Genesis 8:20-22 - God's Curious Remark
By Hendrik Hart - 27 April 2005
In Reference to: Commentary by Frank L. Hoffman
Your amazement about this passage should increase when you take the RSV translation: God’s resolve there is made “for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth;...”
Unstoppable human evil drives God to the resolve that if people are to remain in relationship to God (who loved their smell!!), evil needs a creative solution. Deadly destruction as punishment for sin will eventually lead to the wiping out of creation. So to continue to enjoy creation and especially human fellowship, a resolve is made not ever again to do a flood kind of thing. I read this is the foundation of grace.