By Scott Shifferd, Jr.
After Adam & Eve, people multiplied over the face of the earth. In 4 centuries, billions of people could have populated the Earth. From Adam to Noah, there were 1,656 years give or take some months (MS text). In this time, giants lived on the earth (Gen. 6:4, cf. Job 40-41).
About 4,500 years ago in the days of Noah, God saw the wickedness of man across the earth filled with violence and corruption (Gen. 6:11-12). Yet, God also saw the world in a way in which people cannot. God saw that every intent of the thoughts of the heart were evil continually (Gen. 6:5). Only God can judge the hidden counsels of the heart (1 Cor. 4:5). Therefore, God judged the world and brought a just destruction upon the world by a flood. Like the flood, God has reserved the world now for fire until the judgment day (2 Pet. 3:5-7). Sadly, many do not understand the consequences of their sin.
The sin of the world, our sin, grieves the heart of the Almighty God. Genesis 6:6 states, "And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart" (cf. Eph. 4:30). This is why God decided to destroy the world with a flood. God said, "I am sorry that I have made them."
Yet in the world before the Flood, a man and his family found God's grace. Here is the first mention of grace in the Bible. See, "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Gen. 6:8). Why? Because "Noah walked with God" (6:9). There is the extent of God's grace as God's grace is now in Christ.
"But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
God's grace does not permit anyone to walk in darkness and continue in sin (1 John 1:6).
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