1. God’s Grief over the Human Fall and Humankind’s Sinful Condition
World Scripture
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. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart.27
Genesis 6.5-6
And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of His people, and He wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying, “How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?” And Enoch said unto the Lord, How is it that you can weep, seeing you are holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?”… The Lord said unto Enoch, “Behold these your brethren; they are the workmanship of My own hands, and I gave to them their knowledge… and commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose Me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood; and the fire of My indignation is kindled against them; and in My hot displeasure will I send in the floods upon them… misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of My hands; therefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?”28
Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7.28-37 (Latter-Day Saints)
Abu Dharr reported God’s Messenger as saying, “I see what you do not see and I hear what you do not hear; heaven has groaned, and it has a right to groan.”
Hadith of Ahmad, Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah (Islam)
Whatever kind of regret I, Tsukihi [God], may have borne, until now I have overlooked it and kept still patiently… Never think of this regret as slight! It is the result of the regret that has been accumulated and piled up. All people of the whole world are My children. Although I single-heartedly love them, unaware of this, each and every one of them equally is thinking only of dust. Think of the regret of God over these dusty minds! It is far beyond expression of My words.29
Ofudesaki 17.64-70 (Tenrikyo)
Abuk, mother of Deng, Leave your home in the sky and come to work in our homes, Make our country to become clean like the original home of Deng, Come make our country as one: the country of Akwol Is not as one, either by night or by day, The child called Deng, his face has become sad, The children of Akwol have bewildered their Chief’s mind.30
Dinka Song (African Traditional Religions)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
God’s heart was torn asunder and broken with indescribable grief and tears the moment Adam and Eve fell.
(7:292, October 11, 1959)
Love is endless.
Had God not established the principle of love, He would be alone. Dwelling by Himself, He would be unable to experience joy, anger, sorrow or happiness.
Although God’s love is absolute, once God lost His partners of love, He unexpectedly found Himself in an absolutely miserable and grim situation, such as no one in history has ever experienced. No one can comfort Him over this, ever.
(204:101, July 1, 1990)
If Adam and Eve had not fallen, God their Creator would have been their eternal Lord. But due to the Fall, Satan became their lord. The Fall made this outcome unavoidable. Suppose a girl of noble birth, raised within the walls of her house, is raped by a gangster; to whom does she belong? She belongs to him. The same principle applies.
Adam was to have been the king of heaven and Eve his queen.
To restore these original positions requires following the principle of creation. From the beginning of creation God laid down the law of eternal love to be fulfilled by Adam and Eve, so it has to be observed. Were God to disregard this law, it would be tantamount to destroying the law of Heaven.
God set up this heavenly law. If He were to negate it, that would be tantamount to negating humankind and to negating Himself as the absolute Creator. That is why God had no alternative but to bring order through a course of re-creation. Who has known its long and painful history?
(207:272, November 11, 1990)
How grieved was God that His enemy deprived Him of His throne! Unable to become the glorious God, He became the long-suffering and sorrowful God. Although He is rightfully the King of His kingdom and the King of the universe, God has been mistreated as if He were dead. His enemy robbed Him of His ideal and violated His beloved children. The planet Earth has fully become His enemy’s plaything.
(105:199, October 21, 1979)
Why is God’s heart full of grief? It is because of Satan. It is because human beings planted Satan’s blood and flesh through partaking of his false love. It is because they sowed the Devil’s seeds, which propagated as the Devil’s families. God wished to rejoice, singing, “May my families live with true love for ten thousand years under Heaven’s dominion!” However, with the appearance of the Devil’s families multiplying throughout the world, God’s dreams were shattered.
(214:282, February 3, 1991)
Can you imagine how much it breaks God’s heart to observe human misery every hour of every day? What happened to God’s dignity when His sons and daughters, whom He intended to glorify as princes and princesses, became cripples, fell into a pit filled with dung and were stuck upside-down in hell? What became of the dignity of the omniscient and omnipotent God, of the absolute God? Can He show His face?
(218:240, August 19, 1991)
As long as human beings live in despair, God also lives in despair. As long as Satan shackles human beings on earth, the world of darkness under his dominion will remain also in the spirit world.
(2:246, June 9, 1957)