Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh… It is sad, when the physician, having exhausted all the resources of his skill, gives up his patient and retires. It is sad when the parent, having tried severity and kindness, correction and encouragement, in vain, at last, heartbroken and hopeless, desists from his endeavours to reform his wayward child. But it is sadder still when Almighty God foiled, as it were, by human obduracy, in all the manifestations of His grace and mercy, at last gives up His efforts for the salvation of men, and retires exclaiming: "How often would I have gathered you under My wing, and ye would not." Such is the spectacle here. The Spirit of God has, all through, been connected with our world. It was He who moved on the face of the waters, reducing the discordant elements to order, and building up that fair and goodly structure, which has still so many traces of its original beauty lingering amid its ruin and decay. It was He who was breathed into man, making him a living soul, spiritual, and like to God in wisdom, goodness, happiness, and truth. After the Fall, He did not forsake the work of His hands, but clave to the souls of men, seeking to help their recovery, and if that might not be, seeking to act as a drag on their downward progress. Oh, how long-continued, constant, and persevering have been His efforts for the good of man! What has been the treatment which He has received from them in return? God tells us what it was from the men before the flood. They were going on in evils ways, and the Spirit strove with them, tried to stop them, and turn them back. He pleaded with them, warned them, but it was in vain; they went on, and grew worse and worse. Like a mighty torrent they swept along, and drew even the godly along with them. At length it became time for God to decide and act, and so He did. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." Slowly and reluctantly, God comes to this determination. Oh, the evil of man's sin! It makes, as it were, a conflict in the Divine bosom. Mercy calls for delay, but justice says, "It must be limited." Love to men, and unwillingness that they should perish, cry, "Let alone a little longer," but God is jealous for the honour of His Spirit. And so a time comes when the blessed God must decide and act; and so He does. "Man has become flesh," mere flesh; all, with one exception, flesh. The case is hopeless, "Open the windows of heaven, and break up the fountains of the great deep." So it was with Israel. With growing light, unparalleled privileges, they grew worse and worse — more hardened, formal, hypocritical. The case was hopeless; Israel was mere flesh — a dead, corrupting carcase. Ho, ho, ye Roman eagles, come and devour! (J. Milne.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. |
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