Man's heart, and the death of butterflies (Genesis 6)

God judges the world for violence and corruption (Gen 6:11-13), but what struck me the most was verses 5-6 "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. (Gen 6:5-6 ESV, emphasis mine)." The violence and moral corruption on the earth is a result of the "intention of the thoughts" of the heart. In the New Testament, Jesus proclaims how the evil man does come from the heart. It is what comes out of a man's heart that makes him unclean, not what he takes into his body. It wasn't the violence and corruption that was the primary factor causing the LORD's heart to hurt, it was the thoughts and intentions of man's heart. God, the creator, was sorry. He was grieved that He created man, because of their evil hearts.

God sent the flood as a judgement upon the world for the wickedness of man. This flood devistated the land. Killed the animals, birds, flowers, insects, trees. It started the restructing of the continents. It changed the whole atmosphere of the globe. Why? Because of the evil of man's HEART that outflowed into corruption and violence.

I rarely consider how the thoughts and intentions of my heart affect those around me. It is a foreign thought to us that what we think and dwell on in the privicy of our bed-rooms could affect friends and family. In Genesis, we see a clear picture of how man's thoughts and the intentions of his heart caused the destruction of innocent songbirds, and butterflies. Creation, already cursed because of man's sin, is now destroyed because of man's evil thoughts and intentions of his heart. How serious sin must be to the creator God. How vulnerable is the physical earth. Man thinks only of himself, and perhaps of those he loves. Yet, his sin incited God to destroy the whole world by a flood. And in the future, judgement will again be cast, and she will be destroyed by fire.

In the meantime, the earth's suffering hasn't ceased because thousands of years have past, and the physical evidence of the flood isn't as recognizable. Rather, "the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we outselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Rom 8:22-23, ESV)." The curse from Gen 3, started the suffering of the earth, and until that curse is lifted, untill the redeemed have their Glorified bodies and there is a new heaven and a new earth - She groans. She groans not under the weight of pollution, and mismanagement*, she groans under the oppression of sin, and the curse resulting therefrom.

So, for us, today. May we always remember how seriously God takes sin. We want to laugh at and brush off our "mistakes," without a thought concerning the effect even our petty thoughts have the the people and world around us. When Paul speaks of taking every thought captive (2 Cor 10:5), may our minds go to the vivid example of the flood and the heartache each man's inward life brought his creator.

*Pollution and mismanagement are results of sin. They are A symptom, not the cause. Just as the forces of weather, and the destruction they bring are a symptom.