Who Is God? (A Vindictive Tyrant?)

The sky was turning increasingly dark. Ominous clouds covered everything from horizon to horizon. And then it started – the rain.  It rained and it rained and it rained. It seemed that it would never stop as the fields began to get saturated with endless moisture. No one had seen this amount of water before, and it seemed that the world was coming to an end.

No, I’m not describing Indiana, though it certainly sounds like it with all the precipitation we’ve had this spring. Instead I am referring to the most devastating disaster that ever came upon the earth – Noah’s Flood. It’s often referred to that way, though the vast majority of Christians would say that it was God who caused the Flood.

Why would He do that? Why would God cause a worldwide Flood that would destroy every living man, woman, child, and animal except for those on the famous ark?

The answer seems simple when one reads the pages of Scripture. Look at how it’s stated in Genesis 6:5-7.

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

Clearly the Lord was very troubled by the evil and wickedness of mankind. Who could blame Him? Their thoughts were filled with evil all the time. He was so upset and filled with regret that he was determined to wipe out everyone but Noah’s family.

But why save Noah? What made him special? What made God single him and his family out from the rest of humanity? As the narrative in Genesis tells us, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God (Genesis 6:9).”

Now the picture is starting to become clearer. What made God so angry with the rest of mankind was not just the fact that they were wicked and evil, but it was what lay at the root of their wickedness that bothered Him so much. Unlike Noah, the rest of humanity was not even close to walking faithfully with God. Mankind’s unfaithfulness had escalated tremendously since the day of Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden of Eden. And God was ticked! He had watched generation after generation ignore Him and descend further and further into sin. He couldn’t take it anymore and He was out for blood.

Isn’t that the way a lot of us have heard this story? The way it’s told makes God out to be a vindictive, bloodthirsty tyrant. He will get revenge on anyone who doesn’t acknowledge Him and follow Him. And nothing pleases Him more than crushing His enemies.  

It’s that view of God that has caused some atheists to reject Christianity. Again and again they ask, “Why would I want to worship a God like that?”  But is that what’s really going on in this story? I know that some would say to me, “But God is a just God who must punish sinners. He has the right to judge evil people.” I’m not denying that He has that right; He is sovereign over all His creation and can certainly do that if He desires. I’m just asking, is that what He really desires?

Not according to Scriptures. Ezekiel tells us, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live (Ezekiel 33:11).” That’s the true heart of God. His desire is that all people come to Him and live.

If that’s true, then why did God destroy all mankind? Why not spare them and hope they would come around to following Him?  I believe the answer lies with how mankind’s evil and wickedness was manifesting itself.  As we’re told just a couple verses later, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence (Genesis 6:11).”  That last phrase is the key – “full of violence.” Mankind’s wickedness had become so severe that violence was prevalent everywhere.

What if God in His infinite knowledge knew that man’s violence was so awful that they would soon destroy themselves? What if it was so severe that the violence would eventually make it’s way to Noah and his family? What if the only hope for mankind’s future, and the future hope of salvation, was for God to take the extreme action He did in order to save Noah and his family and thereby save a future for humanity? Afterall, if the violence would have ultimately led to the murder of every human being, where would the hope for a future be then?

Seen from this perspective, God’s actions are actually rooted in love. His goal was not to destroy mankind but to save mankind from completely destroying themselves. I’m convinced that He took an action that He didn’t want to take but had to.

Of course, I could be wrong. I’m certainly open to that possibility. But as I have stated in every article since I started this series last month, what we see in Jesus is what we have in God. Jesus and our Father are one. Can you picture Jesus vindictively wiping out humanity because they had rejected Him and were living wicked and evil lives? We’re talking about the one who pleaded for humanity when he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34),” and that was after being brutally beaten, abused, and humiliated by his killers, who, ironically, were perpetrating the same kind of violence that led to the Flood.  Only now, instead of killing each other, they were killing the Son of God. And yet he still showed them compassion and love as he was dying an agonizing death on the cross.

So if I’m in error, I prefer to err on the side of love. As John clearly stated, “God is love (1 John 4:8).” Since love is the very core of who God is (and that is certainly what Jesus demonstrated to us all), then everything God does must somehow be rooted in love. So where some see wrath, I see love. And that’s what makes God’s grace so essential for us all.