The Lord sees what is happening on the earth. Nothing escapes him. He also sees that people are wanting and doing more and more evil. This is not limited to a group of people living in a certain part of the earth. On the contrary, this is about the man and about the earth. This shows that it is about almost all of mankind wherever they live on earth.
The worst part is that the wickedness comes from the heart of man. His heart is full of evil desires and plans. Time and again man is seeking to do evil (see also Psalm 14:2–3; Romans 3:10–20). The Lord observes this, and it concerns him. It hurts him deeply. You can see that in the words regret
and grief.
When we truly repent, it means that we acknowledge guilt; that we put on the garment of repentance. With the Lord, it is different. God’s repentance does not mean that the Lord says he has done something wrong. This is about divine regret. The Lord is good and he never does anything that is evil and sinful. The Lord does not want the wrong and therefore cannot sin.
The Lord can have regret—but never in a human way. We see this very clearly in the Bible. Especially in 1 Samuel 15:1–35 where we read twice about regret with God. (Note that older versions use the word repent.
) The Lord says in 1 Samuel 15:11, I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.
When Samuel announced to Saul that the Lord would take the kingship away from him, we read in 1 Samuel 15:29, And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.
So God’s regret is not a human way of being sorry!
5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.