Genesis 8:21 And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
22 "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease."
The promise in this passage is wonderful. We often focus on the promise and forget the line in the middle. "although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;" In spite of man's continual bent toward evil, God still blesses us with His promise here.
Now, I can hear some saying, "But all men are not evil. I've never done evil. There are many good people in the world!" From a purely human point of view, yes, there are "good" people in the world. But from the point of view of God's holiness, even our good pales as evil to Him. This is why this promise is so fantastic. He has chosen to shower us with blessing after blessing not because we are so good or because we deserve it or because He approves of what we are doing, but only because of His mercy.
This is a picture of what Christ did on the cross for us. God set His love on those who would become His people not because of anything good in them but solely because of his mercy and grace. We can do nothing to earn His favor and salvation. It's all because of His mercy in spite of our sinfulness.
There are some who have told me that God approves of polygamy because He blessed Abraham and he was a polygamist. No, God blessed Abraham in spite of his sin of polygamy. Just because God in His mercy chooses to allow His blessing to fall on a particular person even if they are sinning, does not mean he approves of the sin. Abraham paid dearly for that sin in terms of family conflict and that sin is still affecting us today.
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