Command 19: Choose the Narrow Way
Study Question
Q: After pronouncing His creation “good,” why did God regret having made man and determine that everyone besides Noah and his family had to be destroyed?
A: When God sent the Flood to destroy the earth, there was only one man who found favor in His eyes—Noah. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but no one listened to him because they had completely corrupted their ways before God.
God describes what took place: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, and the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. 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. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart” (Genesis 6:4–6).
“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” (Genesis 6:11–12).
Because mankind chose to do greater and greater wickedness, their lives were consumed by lustful and violent passions. They failed to recognize that the path they had chosen would lead to destruction. Noah found favor with God because by faith he chose the narrow path of obedience to God and was saved along with his family.
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This study question and answer is adapted from the Commands of Christ, Series 3, book. For further study, this book may be purchased from our Online Store.