The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. – Genesis 6:6

Today's Scripture Reading (June 24, 2021): Genesis 6

In his "Foundation" series, Isaac Asimov postulates the concept that the great movements of the future might be foreseen. In contrast, the individual actions of history might be a mystery wrapped up in the turns of chaos. To put that simply, given the conditions that existed after the First World War, we probably should have seen that an Adolf Hitler-like character would arise out of the ashes of Germany, but not specifically that that person would be Adolf Hitler. It could have been someone else. Of course, then someone appears in Asimov's story who can upset the grand movements. I have to admit that I like Asimov's idea.

I struggle with the idea of how much that God knows, specifically about the future. And sometimes, I wonder if the truth is more like Asimov's concept of the future than it is about God knowing every detail of what is about to happen. My problem is that there are hints throughout the Bible that seem to teach the idea that God doesn't know every detail of the future. And we twist ourselves into pretzels trying to prove something that, at least in places, the Bible doesn't want to tell us. I am not saying that God is not omniscient, and I understand that he is outside of the concept of time, but there are still moments where we seem to surprise God.

And this is one of those moments. Genesis indicates that God "regretted" the creation of the human race. As much as we might want to argue something else, to "regret doing something" indicates that we expected a different result. I regret doing many things, and it is never because the events turned out exactly as I had planned. Maybe it was just a test, but I am not convinced that is true. God regretted creating the human race, partially because of our remarkable ability to cause each other pain. It is not that God did not understand that we might choose that path, but he hoped we would choose to do something different. I believe that God still hopes that we will make a different choice. But I suspect that God doesn't know for sure what choice we will make, at least not in every circumstance.

I don't believe that that weakens God in any way. It would be sadistic of God if he created us, knowing that there was only self-inflicted pain in our future. And like a pet that we have to put down because it is suffering during the end stages of life, if all we are capable of is instilling pain, then maybe the more humane thing is to put us down, ending our short reign over the planet.

The most important part of the story of Noah is simply this; Noah showed God that something different was possible for the human race. Noah proved to God that we could choose a path that leads us to make a positive difference in our world. God's regret didn't extend to Noah. Noah was different, and he chose a better path. But the choice was ours then, and it still is. However, we have an advantage that Noah lacked; we have the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit who can help us make those positive choices. As a result, we can make our Creator proud of how we live our lives, making this planet a better place for everything God has created as we live out our existence together on our Blue Marble.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Genesis 7