What is the meaning of Genesis 6:5? Then the LORD saw • Scripture repeatedly emphasizes that God sees and evaluates all things (Genesis 1:31; Psalm 33:13-15; Proverbs 15:3). Unlike the limited perception of humans, His gaze is comprehensive and moral. • His seeing here is not passive observation but active assessment; the same Lord who “saw” creation as “very good” (Genesis 1:31) now beholds what sin has made of it. • Hebrews 4:13 reminds us, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight,” reinforcing that the moral decline leading to the Flood was fully known to Him. The wickedness of man was great upon the earth • The verse stresses the magnitude of human evil: “great” and spread “upon the earth.” Sin is no longer isolated—humanity as a whole has embraced it. • Genesis 6:11-12 confirms, “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God and full of violence.” • Isaiah 59:2-4 and Romans 3:10-18 echo the same sweeping verdict: pervasive sin saturates society whenever God’s truth is rejected. • This prepares the way for the Flood, a global judgment corresponding to a global corruption (Genesis 6:17). Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart • God moves from outward acts to inward motives. The problem lies at the core of human personality—the “heart,” the control center of desires and decisions (1 Samuel 16:7). • Jeremiah 17:9 states, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure,” confirming the inner corruption Genesis describes. • Jesus reinforces the point: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality” (Matthew 15:19). • By pinpointing “every inclination,” the text leaves no room for morally neutral or naturally righteous thoughts apart from God’s grace. Altogether evil all the time • The repetition—“altogether…all the time”—underscores total depravity. Humanity’s bent was not occasional lapses but continuous rebellion. • Romans 8:7-8 notes that the “mind of the flesh is hostile to God” and “cannot please God.” • Ephesians 2:1-3 describes people as “dead in trespasses and sins,” “following the desires of the flesh,” mirroring Genesis 6:5’s verdict. • Titus 1:15 further shows that without divine intervention, “even their minds and consciences are defiled.” • God’s righteous judgment in sending the Flood flows logically from this constant, universal evil (Genesis 6:7). summary Genesis 6:5 paints a stark, literal picture of humanity before the Flood: God, who sees everything, observes pervasive and persistent wickedness rooted in the very heart of mankind. The evil is comprehensive—every intention continually corrupt—leaving no part of human thought untainted. This verse explains why the Flood was necessary and sets the stage for the unfolding story of redemption, where only God’s grace can reverse the universal condition of sin revealed here. |
    |