminded us that earth was what humans inhabited. He called it a witness, saying it wasn’t passive.
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Earth is tied to humankind. It provided the building blocks for man. “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” (Gen. 2: 7 NLT).
But we have to remember that it was tied to humankind in the original sin. “And to the man he said, ‘Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains’” (Gen. 3: 17-18 NLT).
In other words, when humankind is punished for sin, the earth is, too.
Making the Connections #1
I love what Maclaren said. He wrote, “Sin is death in the making; death is sin finished.”
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In the next couple of devotions, we are going to be talking about the fulfillment of a promise. God promised that, as soon as Noah was done building the ark, He would destroy the earth by flooding it. Everyone who and every animal that was not on the ark was going to die.
That death was the result of sin.
Punishment may be delayed (death in the making); but at some point, judgment will be passed. The sentence would be death (sin finished).
God has promised never to destroy the world by a flood. But He has also promised to destroy this world. “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide” (Rev. 20: 11 NLT).
Right now, we are in the death-in-the-making stage. Soon, we are going to be in the sin-finished stage. The earth and sky will be destroyed.
Those who have compromised with the worldview or flat out rejected God will be judged and sentenced to their punishment. “And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 15 NLT).
Ooo, baby. This is a big threat (but it really is a promise). It is going to happen.
At the same time, there is a promise of deliverance. Those who walk with God in faith and obedience will be delivered from this sentence. Anyone who has made a genuine profession of faith and lived for God will not face this punishment. They will be rewarded with eternal life.
God has made a way to escape. It is called the Plan of Salvation.
Making the Connections #2
Let’s go back to what Kalisch was saying. He wrote,
“The earth is, in the Bible, not considered as a mere passive object; it is the habitation of man; it beholds his deeds of virtue and of baseness; it is, therefore, like the eternal heavens, invoked as a witness in solemn exhortations; it cries up to heaven if it is soiled with blood; it ‘vomits out’ the wicked inhabitants.”
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The blood cried up to God. That is what Abel’s did. “But the Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!’” (Gen. 4: 10 NLT).
Do we think Abel’s was the only blood to do that? With the world so corrupt and violent as it was, it probably had a countless number of God’s children’s blood crying up to Him.
I wonder if this is just martyrs or those killed. Or does all of His children’s blood call go up to Him upon our death?
I know that the omnipotent God knows exactly when we are going to die. But I wonder if He waits to get the call of the blood before He sends the angels to pick us up.
I can see our blood crying out to the Father to bring us home.
How Do We Apply This?
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Father God. The only way to counteract our sinful nature is to believe in and confess to You. Lord, help us to walk with You. Amen.
What do you think?
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