What I have recently witnessed on video and listened to via podcast and radio reminds me of when “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6.5). Doesn’t that sum up our present age?
Another epithet which shortly follows is in verses 11-12: “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”
God wiped the earth clean with a global flood, snuffing out the lives of all men and land animals outside Noah’s triple-decked ark.
You’d think, once the evil had been washed away, that Noah and his family would have experienced the perfect life, but notice what God said after they came off the ark: “The LORD said in His heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth‘” (Gen. 8.21).
Has there ever been a day when man’s heart has not been dark?
As he consecrated the Temple, Solomon mentioned in a prayer, “there is no one who does not sin…” (1 Kings 8.46)
Jeremiah proclaimed, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17.9)
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Matt. 7.11)
Paul “charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
None is righteous, no, not one
No one understands;
No one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
No one does good,
Not even one.
Their throat is an open grave;
They use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
In their paths are ruin and misery,
And the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
(Romans 3.9-18)
To Titus, Paul portrayed every person’s situation before being called by Christ: “We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another” (Tit. 3.3).
While all these verses remind me of the rioting and looting, the fighting and killing presently going on in most of our major cities, my main thought turns not against the wicked masses but to my own heart.
Once my heart was as dark as the worst of them.
But God saved me to walk in the footsteps of His Son Jesus Christ, who thinks quite opposite the world on just about every level. He did not demand justice for Himself–He gave Himself for everyone else. He did not spit in the face of the authorities–He submitted to them. He did not lord it over His own disciples–He washed their feet and protected them even during His darkest, most vulnerable hour.
If you can read and understand these writings, you belong to the wicked human race. Without Jesus your heart harbors all manner of hate and pride and malice–and maybe you hate yourself for it, knowing how wrong it is to hurt and destroy your neighbor. Jesus is the answer! Through Jesus comes grace, and through grace comes forgiveness, and through forgiveness comes healing of those wounds you’ve been nursing. Jesus shines light into dark hearts.
1 Cor. 4.4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the answer to man’s dark heart.