I was wondering if you had any insight on this verse as to why the word regret was used and how it is meant to be interpreted. I always understood it as God was sad because of man's sin. My understanding is also that if God really regretted creating man he would have just destroyed him then and there and would not have sent his Son to die for us.

I recently answered a question very similar to yours. Permit me to reformat that answer with some additions relevant to your particular question.

Your question is a question many mortal minds have struggled to answer down through the ages. First of all, Scripture clearly states that the Eternal God does not change. Consider a couple of passages in this regard. "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19) "He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind, for he is not a man, that he should change his mind." (1 Samuel 15:29) According to these passages, and others could also be quoted, we are reminded that the eternal God is constant and changeless.

How then does one understand Genesis 6:6, when it says "The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain." The Hebrew word in that verse can mean "be sorry, suffer grief, repent, regret." Your professor is correct when he simply looks up the meaning of a word in the dictionary and says it means "regret." However, Biblical interpretation is more than just looking up a meaning. It is letting all of Scripture interpret Scripture.

To help us understand this verse, it is necessary to remember that the Bible was inspired by the Spirit to allow us mortal humans to learn about the infinite God. However, a human mind can never completely g.html or understand the eternal God. So sometimes the Bible uses language and terms to describe God as if he were like a human. God uses limited human terminology to describe himself, so that despite our limited understanding we may in small measure ponder divine truths.

This technique is quite common in Scripture. For example, we know that God is a spirit (John 4:24). Yet the Bible often talks about God seeing and hearing even though a spirit has no eyes or ears. God "comes down" to see the Tower of Babel, even though God is everywhere and knows all things.

This type of communication helps a human mind clearly remember that God sees and hears and knows all. When the Bible speaks about God as if he were a man, it is an anthropomorphism (a word derived from the Greek language that simply means to attribute human characteristics to someone).

In this passage we have such an example. God announces a change of course in his world plan. His purpose always remains constant. Since the garden (Gen. 3:15) he wanted and still wants everyone to be saved. Now, at the time of the flood, he knows that he must intervene and take action. The violence and unbelief of humanity is so great even his own believing children might be carried away and his plan to save thwarted.

Once, back in the opening chapter of Genesis, God looked upon his human creatures and said "very good" . Now he sees fallen sinners and we read: "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." (Gen. 6:5) Such sin and wickedness fills the holy and righteous God with anger; he is grieved.

Permit a quote from an essay entitled "God's Unique Judgment of the Flood": “When we say of man that he repents, then this involves two things particularly: first of all a change of mind and purpose, and secondly a new course of action in keeping with the change of mind and purpose and flowing from it. When Scripture ascribes this human term to God and says of Him that he repented, then only the latter comes into consideration, only a new course of action.”

So, in order to safeguard his promise given to Adam and Eve, the promise to send the Seed of the woman to crush Satan's head, God needed to take action. He had to preserve a believing line so that his saving plan could unfold.

Thankfully, by the Spirit's grace, we know from Scripture that God did indeed keep his promise and send the Seed of the woman, Jesus born of a virgin, who came and destroyed sin and Satan. As the Bible declares, "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." (1 John 3:8)