Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/93

Rh cut them off, but waited to see what the issue of these marriages would be, and which side the children would take after; and it proved, (as it usually does,) that they took after the worst side. Here is,

I. The temptation they were under to oppress and do violence; they were giants, they were men of renown; they became too hard for all about them, and carried all before them, 1. With their great bulk, as the sons of Anak, Numb. 13. 33, and 2. With their great name, as the king of Assyria, Isa. 37. 11. These made them the terror of the mighty in the land of the living; and thus armed, they daringly insulted the rights of all their neighbours, and trampled upon all that is just and sacred. Note, Those that have so much power over others as to be able to oppress them, have seldom so much power over themselves as not to oppress; great might is a very great snare to many. This degenerate race slighted the honour their ancestors had obtained by virtue and religion, and made themselves a great name by that which was the perpetual ruin of their good name.

II. The charge exhibited and proved against them, v. 5. The evidence produced was incontestable; God saw it, and that is instead of a thousand witnesses. God sees all the wickedness that is among the children of men; it cannot be concealed from him now, and if it be not repented of, it shall not be concealed by him shortly. Now, what did God take notice of ?

1. He observed all the streams of sin that flowed along in men's lives, and the breadth and depth of those streams; he saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Observe the connection of this with what goes before; the oppressors were mighty men, and men of renown; and then God saw that the wickedness of man was great.  Note, The wickedness of a people is great indeed, when the most notorious sinners are men of renown among them. Things are bad, when bad men are not only honoured notwithstanding their wickedness, but honoured for their wickedness, and the vilest men exalted; wickedness is then great, when great men are wicked. Their wickedness was great, that is, abundance of sin was committed in all places, by all sorts of people; and such sin as was in its own nature most gross, and heinous, and provoking; and committed daringly, and with a defiance of heaven; nor was any care taken by those who had power in their hands, to restrain and punish it. This God saw. Note, All the sins of sinners are known to God the Judge: those that are most conversant in the world, though they see much wickedness in it, yet they see but little of that which is; but God sees all, and judges aright concerning it, how great it is, nor can he be deceived in his judgment.

2. He observed the fountain of sin that was in men's hearts: any one might see that the wickedness of man was great, for they declared their sin as Sodom; but God's eye went further; he saw that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. A sad sight, and very offensive to God's holy eye! This was the bitter root, the corrupt spring: all the violence and oppression, all the luxury and wantonness, that were in the world, proceeded from the corruption of nature; lust conceived them, Jam. 1. 15. See Matth. 15. 19. (1.) The heart was naught: that was deceitful and desperately wicked; the principles were corrupt, and the habits and dispositions evil. (2.) The thoughts of the heart were so; thought is sometimes taken for the settled judgment or opinion, and that was bribed, and biassed, and misled; sometimes for the workings of the fancy, and those were always either vain or vile, either weaving the spider's web, or hatching the cocatrice's eggs. (3.) The imagination of the thoughts of the heart was so, that is, their designs and devices were wicked. They did not do evil only through carelessness, as those that walk at all adventures, not heeding what they do; but they did evil deliberately, and designedly, contriving how to do mischief. It was bad indeed; for it was only evil, continually evil, and every imagination was so. There was no good to be found among them, no not at anytime: the stream of sin was full, and strong, and constant; and God saw it; see Ps. 14. 1..3.

6. And it repented the L that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart: 7. And the said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Here is,

I. God's resentment of man's wickedness; he did not see it as an unconcerned spectator, but as one injured and affronted by it; he saw it as a tender father sees the folly and stubbornness of a rebellious and disobedient child, which not only angers him, but grieves him, and makes him wish he had been written childless. The expressions here used, are very strange. It repented the Lord that he had made man upon the earth, that he had made a creature of such noble powers and faculties, and had put him on this earth, which he built and furnished on purpose to be a convenient, comfortable habitation for him; and it grieved him at his heart. These are expressions after the manner of men, and must be understood so as not to reflect upon the honour of God's immutability or felicity.

1. It does not bespeak any passion or uneasiness in God; (nothing can create disturbance to the eternal mind;) but it bespeaks his just and holy displeasure against sin and sinners; against sin as odious to his holiness, and against sin as obnoxious to his justice. He is pressed by the sins of his creatures, Amos 2. 13, wearied, Isa. 43. 24, broken, Ezek. 6. 9, grieved, Ps. 95. 10, and here, grieved to the heart, as men are when they are wronged and abused by those they have been very kind to, and therefore repent of their kindness, and wish they had never fostered that snake in their bosom, which now hisses in their face, and stings them to the heart. Does God thus hate sin? And shall not we hate it? Has our sin grieved him to the heart? And shall not we be grieved and pricked to the heart for it? O that this consideration might humble us, and shame us, and that we may look on him whom we have thus grieved, and mourn! Zech. 12. 10.

2. It does not bespeak any change in God's mind; for he is in one mind, and who can turn him? With him there is no variableness. But it bespeaks a change of his way; when God had made man upright, he rested and was refreshed, Exod. 31. 17, and his way toward him was such as showed he was pleased with the work of his own hands; but now that man was apostatized, he could not do otherwise than show himself displeased: so that the change was in man, not in God. God repented that he had made man; but we never find him repenting that he redeemed man, though that was a work of much greater expense, because special and effectual grace is given to secure the great ends of redemption; so that those gifts and callings are without repentance, Rom. 11. 29.

II. God's resolution to destroy man for his wickedness, v. 7. Observe, 1. When God repented that he had made man, he resolved to destroy man.