2nd Quarter: The Promise: God’s Everlasting Covenant
Lesson 3 “All Future Generations”
Sunday: The Sin Principle
Text: [[Gen 6:5]] KJV
_And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually._
Message
One of the arguments that still bothers many minds today is whether our generation is better or worse of than those that lived 1000s of years ago. On one hand, we see technological advances that one might say never existed in those days. Going by this, we may be better of. But again, think about the exponential increase in crime and evil. This is not surprising because from the day man sinned in Eden, we became inclined naturally to sin,and our nature actually enjoyed it. Man’s urge to sin, like bacteria growth, increases rapidly. But God, in order to remedy the situation employed the best approach which we’ll explore this week. We’ll look at God’s covenant with Noah in detail.
From the time of creation to the time of Noah, things had moved from being “exceptionally very good” to unbearably bad. The Bible records that, “the imagination of men were evil continually”. Things were getting out of hand, and God couldn’t watch all his creation destroyed. “it repented God for creating man”. This is a language implying God’s impending judgment. But how did things get worse so quickly like that? The problem we all face today is, we underestimate sin or play with it hoping we can kick it out anytime. But one sin subtly leads to another, then another, till we’re far gone.
Sin progressively gets worse. It tends to do that. Sin is not like a cut or a wound, with some automatic, built-in process that brings healing. On the contrary, if left unchecked, sin multiplies, never satisfied until it leads to ruin and death.Unfortunately, like our 1st parents, we follow the same slippery way. To avoid its multiplication is to avoid nurturing the very 1st seed (thought of evil).
Reflection
The Good news is that, though God wants to destroy sin, He eagerly wants to save the sinner. This is how to view the story of the (Noah’s) Flood, and it’s the premise for God’s covenant with Noah.
