The Story of God: God’s Do Over

Have you ever wanted a do-over? Like when you had one of those days where nothing went right all day. You’d just as soon hit the restart button. Or that time you said something that hurt your spouse. You wish you could hit rewind and say something kinder or nothing at all.   Now if you’re a golfer, we actually have a word for do overs. They’re called mulligans. You hit a bad shot, but instead of going after it and playing from the rocks or behind a tree; you hit a mulligan. You get a do over, a fresh start.  As we return to the story of God today, we are going to see the one time God takes a mulligan: where God hits the restart button. Where God decides to start over.

As we return to the story of God we are going to follow the journey of the Slippery Slope of Unchecked Sin, and how humankind became so bad that God finally stepped in a did something about it.

The slippery slope of sin begins with the sin of Cain   Cain is angry that God has accepted Abel’s offering and not his. So what’s going on?  Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?  If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

What’s going on here is this: Cain did not do what is right in God’s eyes. Can had brought an offering of “some of the fruits of the field”. This offering was not acceptable to God, but Abel’s was. Why? Cain’s offering was simply a token offering. It wasn’t the best of his crops. It was more like an after thought.  You could say, his heart wasn’t in it. You could say, that because he was just “doing his duty” his offering wasn’t really worship and wasn’t of faith.

However, Abel’s offering was acceptable because it was worthy of God. Abel gave the best of his flock – the first fruits of the flock. By giving of his best Abel was expressing to God, “You are worthy of my best.” So his offering honored God and revealed a heart that trusted that God.

So why did God’s rejection of his offering make Cain angry? Cain wanted what Abel had: God’s acceptance. He was angry because he equated rejection of his offering as a rejection of himself. What is he doing here? He is doing what so many people do today. He doesn’t want to play by God’s rules. God had set up a requirement for worship that would honor him – to give of your best to Him. Cain had rejected God’s requirements for worship and wanted to dictate his own terms of worship. So when God rejects Cain’s offering, Cain gets angry…

But look how God responds to Cain: God gives him a second chance: “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” God gives Cain a chance for a do over. But at the same times warns him of sin’s power. So what does Cain do? Does he go back to get the best of his crops and honor God? No! Cain refuses to listen to God’s offer. He refuses to make things right, holds onto his anger and instead leads his brother out to the field and kills him.

Now, at this point you would think that God would be done with Cain. But that’s not the God of grace. So for a second time God comes to Cain and gives him an opportunity to come clean and deal with his sin. So the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” Listen to the contempt in Cain’s reply: “I don’t know,” “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Sin is has captured Cain. Sin leads him to lie to God and hide from his responsibility. Cain only thinks of himself.

So for a third time, God questions Cain: The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

And for a third time, how does Cain respond? He refuses to confess, but instead plays the victim: Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” But even in the midst of Cain’s self pity, God is still encouraging and gracious: But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

I don’t know about you, but I would have lost my patience with Cain long before now. Not once did Cain admit doing anything wrong. Not once did he confess. Not once did he honor God and do the right thing. He only thought of himself – and that’s what sin does. It hardens your heart against God. And yet, look at the beauty of God’s love in his interaction with Cain. God gave him chance after chance to confess and repent. God showed incredible patience and kindness, and even though Cain had murdered Abel, God gave Cain mercy, not judgment.

Now, as tragic as Cain’s story is, his sin starts the slippery slope of unchecked sin. Cain now leaves God’s presence and becomes a wanderer in the Land of Nod. He begins his family and in a couple of generations we are introduced to his great-great grandson Lamech. Whereas unchecked sin began with Cain, It now progresses with the wickedness of Lamech (Genesis 4:17-24) Lamech is a sinful selfish man who also rejects God’s ways. He rejects God’s design for marriage when he takes two wives. And then, he too becomes a murder.   But it is in this murder we see the hardness and arrogance of Lamech’s heart: “If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” In other words, Lamech’s unchecked sin hardens him into an abusive tyrant who relishes violence! He glamorizes violence. The Slippery Slope of Sin has produced a violent and godless man. Things are not looking to good for mankind.

The downward spiral of unchecked sin carries mankind further and further from God’s original design and concludes with the total pervasiveness of sin (Genesis 6:5-6). Generations removed from Cain, God is still observing mankind, but now in verse 5 and 6, we see the effects of mankind’s wickedness on the heart of God:   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. Genesis 6:5-6

Two observations here: The first shows the total pervasiveness of sin: “every inclination of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Humanity was no longer good, but was now totally corrupt and violent. There is no regard for human life or dignity. To get a tangible picture of the evil mankind at that time, one only needs to think of oven’s of Auchwitz, the killing fields of Cambodia, the beheadings in Syria… and you get some idea of how evil all mankind had become.

The second observation: God’s response to what He sees. What was God’s response? Our text tells us that “the Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.” Literally, God was grieved that His created beings had come to this. This word, regretted or grieved expresses a profound sense of sadness as a result of man’s wickedness.

These words express the deep distress God felt because He created these men who are now so wicked, so evil.  It pained him to see mankind become so evil. All this then led God to action. Which leads us now to God’s do over.

God’s Do Over: And the first thing we see as mankind’s evil moves God to action is both God’s Judgment and Grace Look with me now at Genesis 6:7-8 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created — and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground —for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

God’s do over began with judgment upon the wickedness of man. What we must learn from this whole slippery slope of unchecked sin is this: No matter how patient, gracious and kind God is to us, even in the worst of our sin, there is a point of no return for the person who rejects God. Romans 2:5-8 spell out for us: Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.  God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.  But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. It is this last line that describes the heart of humanity at the time of God’s do over. He is ready to judge the stubborn, unrepentant, self-seeking, truth rejecting evil followers of the world. All of them… except for Noah. For here we see Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

So what happens next is the story of Noah and the flood. In through the story of the flood, we see the introduction to the gospel as salvation through judgment. What does this mean? While the entire world was looking up at God and rejecting Him – telling Him that they don’t trust Him, just like their parents before them – Noah was building an ark. He was demonstrating with his life that he believed God. He had faith that God was going to do what He had said. And the waters of judgment did come.

Here’s what I mean by “salvation through judgment”: The same water that swallowed everyone who didn’t believe in the word of God actually lifted Noah up. As the waters increased, everyone else was pressed down and crushed. But at the same time Noah and his family were lifted up and saved. The waters of judgment actually saved him; it was salvation through judgment.

And Peter confirms this for us later in the Bible: “when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while and ark was being prepared. In it a few – that is, eight people – were saved through water.” 1 Peter 3:20.

Surprisingly, the waters were actually salvation for some and death for others. And it is this same salvation through judgment that we see today in the cross of Jesus Christ.   As Jesus was judged on the cross for our sin, we were being saved. Salvation came to us through the very instrument by which death came to Jesus. God judges sin and wickedness, but He brings salvation out of this judgment.

That is what we cannot miss in this story. Although there is judgment, God’s grace prevails. Noah and his family are saved through the waters of judgment and God begins to re-create the earth once again through this family. And with the conclusion of this story we see two final pieces of God’s grace to mankind:

God’s Promise to all the earth: Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. Genesis 8:21

God’s Covenant with all Creation:  And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth… Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.