God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and outside.” (Genesis 6:13-14)
Genesis is the story of man’s pride and God’s goodness. In the garden, Adam and Eve wanted to be like God and “know” (in other words, decide for themselves) what was good and what was evil. They didn’t trust God’s goodness to them, thinking he was withholding something they should rightfully have. By the time of Genesis 6, the earth was filled with wickedness. The root Hebrew word used for wickedness is the same as the word used to describe the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Later, Noah’s descendants in Babel sought fame and power so that “nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them” (Gen. 11:6).
In each of these three situations, God saw the sinful pride of people who elevated themselves to god-like status. And in each case, he intervened to put big-headed people back in their proper place. In each story he scattered the people to disperse and weaken them. God is a God of judgment.
But he is also a God of mercy. After Adam and Eve rebelled against him, God could have simply destroyed them and started over (as he suggested doing with the Israelites who worshiped the golden calf). Instead he allowed them to live for hundreds of years and produce children who “began to call on the name of the Lord” (Gen. 4:26). Centuries later God saved Noah’s entire family from the flood, even though only Noah was described as being righteous. In the case of Babel, God showed mercy on prideful and rebellious people, choosing to carry out his judgment through confusion rather than carnage. Out of these people he chose Abraham, whose family eventually brought Jesus into the world. God is a god of merciful deliverance.
How have you seen him deliver you lately?