Summary

The Lord now announced the punishment that would come upon the people who had fallen so far away from him. He announced that he would remove all the people and land animals from the earth. God would send a punishment that will affect the whole earth and all its inhabitants. The word used here for blotting out is a striking one. Literally, this word means to wash away. We also read this word in a negative sense in Exodus 32:32–33. However, the term can also have a positive meaning. It is also used to indicate that a person’s sins have been washed away (Psalm 51:2, Psalm 51:10; Proverbs 6:33; Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 44:22; Jeremiah 18:23). The earth needed to be washed clean of the filth that men had brought upon it in great quantity. The very sorrow in God’s heart cried out for this.

We also see here that God’s regret does not mean that he becomes unfaithful to his promise and would change his plan. He made sure that there was still someone whose family found grace in his sight. Someone with whom he continued. This man and his family were the beginning of a new humanity: Noah. Take note of how the Bible specifically states that only Noah found favour in God’s eyes. The book of Genesis is divided into sections that begin with a sentence that says that the following portion is the history of person X. In most cases it concerns a particular person and his descendants. Genesis 6:8 marks the conclusion of the history (“toledoth”) of Adam (see Genesis 5:1). This ending shows that Adam and his descendants needed the Lord and his forgiving grace. Without such grace, without that special love of God, there is no life. Then in Genesis 6:9 the history of Noah and his descendants begins. Just that combination of Genesis 6:8 and Genesis 6:9 shows that in the world before the flood and in the world after the flood, it is only by God’s grace, by his love, that we can be saved from God’s deserved judgment. At all times we depend on it only through Christ as our Saviour.