Genesis 6:6: “And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”
We tend to look at God as this huge unemotional giant who is just waiting for us to make one little slip so he can send down his lightning bolts. Yet, in the very beginning we find God was emotionally moved over the sin of mankind.
The word repent is not your usual word for repentance. This word is nacham which carries more of the idea of sorrow and grief rather than changing or turning away from something, although grieving over something you have done can often bring about a change or turning away, but that is not the emphasis of the word nacham. The emphasis is on the grief and sorrow. When we read that it repented the Lord that He made man we automatically think that felt he made a big mistake in creating man and started to regret it. If that were the case He would have chucked the whole idea of a man with a free will. Yet, he chose not to because of one man, Noah who brought Him pleasure. The thing is how can you know pleasure if you do not know sorrow. The sinfulness of man and the nacham it created in God only increased the pleasure He gained from Noah’s righteousness. This verse carries more of the idea of God suffering emotional sorrow and grief over creating man on this earth than regretting that He created man. I believe God went into this thing with his eyes open wide. Being God the creator of all things He had nothing to cause him grief to challenge his pleasure and thereby make it more meaningful to Him.
The bottom line, God is an emotional God. He is a God who feels grief. That word grief in Hebrew is ‘atsab which is an intense emotional pain. No, I do not believe God cries real tears but He does feel the emotion that creates tears and to say God weeps is a personification of the emotion He feels, thus I say God weeps. Did you follow that? Good because I didn’t. I just picture God weeping because it helps me understand His sorrow for us.
As I met with God today under the white tree I asked Him what it is that He wanted me to learn this day from the white tree. I no sooner asked the Lord that question when my attention was drawn to a weeping willow tree. The word tree actually comes from the same Semitic root (no pun intended) as the word for grief. A tree was often a place of shade where one could go and sit under and be alone to contemplate. Often that contemplation involved sorrow hence sorrow and grief having the same root as a tree which is ‘ats. The weeping willow tree however got its name because its branches are hanging down like it is weeping. Still my spirit was quickened at the sight of the weeping willow tree next to the white tree with its bark removed.
In my book Hebrew Word Study Revealing the Heart of God I have a chapter on Song of Solomon 4:9: “Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, [my] spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.” With just one glance, one look of love at Solomon this mighty king’s heart was ravished by a simple peasant woman. When this old boy fell, I mean he fell hard. He was so taken with this woman that a simple look of love from her would buckle his knees. The word ravished, livavetini has been rendered in almost as many different ways as there are English translations. Some say you have captured my heart or captivated my heart, or charmed my heart, or even wounded my hearts. All renderings are correct. However, if we trace this word back to its Semitic roots we find that it comes from a word used to tear bark from a tree. When you tear the bark from a tree you are wounding that tree and may actually kill that tree because the bark is like our skin it protects that phloem layer like our circulatory systems. Without the bark the tree is vulnerable to diseases and pestilences. So to when God says that just once glance of your eye, one expression of love to Him, He tears the bark from His heart making His heart vulnerable.
Just as he came to earth to voluntarily take on a physical form where he could suffer physical pain and thus understand what we are going through when we suffer physical pain, He has now made Himself vulnerable to heartbreak and suffering a wounded heart. Just as a wife will be heartbroken if her husband sleeps with another woman, so too God will be heartbroken if we go to bed with another god, a god of wealth, power, status or whatever other gods are out there seeking out attention. He knows what heartbreak is.
So this is what God was trying to show me. I have proclaimed my love to Him through my blog, my books. He has opened His heart to me, He has allowed me to enter His heart, to feel His joy and His sorrow. Just as a woman would open her heart to her husband to share in her joys and sorrows and then like a wayward husband seeking other women and breaking his wife’s heart, I have sought other gods of status, recognition, security etc. and broke the heart of the God I confessed my love to.
I realized as I sat before the white tree and glance at the weeping tree that if I were to continue to my search for the heart of God, to enter those special chambers of his heart as His weeping room, I must confess and repent of my infidelity
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