“Did God make a mistake when he developed people and then regretted the flood?”
This was the question from my son this week. If God is all powerful wouldn’t he know that humans would become so corrupt? Why would he regret making people and then destroy them?
Hard questions. I am not expert but if we were created in the image of God wouldn’t our emotions be a part of our being?
I have hoped against hope believing God can, being disappointed when it didn’t go the way I anticipated. I have been angry at some of my choices with actions that I have made. I have hurt and been hurt. I am a human created in the image of God. God is perfect, I am not.
When he created Adam, he knew Jesus would be crucified.
The questions made me pause, Did God hope against hope humans wouldn’t have been so corrupt? Did he pursue eventually giving up? There is a fine line between being pursued and being stalked. I don’t know the answers. In honesty I’m glad I serve a God that I can’t figure out.
The next question was just as hard, “So a rainbow represents God’s promise never to destroy humans off the face of the earth?”
My answer created more questions. The rainbow is a covenant not to destroy the world through flooding again. I explained that one day Jesus comes back and the judgement isn’t pretty.
I enjoyed the conversation even if the answers were not readily available. We talked about how human Noah was. We speculated how he might have had post traumatic stress disorder maybe seeing the people drown around him, or if the animals didn’t hibernate the poop and the noise, and having family confined in a small area. We talked about Noah’s vineyard and wine.
We talked about heaven and how amazing to not have the pain and suffering on earth. We came to the conclusion that sometimes God’s assignments are tough. Sometimes the answers are not easy or conclusive, but God is. We have a perfect savior. We also have a God that knows our heart even in our imperfections he knows our love for him.
Not sure this applies but here are some thoughts.
Some people believe that God has a plan for their life. It’s a straight line. From the time we are conceived, we follow that straight line on our journey, God’s journey actually, through our life. Hunter may have been asking a question with that in mind. If God is all powerful, why does he make someone as flawed as a human being, who is sinful. He knows what that someone’s path will be…it’s a straight line! Why would He do that?
Well I might be wrong, but I don’t believe that life is a straight line, anymore than I believe God intentionally makes us flawed. If God has a plan for us, I think that plan is much more like a tree with many branches. At each new branch, we make a decision of our own free will, which determines where we go and what happens. If I decide to smoke, I’m more likely to get cancer. That decision is mine and takes me to a different part of the tree, or God’s plan. The tree can have parts that aren’t very Christian. Places that take us far away from God. Likewise, there are decisions we make that take us to places in that tree which are very pleasing in God’s eyes.
We must have free will, or we are simply robots. Our free will is what Jesus wished to affect. He helps to influence our decisions to take us on the right path.
God doesn’t force us to obey. We have that choice. And that’s what’s so important here. I have a picture in my mind….of God welcoming you with open arms after you’ve made decisions that were Christian and to His liking. Well done…thy good and faithful servant. Verses seeing us walk through Heaven’s gates like robots, with our destiny predetermined. God wouldn’t have anything to celebrate! Sorta like if I put a chain on my dog and pull him to me, it’s much less satisfying than when I call and he comes on his own free will.
God IS all powerful. And could easily flood the earth each day. He could strike me down in a nanosecond. But either by design, or by His decision, we are allowed to make choices. Choices that take us on a winding path….sometimes good……sometimes bad. And while He may have a grand plan, the choices we take and the autonomy we have to make them is what takes us where we go. I believe God hopes we all make the right choices…but they are our choices to make..and someday…one day, we will be judged on those choices.
Very wise words thank you.
God got it right..WE did not!!
Very true