Is His Heart Grieved?

Among the crap that came to light last week, there was a major betrayal by my son. He just completed his junior year and did miserably. He has always been honest and dependable, taking care of his schoolwork, his money and his belongings with little need for parental supervision. Honors classes. His grades have always been good. Attendance good. Never gotten into trouble at school. Now he has a car which he seems to be responsible with and also a part time job, which he does well at. That is why he was able to deceive his dad and me the whole year. If he said it, we believed it (unlike my oldest daughter whose every statement is scrutinized. She has lied to us many times although that does not take the sting away and each lie hurts anew) With my son, in retrospect, there were some warning signs….but when he presented us with a fairly good report card (ala photoshop) I dismissed those signs. I would have bet five thousand dollars he would never do such a thing, especially over the long haul of the whole school year. The fact that the lie went on for three marking periods makes the deception even worse. My heart is grieved.

I can so relate to God’s feelings in Genesis 6:6

And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. KJV

The Message Bible says his heart was broken.
The Emphasized Bibles says he took sorrow unto his heart.

I’ve come to the sharp realization that with my shady past, my blunders, my acts of thoughtlessness and deception, I have grieved the heart of God in much the same way that my heart grieves over the actions of my son. In the days of Noah, humanity grieved the heart of God to the point of repentance; to the point he felt it necessary to wipe man from the face of the earth. The NIV renders this verse:

“I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

Some other versions say

“I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth” KJV

“I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land” ESV

“I wipe away man whom I have prepared from off the face of the ground” Young’s

In its customary meandering style, the Amplified Bible contains all of the above:
I will destroy, blot out, and wipe away mankind, whom I have created from the face of the ground

As a believer in total reconciliation, I fully believe that the evil ones who so grieved the heart of God in the days of Noah will bow the knee and proclaim Jesus as Lord. The Bible says EVERY knee will bow, EVERY tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. It proclaims this clearly in three different places in scripture....in both the Old and New Testaments. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How many tongues confess? Every tongue. How many will be saved? Everyone. Specific mention of these disobedient ones is made in 1 Peter 3:18-20 which states that Christ as a quickened spirit went and preached to them in “prison”. A more general mention of the gospel being preached to the dead is made in 1 Peter 4:6. I think it is also interesting to note that all the verses specifically say that mankind was removed from the face of the earth. Existence in a spiritual sphere…in whatever dimension lies beyond the “veil” is not ruled out. Death is not the end of God’s dealings with us. And though our actions may grieve his heart, it is not the end of his love for us anymore than it is the end of my love for my kids. In the words of a country song that proclaims the secret of a father’s love, “It’s a love without end. Amen”.