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What Does Gen 6:6 Mean?

Hi M____,

I am cutting and pasting a letter I have already written on this subject.

God tells us in no uncertain terms that He is sovereign over all things good and evil. He tells us "it is not of him that wills but of God who shows mercy." He tells us "It is God that works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure," and He tells us that He "is working all things after the counsel of His own will." He even goes so far as to say that "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord" (Pro 16:1)

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
So while we do indeed make thousands of decisions every day, and while I am choosing out each key to use on this keyboard, the Truth is that every move of each of my fingers is caused by, and is in reality, the working of all things after the counsel of His own will. In other words, as one of my readers who came to see all of this put it, "our wills, for good or evil, are in reality wrapped up in God's will." That is what the scriptures in their totality teach, and that is why we are told:

Psa 119:160  The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV)
God has given some the ability to accept and to take comfort in His sovereign working of all things after the counsel of His own will. It will be given to all "in their own order." When I was first confronted with this concept I resisted it bitterly for over two whole years. Like all of us at first, I could not give up my fabled "free moral agency," and as long as I retained that attitude, the beast within was still on the throne of my heart which throne Christ will one day rightfully possess. But as long as the "abomination that makes desolate" sits on that throne in God's temple, "which temple ye are," then that is what God is working in each and every one of us.

Read the paper below, and if you still have questions about why we are told "it repented the Lord that he had made men," then please feel free to let me know.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike

Hi A___,

I am not trying to be trite or in any way offend you, but I want you to realize that God speaks to us in terms we can understand. Do you think that because God asked Adam "where are you," that He wanted Adam to know that He, God, had no clue as to which tree Adam was hiding behind?

I truly hope that we can continue this discussion, but you haven't even commented on any of the dozens of scriptures to which I referred to you showing that we have and make choices, and yet those choices we make are all caused to be made by the Lord Himself.
Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
You haven't commented on the fact that Joseph's brothers thought that their choice to sell Joseph into Egypt as a slave was of their own 'free will,' while it was actually "of God." You haven't commented on "it's not of him that willeth.." Not one scripture but dozens, "the sum of thy word," drive home this Truth. And that is where Truth is to be found:
Psa 119:160  (ASV)  The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
To make this point in another way, I want you to read this section of scripture, and tell me whether the scriptures teach that God repents. Your answer to this will let us both know whether we need to continue this discussion.
1Sa 15:29  And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.
1Sa 15:30  Then he [King Saul] said, I have sinned: [yet] honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
1Sa 15:31  So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the LORD.
1Sa 15:32  Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
1Sa 15:33  And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
1Sa 15:34  Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.
1Sa 15:35  And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.
Now I want you to tell me why verse 29 says:
"...he [the Lord] is not a man, that he should repent."
And yet verse 35 tells us
"...the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel."
The answer is that God speaks to us in terms we can understand without really being ignorant of Adam's whereabouts and without having to go to plan B because neither Adam nor King Saul had turned out just like plan A had anticipated.

I will quote Ephesians 1:11 again and again ask you to read the paper After The Counsel Of His Own Will:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
God may tell you to bring an offering of your own 'free will,' He may say 'Adam where are you,' and He may even say that He 'repented for making King Saul king over Israel.' But the overwhelming weight of "the sum of His world" is that He is "working all things after the counsel of His own will," and 'it is not of him that willeth but of God who either hardeneth or shows mercy.'

I pray that you can see that 'no scripture of prophecy is of its own interpretation because holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost' and the Holy Spirit is not schizophrenic. I pray that you can see that "the sum of thy word is Truth."

Mike