Why does God regret something that Satan has influenced?

VCR-2000 · Feb 14, 2021

From Genesis 6:5-6:
“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. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.”

Does this mean that God regrets or wishes that he didn't create any humans itself even though the Devil influenced Eve to take a fruit, and sin entered the world and humanity became so corrupted? So God basically wishes he didn't make us humans all because of Eve choosing to sin in the garden? If that's so, then I consider that one of the "bad news" parts of Christianity. It's not helping me appreciate God more.

I want an answer to this question in fewer words. I don't think I want to dig through a long article right now to get it.

JIMINZ · Feb 14, 2021

Maybe this will shed some light on the subject for you.

The word your hung up on is a Hebrew word not an English word, therefore the English understanding or Definition, of the word is not a valid one to gain understanding of what was written.

Here is the Hebrew Definition, it should bring some clarity as to your question.

H5162
נָחַם
nâcham
naw-kham'
A primitive root; properly to sigh, that is, breathe strongly; by implication to be sorry, that is, (in a favorable sense) to pity, console or (reflexively) rue; or (unfavorably) to avenge (oneself): - comfort (self), ease [one’s self], repent (-er, -ing, self).

VCR-2000 · Feb 14, 2021

There is another translation that uses "sorry" - but isn't the conclusion the same, aside of the semantics?

JIMINZ · Feb 14, 2021

VCR-2000 said:
There is another translation that uses "sorry" - but isn't the conclusion the same, aside of the semantics?

You can go through every Translation ever written, but if you insist on using an English Definition for a Hebrew word you will always misunderstand the Passage, and come up short of full understanding.

The word (Sorry) was used in the Definition I already gave you, now understand that God was let down by mankind and He sighed.

VCR-2000 · Feb 14, 2021

If I put it in these words, does it mean that God literally wishes he didn't create humanity, because Satan introduced sin to the world or Eve listened to him? It just causes anxiety for me.

JIMINZ · Feb 14, 2021

VCR-2000 said:
If I put it in these words, does it mean that God literally wishes he didn't create humanity, because Satan introduced sin to the world or Eve listened to him? It just causes anxiety for me.

NO!

JIMINZ · Feb 14, 2021

Question:

Do you have any children?

Even if you don't, how would you react to your child if they totally rejected whatever you told them their entire life, would you (REGRET) they were ever born, would you cease to continue to love them?

VCR-2000 · Feb 14, 2021

JIMINZ said:
NO!

Well thank you for clearing that up very much!

Aussie Pete · Feb 14, 2021

VCR-2000 said:
If I put it in these words, does it mean that God literally wishes he didn't create humanity, because Satan introduced sin to the world or Eve listened to him? It just causes anxiety for me.

No. Look at the whole Bible, not just one verse. And ask yourself why God was sorry. What can man do to God? He could have simply wiped everything and everyone and started again. I believe God's sorrow was because He knew what it would cost to restore mankind to Himself. God did not compel Adam to sin. Adam was supposed to exercise authority over Satan, not vice versa. Adam's sin led to the death of the Son of God. If you want to know how much God hates sin, look at the cross. If you want to know how much God loves sinners, look at the cross.

Maria Billingsley · Feb 14, 2021

VCR-2000 said:
From Genesis 6:5-6:
“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. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.”

Does this mean that God regrets or wishes that he didn't create any humans itself even though the Devil influenced Eve to take a fruit, and sin entered the world and humanity became so corrupted? So God basically wishes he didn't make us humans all because of Eve choosing to sin in the garden? If that's so, then I consider that one of the "bad news" parts of Christianity. It's not helping me appreciate God more.

I want an answer to this question in fewer words. I don't think I want to dig through a long article right now to get it.

We often read hyperbolic language used in scripture. For example, when it is stated that God "hates" someone it is not literal but rather exaggerated in order to make a point.

Chris35 · Feb 14, 2021

Your life is full of happiness, you and love, so you decide to have a child, because you know how good life is and want to share that love for the child. You strongly desire with all your heart that your child have a life full of love and happiness.

20 years later, you see your child, living in the gutter, homeless, depressed, addicted to drugs, with self-inflicted scars, wanting to die with all his heart. He is suffering miserably, and has no love or happiness in his life.

Your heart starts grieving in a deep sorrow seeing him in this state, this is not why I brought this child into the world, I wanted to share my love with him and for him to walk in much love, with himself and others, and you start to regret bringing this child in the world.

In the same way, that is what God felt towards us, he made us to walk in love with him, and eachother, however all he see was suffering and evil, people who had no love, and just wanted to do evil to eachother.

It grieved him to his heart, this is not what he had made man for, and it brought him much sorrow to see man in that state, so he was sorry that he had made man.

The only reason I know this a answer is because God revealed it to me, because I asked him. Don't just rely on the answers of others, pray to know God, ask him questions, ask him for revelation! He is very able to lead you to answers, and often times they are different then what we original think

VCR-2000 · Feb 15, 2021

I'm wondering if God should have intervened and directly put a stop to Satan earlier on after all, so people wouldn't have been tempted to evil in the first place. I know that is ultimately not how God worked, but I feel like he should have done that, personally.

Par5 · Feb 15, 2021

Chris35 said:
Your life is full of happiness, you and love, so you decide to have a child, because you know how good life is and want to share that love for the child. You strongly desire with all your heart that your child have a life full of love and happiness.

20 years later, you see your child, living in the gutter, homeless, depressed, addicted to drugs, with self-inflicted scars, wanting to die with all his heart. He is suffering miserably, and has no love or happiness in his life.

Your heart starts grieving in a deep sorrow seeing him in this state, this is not why I brought this child into the world, I wanted to share my love with him and for him to walk in much love, with himself and others, and you start to regret bringing this child in the world.

In the same way, that is what God felt towards us, he made us to walk in love with him, and eachother, however all he see was suffering and evil, people who had no love, and just wanted to do evil to eachother.

It grieved him to his heart, this is not what he had made man for, and it brought him much sorrow to see man in that state, so he was sorry that he had made man.

The only reason I know this a answer is because God revealed it to me, because I asked him. Don't just rely on the answers of others, pray to know God, ask him questions, ask him for revelation! He is very able to lead you to answers, and often times they are different then what we original think

Perhaps you could ask him to reveal to you why he was feeling disappointed and sorry that he had made man. After all, he is supposed to be omniscient. If he is omniscient then he would have known, even before he commenced making his creation that things would go badly, so it would hardly come as a surprise that Adam and Eve messed up.
Didn't he know that his two innocent creations would not stand a chance against crafty old satan?
Didn't he already know that satan would put a spanner in the works and corrupt his creation? Why did he even allow satan to be in the garden with his two innocents?
If he tells you he didn't know these things, then he is not omniscient.
I have often wondered why a being that is supposedly omniscient and knew what he was about to create would turn out badly and would have to be destroyed, yet went ahead and created it anyway.
It doesn't make a lot of sense, just like the creation story doesn't make a lot of sense.

Reasonable Christian · Feb 18, 2021

Par5 said:
Perhaps you could ask him to reveal to you why he was feeling disappointed and sorry that he had made man. After all, he is supposed to be omniscient. If he is omniscient then he would have known, even before he commenced making his creation that things would go badly, so it would hardly come as a surprise that Adam and Eve messed up.
Didn't he know that his two innocent creations would not stand a chance against crafty old satan?
Didn't he already know that satan would put a spanner in the works and corrupt his creation? Why did he even allow satan to be in the garden with his two innocents?
If he tells you he didn't know these things, then he is not omniscient.
I have often wondered why a being that is supposedly omniscient and knew what he was about to create would turn out badly and would have to be destroyed, yet went ahead and created it anyway.
It doesn't make a lot of sense, just like the creation story doesn't make a lot of sense.

God didn't destroy his entire creation -- Noah and his family survived. As to why God created a world in which he would have to wipe out almost everyone, maybe he knew that the people after Noah would bring him more joy than sorrow. As a rough analogy, I had a child knowing that he would eventually (and repeatedly) disappoint me, because all children disappoint their parents sometimes. However, I also believed that my child would bring me far more joy than sorrow, which has turned out to be true. If I were omniscient, I would have known that would turn out to be true. In any event, we can speculate on God's motives all day long. What is your argument? It "doesn't make sense" to you that God would create humans with free will knowing they would use that free will to sin? Therefore, what exactly? God doesn't exist? I'm afraid that doesn't follow.

Par5 · Feb 18, 2021

Reasonable Christian said:
God didn't destroy his entire creation -- Noah and his family survived. As to why God created a world in which he would have to wipe out almost everyone, maybe he knew that the people after Noah would bring him more joy than sorrow. As a rough analogy, I had a child knowing that he would eventually (and repeatedly) disappoint me, because all children disappoint their parents sometimes. However, I also believed that my child would bring me far more joy than sorrow, which has turned out to be true. If I were omniscient, I would have known that would turn out to be true. In any event, we can speculate on God's motives all day long. What is your argument? It "doesn't make sense" to you that God would create humans with free will knowing they would use that free will to sin? Therefore, what exactly? God doesn't exist? I'm afraid that doesn't follow.

It's nothing to do with god not existing, it's about god's supposed omniscience.
Your analogy of your child eventually giving you more joy than sorrow is all very well and good, but it was something that you believed would happen, not something that you knew would happen because you are not omniscient. In your analogy, your child repeatedly disappointed you, but you didn't kill the child because of your disappointment.
It makes no sense that a supposedly omniscient being would spend time creating something knowing that it had a flaw that would eventually lead to him destroying his creation, but that is exactly what the bible says he did.
It would be like jet engine manufacturers Pratt and Whitney making a new engine knowing that tests showed a certain component would fail after so many fight hours, causing the engine to explode, but still went ahead with the manufacture and distribution of that engine.

Reasonable Christian · Feb 18, 2021

Par5 said:
It's nothing to do with god not existing, it's about god's supposed omniscience.
Your analogy of your child eventually giving you more joy than sorrow is all very well and good, but it was something that you believed would happen, not something that you knew would happen because you are not omniscient. In your analogy, your child repeatedly disappointed you, but you didn't kill the child because of your disappointment.
It makes no sense that a supposedly omniscient being would spend time creating something knowing that it had a flaw that would eventually lead to him destroying his creation, but that is exactly what the bible says he did.
It would be like jet engine manufacturers Pratt and Whitney making a new engine knowing that tests showed a certain component would fail after so many fight hours, causing the engine to explode, but still went ahead with the manufacture and distribution of that engine.

Humans aren't machines like jet engines. God could have created robots that would never disobey him. If he had done so, your analogy would be apt, because why purposely make a defective machine? However, he chose to create humans with free will who could freely choose to obey and have a relationship with him, or not. He did this despite knowing that many would disobey and reject him because, again, he didn't want robots. Why not? I can think of several plausible reasons. Maybe he wanted actual relationships with us. Maybe he wanted a chance to show his power and grace in our lives. Maybe conquering sin and death brings him more satisfaction than watching a bunch of perfectly functioning automatons act according to their programming.

Anyway, I've said my piece. If you're interested in further analysis, I recommend this article.

Hawkins · Feb 24, 2021

VCR-2000 said:
From Genesis 6:5-6:
“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. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.”

Does this mean that God regrets or wishes that he didn't create any humans itself even though the Devil influenced Eve to take a fruit, and sin entered the world and humanity became so corrupted? So God basically wishes he didn't make us humans all because of Eve choosing to sin in the garden? If that's so, then I consider that one of the "bad news" parts of Christianity. It's not helping me appreciate God more.

I want an answer to this question in fewer words. I don't think I want to dig through a long article right now to get it.

Because ancient humans such as Noah demands an answer why God has to destroy earth with a flood. While the answer being over complicated, God provides a simple answer understandable to ancient humans, which is a human feeling close to what it is. "Regret" is not exactly what it is, but it expresses a feeling close to what God felt at that moment.

chilehed · Mar 5, 2021

VCR-2000 said:
I want an answer to this question in fewer words. I don't think I want to dig through a long article right now to get it.

It's just an anthropomorphism.

Why does God regret something that Satan has influenced?

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