Why Did an All-Loving, Almighty God Flood the Earth?

Genesis 6:6 tells us that God “regretted” making man — a verse that has troubled people for centuries. Why would a perfect, all-knowing God feel regret? And why did God send the flood, a catastrophic event that wiped out nearly the entire earth? Was it pure punishment — or something more?

The answer is far more powerful and beautiful than many realize. In this post, we’ll explore what this passage really means, why God’s grief was at the heart of the flood, and how this moment launched the greatest rescue mission in history — one that leads all the way to Jesus Christ.

Let’s set the scene…

Imagine a loving parent who longs to have a child. We see this longing desire all the time — couples go through incredible lengths to have children. IVF, adoption, surrogates — they work incredibly hard and save up for years in order to afford these treatments. They go through doctors’ appointments, hormonal treatments, surgical procedures. They sacrifice so much in the hope of bringing a child into the world.

And why? What is this longing, and why do we desire it so badly? It is the longing for relationship, for family bond, for deep love that only exists between parent and child. In fact, I know many people who have said, “I never knew what love was until I had a child.”

Now imagine this loving parent finally has a child — and that child, as it grows up, suffers terribly. Maybe they’re really sick. They spend their days in hospitals, constantly in pain, enduring surgeries and treatments. And the parent watches this happen. They love their child so deeply, but they can’t take the pain away. The parent suffers deeply watching their child in pain; they grieve.

At some point, that parent might feel something like regret. Not because they don’t love their child — in fact, it’s because they love them so much. They might think, “Was I selfish for wanting this? If I had known they would suffer like this, maybe it would have been better if they had never had to go through this life at all.”

That’s not a rejection. It’s grief. It’s love in agony over suffering.

This is what God’s “regret” means in Genesis. He wasn’t sitting there thinking, “Oops, I made a mistake.” No. He was grieved — heartbroken — watching His children plunge themselves into evil and suffering — harming one another.

The word “regret” in Genesis 6:6 is actually נָחַם (nacham) in Hebrew. This word conveys deep emotional sorrow, grief, or a turning in response to a situation — not an admission of error or lack of foresight, as the word regret is often used in English. God wasn’t regretting as in wishing He had done something differently; He was grieving the pain His beloved creation was inflicting on itself.

"Father’s Grief” — an original from the Sacred Art Collection by Talmid Studios. This image portrays God the Father mourning His broken creation in Genesis 6:6, yet holding a deep love that launches the world’s greatest rescue plan.

And now imagine this:

Someone comes to that grieving parent and says, “There is a cure for your child — a real one that can save this child’s life and remove all their suffering — but to get it, you will have to endure something unthinkable. You will have to do the unimaginable. Will you do it?”

I believe most parents wouldn’t think twice. They would say YES in a heartbeat. They would walk through fire to save their child.

And that’s exactly what God did. He did the unimaginable to save His children. To become the cure for them and save them from the sickness.

That’s the bigger story behind the flood.

The flood was not just judgment — it was the beginning of a rescue.

A lot of people look at the flood as just a story of destruction. But it wasn’t just judgment — it was the start of the greatest rescue mission the world has ever seen.

The world had become so corrupt and evil that only one man — Noah — was still seeking God.

Is that so hard to believe? I mean, look at the world today. There is so much suffering in the world — much of which we inflict upon ourselves due to greed and corruption. If it infuriates us, how do you think our loving Father feels? We have all seen parents go rogue when someone bullies their child at school. God is even more just and angry when anyone harms His children.

And in the days of Noah, it was much worse than it is today. If God allowed the corruption to spread unchecked, there would soon be no one left willing to hear His voice — no one left to save. So God preserved a faithful remnant — a rescue line — through which He would eventually enter the world, the cure needed to restore all order and remove suffering.

Yes. God Himself is the cure.

And could He have just dropped down into the world one day and said, “Hi, I’m God. Follow Me.”

Sure — but no one would have believed Him. We see people all the time who claim to be God — we ignore them all. God knows this.

So in order for us to believe Him when He came, the ground had to be prepared. The story had to unfold in a way we could recognize.

The story that leads to Jesus.

And so God chose a man, Abraham, to father a nation — Israel. Through this nation, God would lay down a pattern of prophecy — signs pointing to the coming Savior, the Messiah. The entire Old Testament tells this story.

There are over 300 prophecies about the coming of the Messiah — written by around 25 different authors, over roughly 1,000 years, across multiple nations and cultures. And yet, there are no inconsistencies. No contradictions. The story is cohesive — woven together with perfect unity.

Think about that. These writers had no modern communication. No internet. No mass printing press. Many lived centuries apart, never meeting one another. And yet somehow, they all told pieces of the same story — a story that pointed to Jesus Christ in astonishing detail.

How is that possible? Humanly, it isn’t. The only explanation is that there was one Author behind it all.

The odds of fulfillment.

And what are the odds that one person would fulfill all these prophecies?

The odds of one person fulfilling even just 8 of those prophecies is 1 in 10¹⁷. That’s like covering the entire state of Texas in silver dollars, two feet deep, marking one coin, and picking it out on your very first try.

Jesus didn’t fulfill just 8.He fulfilled all of them.

God entered the world — became Jesus Christ — became the cure. The One that the flood, the rescue of Noah’s family, the promises to Abraham, all pointed toward.

The promise.

And now, through Him, God has fulfilled this promise:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

And He sees you.

God sees your suffering.He sees your pain.He sees your tears.

He is burning with justice for you.When you weep, He weeps.

I know it’s hard to imagine a loving parent if you’ve never had one.

So don’t picture God as the father you had.

Picture Him as the Father you’ve always wanted.