There has seemingly always been much debate as to whether The Flood of Genesis Chapter 7 actually took place. The biblical account illustrates the total destruction of mankind; save Noah, his three sons, and their wives. If God desired to destroy all men, why did He spare Noah? Confusion coupled with misunderstanding The Flood of Genesis chapter 7 has led to some dismissing the account as fictitious. Why would God play favorites with Noah and His family, and why would God destroy a world He loves?
God did indeed destroy the world by the waters of the most massive flood there has ever been, and that ever will be. (Gen 9:11) This flood was brought about by the wickedness of mankind following the Fall in Genesis Chapter 3.
"The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." – (Genesis 6:5)
"God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways." – (Genesis 6:12)
In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, God initiated the punishment He had pre-warned them about. "You shall surely die."(Genesis 2:17) Adam and Eve died the day they sinned. Not physically... That took over 900 years to happen. When they ate of the forbidden fruit, they died spiritually. The perfection of their nature & their will died. They were overcome by sin. Their perfect nature changed and became what we now call a "Sin Nature" which is what all men have, and makes us as terrible as we all know we personally are behind closed doors. Adam and Eve were the totality of the human race at that time. So the whole race of man sinned. Man was now a "Dead Race", enslaved by their "Sin Nature" and Captive to Sin in all things, because he who sins is captive to sin. Everyone born of these contaminated beings would carry their inherent sin, and subsequently, their judgment.
"The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." – (Genesis 6:5)
"God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways." – (Genesis 6:12)
In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, God initiated the punishment He had pre-warned them about. "You shall surely die."(Genesis 2:17) Adam and Eve died the day they sinned. Not physically... That took over 900 years to happen. When they ate of the forbidden fruit, they died spiritually. The perfection of their nature & their will died. They were overcome by sin. Their perfect nature changed and became what we now call a "Sin Nature" which is what all men have, and makes us as terrible as we all know we personally are behind closed doors. Adam and Eve were the totality of the human race at that time. So the whole race of man sinned. Man was now a "Dead Race", enslaved by their "Sin Nature" and Captive to Sin in all things, because he who sins is captive to sin. Everyone born of these contaminated beings would carry their inherent sin, and subsequently, their judgment.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— (Romans 5:12)
As the earth was populated with this "Dead Race", essentially, "the garbage started to overflow." Man as a race was dead; walking corpses that stunk in the nostrils of God. As the race perpetuated, so did the sin of man, until God, the Righteous Judge of all the Earth(Gen 18:25, Ecclesiastes 3:17) had enough.
"The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” – (Genesis 6:6-7)
God loved the world He created(John 3:16). Because of this, His heart was broken concerning its state of Sin, and complete deviation from the plan He originally intended for man. His regret of man's creation was not a "second thought" as it may seem. It was a deep sorrow for the giving of His goodness(His providential care and sustenance) that such sinful creatures should be kept alive. God HATES sin and wickedness. And by His own Sovereign, Divine, choosing, He chose to deal with those things at that time.
As cited above, the whole world was corrupt. The people who bore and raised Noah were corrupt. The people Noah was around and grew up with were corrupt. The woman he married was corrupt. How was it possible that Noah wasn't corrupt? It isn't possible, because he WAS corrupt. Noah was just as deserving of dying in the flood as everyone else. Why didn't he? It was not because he pleased God and everyone else didn’t. Corrupt men aren't a pleasure to Lord, but a grief.
"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." – (Genesis 6:8)
Noah was Saved by Grace. The NIV Bible reads "Favor". The KJV reads "Grace". They don't appear to be the same thing, but they are. Grace is "unmerited favor". At base, it's "Favor (good, special, and or preferential treatment), that you DON'T deserve." Noah didn't work for this favor, nor could he earn it. Because of the Sovereign Mercy of God, The Lord gave it to Him freely and spared him. What was so good about Noah that made him better than everyone else and made him worthy to be spared? NOTHING! He was just as bad, if not worse than everyone who died in the flood. Noah wasn't Saved because he was so good, but because God is so Good. God wanted the race of man to thrive until the Messiah, the Savior that He promised to send back in the Garden of Eden when the original sin happened, could come. Noah being Saved wasn't about starting the world over with a good man. As you can see, today, the world is in awful shape; and getting worse; far worse than it was at the time of the Flood. This is because the same sin that God punished in the Flood went on the boat in Noah and his family, and came off the boat when the Flood was over. Noah was Saved to the Glory of God: That God may illustrate his eventual end-time judgment of all wicked men, & that the race of man should sustain to the coming of Christ, The Savior of Men.
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