In my recent article, I posed the question to you, “Are you desperate?” We examined how a lack of desperation had led to the downfall of Adam and Eve and as a result all those who followed Adam. This month I want to continue our journey through the biblical storyline. We come then to God’s dealings with Noah in the time when the world was destroyed by the flood.

The Bible describes this as a wicked time. People had abandoned God. It did not take many generations. We read the words of God, My spirit shall not abide in man forever (Gn 6:3). The evil of mankind was awful. Sin has permeated every inch of man’s soul and society.  Genesis records that The LORD 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 (Gn 6:5). Imagine that. Things had digressed to the point where man could not even conceive of doing good. The entirety of his focus was on doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

We are told that things were so bad that God regrets His decision to create mankind. How far they had fallen that the pinnacle of His creation is now the object of His regret! His anger toward their disobedience is such that His plan involves blotting out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them (Gn 6:7).  Noah, and Noah alone, walked with God. We are not even given the assurance that sons were righteous. He stands as the one who was righteous and the object of the Lord’s salvation. Our focus is most appropriately on this one man whom God saves. However, we should not miss the reason that God pours out His judgement on the whole of the earth.

Why had these people who were not so far removed from the Lord’s Garden meet their terrible fate because of such wickedness? Could they not recall to mind all that the Lord had said and created? Let me propose to you their problem: They were no longer desperate for the One who had made them.

These people who fall under the tidal wave of God’s wrath had decided to use their mind for evil instead of a pursuit of the One they needed most. We are told that their wickedness was great in the earth (Gn 6:5). It was widespread. It was the thing loved and revered among the inhabitants of God’s creation. Wickedness was lauded and admired. It was the aspiration of humanity.

They had also set their imagination to evil. They were being creative in how they sinned. This does not sound so different from our present age. In all corners of the earth, people are, at this very moment, thinking of new ways to sin. Humanity spends every moment conceive ways to be more reliant on our own understanding and less dependent on the God that has created us.

We have become desperate to be wicked. Our desire is for things that do not save and have no power. We place our faith and trust in wickedness which is great in the earth. Our hope is found in our money. Our love is placed in those things that satisfy our flesh.

We must become desperate to find favor in the eyes of the LORD. He must be the object of our affection and desire. We must use every imagination of the thoughts of our heart to please and glorify our creator. He, and He alone, is worthy of our praise. He has given us everything we need and more. He has offered us salvation through the precious gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we need not be desperate for sin and self any longer. Now is the time of the people of God to be desperate—desperate for the Savior.