'How oft did they provoke ... and grieve Him',

said the Psalmist (Psa. 78:40) when dealing with the history of Israel in the

'They rebelled, and vexed (same word as "grieve") His Holy Spirit',

declared Isaiah (Isa. 63:10) of the same period.  A most poignant passage is

that which is recorded of God's attitude toward the wickedness of man in the

days of Noah:

'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and

that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil

continually.  And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the

earth, and it grieved Him at His heart' (Gen. 6:5,6).

We must be prepared to find the force of this passage blunted by the

statement that this is 'figurative language'.  Let us face this objection.

Why are figures of speech used at all?  They are used because ordinary speech

is not full enough to express all that is intended.  If I say, 'That man is a

lion', do I say more, or less than if I say, 'That man is bold'.  Surely I

say more.  We fully grant that God Who is Spirit does not grieve just as man;

we fully grant that to speak of 'His heart' is a figure of speech, but so

also is it a figure of speech in the preceding verse, where it speaks of man.

In the case of man, 'the thoughts of the heart' cannot refer to the muscular

organ that circulates the blood, it can only mean the inner man; so, when it

speaks of the heart of God we lose nothing when we admit a figure of speech.

What it amounts to is, that just as grief and repentance have a definite

place in the experience of man, so there are spiritual equivalents in the

experience of God.  If this be denied, for what purpose is Genesis 6:5,6

written?  Who has made this tremendous mistake?  And what becomes of the

inspiration of Scripture?  This is not all.  Genesis 6 is but one out of many

passages which unequivocally predicate 'repentance' to the Lord.  Let us

examine the usage of this word, to see whether 'repentance' is really its

true meaning.  Job said, 'I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes' (Job

42:6).  Is there anyone who would wish to modify this trenchant passage?

'The Lord hath sworn and will not repent' wrote the Psalmist (Psa. 110:4) in

relation to the Melchisedec Priesthood of Christ.  Again, can there be two

minds as to the meaning?  What shall we then say of the following passages?

'Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against Thy

people' (Exod. 32:12).

'And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His

people' (Exod. 32:14).

'The Lord raised them up judges ... for it repented the Lord because of

their groanings' (Judges 2:18).

'It repenteth Me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned

back from following Me' (1 Sam. 15:11).

'The Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel' (1 Sam.

'And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy

it, the Lord repented him of the evil' (2 Sam. 24:16).