Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
Genesis 6:11-12
The ultimate consequence of sin is the corruption of all things. When God completed Creation, He declared not only that it was good, but that it was “very good.” And that includes the creation of man and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that man was entrusted with protecting. However, once sin entered into the world and the pursuit of personal gain, the natural end result was the neglect of the remainder of God’s intent for man – the care for the earth, of which man was given dominion and stewardship.
In Genesis 6:11, the Hebrew word for “earth” is “ha’eretz” and is most often used to reference the whole of the ground and all of the known planetary land mass. This is to distinguish from “adammah” which is a reference to a specific piece of ground – clay dirt – which makes up the earth, out of which Adam (and consequentially, mankind) was formed. In fact, “eretz” is the earliest form that we can find in antiquity that leads to the modern English word for our planet – Earth. The connotation provided here is the inclusion of all of the known world.
As a result of the introduction of sin into the world, not only was mankind corrupt, but the natural order of Earth itself. If you recall from Genesis 3:17,18, God said “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.” In keeping with God’s command for all of nature to reproduce after its own kind, without human intervention to tend to the earth – thorns and thistles would ultimately take over. Nature itself has spun out of control and is now “filled with violence.”
The word for “filled” in the Hebrew is “mala”, which carries with it the idea of overflowing abundance. Nature had begun to turn on itself. Violence spread as a natural outpouring of the abundance of sin as mankind continued to speed headlong without fellowship with Almighty God. Not only has man turned against man in war and crime, but poisonous plants begin to take root. Animals begin to separate into predator and prey.
Wherever there is sin, there is corruption. The idea of corruption from a Biblical perspective carries with it the image of destruction. Sin destroys peace. It destroys stability. It destroys hope. It destroys life. Left unchecked, it changes the very nature of the creator’s intent, leading to decay and ruin. The same can be said of the life of man. However, corruption itself is not the sin, rather it is the result of sin that has been allowed to take root and wrap its thorny limbs around a fleshly heart. The thorns and thistles of earth are symbolic of the corruption of the natural order. Corruption is synonymous with pain, death, and decay. Corruption is merely the symptom of the much deeper rooted problem of our sinful nature.
As we allow sin to continue to reign in our mortal flesh, we become corrupt of heart. We become self-centered and self-righteous. We become prideful, lustful, and covetous. We use violence to settle our disputes and grievances. And we leave a bloody, destroyed path in our wake until “all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” The connotation of the verse 12 implies intentionality of destruction. The Hebrew image present in the language is that of an army laying waste and destroying a kingdom or land. It is an act of war. Man had effectively declared war on each other, on creation, and even upon God Himself.
However, there is hope. In Genesis 6:8, there is one small word that makes all the difference – “but”. God was grieved to His heart and was committed to wiping the slate clean of man, “but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Even in the midst of wanton corruption and destruction covering the earth, God saw fit to show mercy and grace. Had God not chosen to show mercy and honor to Noah for his righteousness, the very nature of God as being faithful and true to His own word to Adam and Eve would have been invalidated. The seed of woman would have been eliminated and the promise of salvation would have been vanquished, making God out to be a liar from the beginning.
However, because God is faithful and true to His word by His very nature, Noah found favor in God’s sovereignty. And God had mercy on mankind through Noah’s faithfulness and righteousness because Noah walked with God in continual fellowship. The contrast between the earth at large and Noah in particular is startling as it is beautiful. In the midst of the darkness of the world around him, Noah intentionally sought the light of fellowship with the Father. In spite of the violence that surrounded him, Noah sought peace in the arms of the Father.
The choice remains: do you choose corruption and violence by abandoning the will of the Father? Or do you choose to be intentionally faithful to walk with Him and protect your heart from the corruption of the world? Repentance is a picture of one who walks one way and makes an intentional choice to turn and walk differently. If you are walking the path of self-righteousness, dependent upon your own wisdom – the ultimate end of that dark path is death and destruction. But if you turn and walk in the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, His mercy and grace will reign true in your heart and give you peace that passes all human understanding.