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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 6 The
Flood (ch. 6:1 - 22) Genesis
6:1 says, "when men began to increase in number on earth and
daughters were born to them."
The first thing to note here is the word "men."
The word is not "man", as in "mankind."
We're talking about men here, not men and women.
Another
thing to note here is the emphases on daughters.
The text does not say that sons and daughters were born.
It just says that daughters were born.
Of course sons were also born, but sons aren't the issue in these
first few verses of chapter 6. The
emphases and the point that will be made concerns daughters alone, not
sons. Scholars
over the years have tried to estimate how many people might have been
alive on earth at the time of the flood.
Many suggest that there could have been billions, possibly five
to seven billion people, as many as are alive today.
They say this is a reasonable number from the genealogies that
are provided in the Genesis account.
I do believe we need to understand that many sons and daughters
were born from the time of Adam and Eve, that reproduced many more sons
and daughters. We're not
just talking about a few people here.
Another
thing we need to note is because of the life span of people back then,
Adam was alive during much of the pre-Noah days.
Actually, Adam was alive when Noah's father Lamech was alive.
In
verse 2 we learn that "the sons of God saw that the daughters of
men were beautiful." The
question to be asked here is, "who are the sons of God, and who are
the daughters of men?" This
is not as simple of a thing as you might think.
At first glance you might think that the "sons of God"
are men, and "the daughters" are women, but that doesn't seem
to be the general consensus. There
are two main ways scholars have viewed this.
One is that the sons of God are the descendents of Seth, the
godly line of people, and the daughters are the descendents of Cain, the
ungodly people. The other
view is that the sons of God are actually fallen angels, and the
daughters are simply human women. The
rest of verse 2 tells us that these sons of God married any of the
daughters of men that they chose to marry.
So, either men married these women, or angels married these
women. You might think the
idea That
angels would marry women is far-fetched, but there are many prominent
scholars who hold to this viewpoint.
Probably
both ways of thinking have their pros and cons.
If you say that the sons of God are the descendents of Cain, and
they are evil, that's sort of aligning God with the evil descendents of
Cain. Besides, it is clear
that none was righteous, all mankind was evil except for Noah and
possibly the rest of his family. All
were killed in the flood, not just the sons of Cain.
The descendents of Seth were just as bad.
Also, the text calls these women the "daughters of
men," not just the daughters of Cain.
In
Job 1:6, 2:1, and 38:7, the KJV uses the term "sons of God".
The context clearly suggests that these sons of God are angels,
and the NIV actually translates the Hebrew to mean angels.
The NIV doesn't use the term "sons of God" as the KJV
does. Thos who believe that
the "sons of God" seen here in Genesis 6 are angels point to
Job to confirm their point. Jesus
clearly states that angels don't marry.
Those who don't believe that the sons of God are angels say that
angels don't marry, that is don't have wives, but it might be possible
that when appearing as human, they have sexual capabilities.
Most scholars do believe that when angels appear to humans, they
appear in some human like form so they are recognizable.
Jude
6 sheds some light on this topic, at least for those who believe that
the sons of men were fallen angels.
Jude writes that the "angels who did not keep their position
of authority, but abandoned their own home – these He has kept in
darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on that great
Day." We need to ask
who these angels are. They
can't be demons that are roaming the earth today since these angels are
locked up in chains. These angels are another group of angels.
They might well be the sons of God as seen here in Genesis 6.
God removed them from the earth and chained them up.
One
thing we should understand is that the Bible is a book concerning God
and his relationship to mankind. We
only have hints and glimpses of the spiritual realm that exists around
us. Therefore much of what
we believe about angels and demons is partial.
In
verse 3 we note that God said that His "Spirit will not always
contend with man because he is mortal."
This comment by God comes right after the mention that the sons
of God married the daughters of men. To me this suggests that these
marriages have something to do with God's Spirit noting contending with
men any more. There seems to
be something really wrong with these marriages.
Another
rendering of the word "contend" could be remain.
So either God is saying that "my Spirit may not always
contend, or struggle with mankind, and that would be an inner
struggle," or He is saying, "my Spirit will not always remain
within man." It's
either one or the other. When
God breathed into man the breath of life when He created man, something
of God was placed in man. Now
that something seems to be struggling or contending with man, and so
that part of God that produced life in man would not remain in man
forever. When that part of
God is removed from man, man dies. This
would suggest that all mankind, wicked or righteous has something of God
within him, and only when that is removed will man die. The
simple point to verse 3 is that there is a conflict between God and man,
and this conflict is getting worse, so bad, that He would bring the
flood to the earth. One
last point to verse 3 is
that God said the life span of man would be 120 years.
That's greatly reduced from the life span of many that had
existed. Psalm 90:10 suggest
that our life span is 70 years, or if we are in good health, maybe even
80. It would seem to be that
sometime between Genesis 6 and Psalm
90, man's life span got reduced by another 40 years. It
is interesting to note that God Himself said that the life span of man
would be reduced after the flood. Did
He reduce the number of years, or was it because the umbrella of water
above our sky that protected us from the sun's harmful rays was gone due
to the flood? Verse
4 says that the "Nephilim" lived on earth in those days, as
well as after those days. These
Nephilim were the ones who had married the daughters of men that we saw
in verse 2. This may or may
not help us answer the question, "who are the sons of God?"
The KJV translated the Hebrew as "giants."
The word "Nephilim" is a transliteration form the
Hebrew. It's not a
translation. It's pretty
well how you say the Hebrew word. The
KJV doesn't transliterate. It
translated the Hebrew into
the English word "giants."
So the KJV understands the Hebrew word here to mean giants, as in
those who are large in bodily structure. Yet there are some who say that
the Hebrew word doesn't mean large, but noble, skillful, or excellent.
That might be why they are called "men of renown" in
this chapter. These
Nephilim seem to be a strange being, maybe giants, and maybe some kind
of superior being, who knows for sure.
Some link the Hebrew word to it's root, meaning "to
fall." Therefore they
suggest that the Nephilim are fallen angels.
These fallen angels had sex with women and their offspring were
giants, or so those who hold to this position say.
These Giants were clearly seen before the flood, but also were
seen after the flood, as seen in the giant the David killed. See
also Numbers 13:22 and 33 where it also mentions Nephilim.
It appears that these Nephilim were wiped out at the flood, but
also appeared again in history. Verse
4 might support that the "sons of God" are in fact fallen
angels, and these fallen angels married human women and produced a
different kind of human offspring that as this verse says, were heroes
and men of renown. They
would have been heroes and men of renown because they were giants and
mighty warriors. If all this
is true, you can see why God is so upset with everything that is taking
place on the earth. Jesus
compared the days at the end of this age to the days prior to the flood.
You can see how evil the days before the flood were.
They appear to be more
evil than our days at present, although things can change very quickly
in our day. The whole world
of demonic activity and demon worship is increasing these days, and it
would not surprise me that soon we will be like those in Noah's day, and
fallen angels might well be having sex with women. Verse
5 tells us God's perspective concerning how evil man had become.
He said, that "every inclination of the thoughts of men's
hearts were only evil all the time."
Notice that God isn't talking about evil actions here.
He's talking about "inclinations of the thoughts of man's
heart." He's not even
talking about man's thoughts, but the inclination of our thoughts.
This means that man's thoughts are inclined towards evil before
they even think the thoughts, and before these thoughts can be put into
action. And this inclination
towards evil isn't spasmodic. This
tendency towards evil is with us all of the time.
We can't get rid of evil inclinations.
They are part of our nature. If
the "sons of God" mentioned in this passage are fallen angels,
then you can certainly see how bad things got. Jesus
compared the days at the end of our present age to these days.
Both in Noah's day, and in the days leading to the end of this
age, there is no concept of the God of the Bible.
Everything is distorted. Notice
also that man's wickedness "had become" more wicked as time
went on. Such is sin.
One sin leads to another. Unless
wickedness is kept in check, it will spread like a cancer.
God told Cain that "sin is crouching at your door."
If you let sin passed your door, it will want to take over
completely. In
verse 6 we note that God was grieved, and His heart was full of pain.
From this we know that God does experience negative emotions such
as grief and pain. Since we
are created in God's likeness and image, that is why we experience such
emotions as well. The
KJV puts these words as "it repented the Lord that He had made man
on the earth." The
JKV might seem a bit different in their translation from the NIV.
The KJV suggests that God wished that He had never made man, and
that He was ready to change His mind concerning man.
I don't see this as being a good interpretation of these words.
I believe God knew well in advance what would happen to man.
I also believe, as discussed earlier, that God anticipated man's
wickedness, and that it was all part of His plan against the battle He
had with satan. Yet even
though God knew this would happen, and it was part of His plan, it still
grieved Him. That shows the
love of God. In
verse 7 we see the conclusion that God came to.
He would "wipe mankind whom He had created from the face of
the earth." I've always
said that God is very secure in Himself.
He is not afraid to destroy what He has created, unlike you and I
who for the most part have trouble wiping out what we have created.
This was a very drastic measure for God to take, but it shows us
that He takes sin very seriously, and so should we. The
second part of verse 7 states that God wasn't only going to wipe out
man, but birds and animals as well.
There is no mention of fish being wiped out.
Maybe they were or maybe they weren’t.
My guess is that the fish weren't wiped out. There
was one exception to God wiping out all mankind from the face of the
earth, and that was Noah. Somehow,
God found favour with Noah. We
learn why Noah found favour in God's sight in Hebrew 11:7. It reads,
"by faith, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear
built an ark to save his family. By
his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness
that comes by faith." We
learn much from Hebrews 11:7. First of all we learn that Noah had faith.
Faith means trust. That
means that He trusted God. When
he began to trust God we don't know, but it is certain that he did trust
God. The writer of Hebrews
says that "Noah, by faith when warned…"
God's warning to Noah was a test of trust.
Could he trust God to bring about a flood and keep him through
the flood? Well, he did
trust God and was saved. The
writer of Hebrews is telling us that Noah's salvation, like ours, was
built on trust. Another
thing we learn about Noah from this verse is that he had a "holy
fear" of God. Having a
"holy fear" of God is part of being a righteous person.
You might say that to the degree we fear God will be the degree
we live a righteous life. Much
of the problems we face in Christian circles today is a direct result of
not fearing God as Noah did. I
do distinguish between fear and reverence.
Fear is stronger than reverence.
Fear is being afraid. Noah
was afraid not to trust God, and so should we be afraid not to trust
Him. We often minimize fear
to reverence, but we shouldn't. Another
thing we learn here in Hebrews is that Noah was warned about something
that had never happened before. Prior
to this point in time, it had never rained.
Remember, above the sky prior to the flood was a canopy of water.
The flood was a combination of this water falling to the ground
and springs of underground rivers exploding to the surface of the earth.
Mankind had never experienced rain before.
That would mean that Noah would really have to trust God.
If God told Noah it would rain, and Noah had never seen rain, it
might not have been an easy thing to trust God.
Another
thing we learn here and in the Genesis account is that because Noah was
righteous, his whole family was saved.
There seems to be hints of family salvation throughout scripture.
I don't think that a son or a daughter is saved because of his or
her parents faith, because salvation is on a personal level.
Each and every person needs to trust Jesus for themselves.
Yet at the same time, if the man is the head of the home as he
should be, it appears to me that all family members under his care will
be protected from evil as long as these family members are at home.
Once they go out on their own, this protection from God is
determined by their own personal faith.
This also might suggest that God will certainly speak to the
hearts of our children, and even more so than others who are not from a
godly family. Our prayers
for our family members will be heard.
This tells me how important it is for each and every Christian
family to have a godly father. One
last thing we learn from Hebrews 11:7 is that Noah's faith condemned the
world. What does that mean.
Well, it seems to me that Noah's faith and his subsequent actions
help God condemn the world. It
was God's judgment call that brought the rain.
It was His idea in the first place, but Noah's faith and trust in
God connected Noah to the plan of God. This is true for us today as
well. God has certain plans.
He has certain plans concerning the end of the age, and part of
His plan is to include us in the implementation of this plan.
We can only participate in God's plans when we trust Him with our
lives. Noah's obedience to
God in building the ark was in effect a demonstration of the
condemnation and judgment of God. Genesis
6:9 says that Noah was both righteous and blameless, and that he walked
with God. What walking with
God means might be debatable. We
know that Adam walked with God. We
know that Cain and Abel talked with God.
I think it might be that prior to the flood God spoke to those to
whom He wanted to speak in real time so to speak.
Whatever the case, Noah walked with God, suggesting he had an
ongoing relationship with God, and that is what living a godly life is
all about. Verse
10 tells us that Noah had 3 sons. They
were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Genesis
7:6 tells us that Noah was 600 years old when the floods came.
To me this presents and interesting question.
In all of Noah's 600 years, why did he only have 3 sons, and
apparently no daughters. I
don't think we can answer this question.
We can only guess. It
might well be that God knew that Noah's family would be the family that
His salvation for mankind would flow through and only so many sons and
sons family could fit into the ark. On
the other hand, Noah might well have had many more sons and daughters
that we know about, but only three were chosen to enter the ark.
Three might be an important number here.
Three is often seen as the number of completion.
The
name Shem means, a name or a mark, or some distinguishing mark.
It is said that Shem's line of ancestry ended up in western The
name Ham means hot. Ham's
ancestry includes the Canaanites, and those who lived in the south,
including Japheth
means opened. His ancestry
spread northwards and settled in the coast of the Mediterranean and
north into Verse
11 says that the "earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of
violence." The
Hebrew word for "corrupt" means wicked, but it also has the
idea of destruction. It
appears that man's wickedness and violence had destroyed many things on
the earth. The word
"corrupt" is more of a general word for wickedness, but the
word "violence" is more specific.
Man had become quite violent, and it only took ten generations.
Verse
12 says that "all people on the earth had corrupted his ways."
When the text says "all people" we should accept these
words and understand that "all people" were corrupted, that
is, except for Noah. As said
earlier, many scholars feel that there could well have been 5 to 7
billion people on the earth at this time.
Even if there were only millions of people on the earth, all
these people could do major damage to the earth, to each other, and to
what they had built. Verse
13 tells us that God spoke to Noah and told him that He would put an end
"to all people " on the earth.
All people were wicked, therefore all people would die. Once again the word "violence" is used to denote what
kind of wickedness was taking place.
I'd suggest that there were probably other forms of wickedness,
but violence seems to be the predominant one.
If indeed evil angels came down and had sex with women, that
would surely be another form of wickedness.
Also
in verse 13 God said that He would destroy both "men and the
earth." So once again,
all creation went down with man. Adam
brought all of creation down when he sinned, and we see the same taking
place now. When
God said that He would destroy the earth, that means the whole earth.
That tells me that the idea that some hold to that the flood was
local and did not cover the whole earth is not correct. God
destroyed the earth in the flood. This
tells us how much damage was done to the earth.
If God said He would destroy something, then you can be assured
that it got destroyed. That
is what happened to our earth. So much of what modern science says took
place over billions of years could have easily taken place because of
the flood. In
verse 14 God begins to tell Noah his plans for him.
He told Noah to make an ark from cypress wood, or
gopher wood as the KJV puts it. The
origin of this word and this wood is unknown.
The
ark would have rooms in it and it was to be covered in pitch.
The word "pitch" itself in the Hebrew means "to
cover", and is used many times in the Old Testament in terms of
covering of one's sin in atonement. Note
that the pitch was to be put on this ark from in outside and the inside.
Normally pitch is only put on the outside of a boat, but not
here. This had to be sealed
completely. The flood that
would take place would be very damaging.
Verse
15 tells us that the ark was to be built 450 feet long, 75 feet wide,
and 45 feet high. For those
who are ship builders, you will realize that these dimensions are the
proper dimensions for a ship, or an ark this case.
When building boats the dimension must be in proportion for the
boat to float without tipping. One
thing we should note is that the ark isn't meant to be a ship.
It's meant to be more like a raft that has been
covered. Verse
16 says that the ark should have a roof and finished within 18 inches.
This means that all around the roof of the ark, about 18 inches
from the top there'd be an opening for air to get in.
Also verse 16 says that the ark must have a door and three floors
to it. Verse
17 tells us that God will destroy the earth, and "everything under
the heavens will be destroyed." This
presents a question. Did the fish get destroyed because they are under
the heavens? You might think
that the rushing water from the underground streams that exploded onto
the earth might have killed the fish. This is a debatable question. We
know that Noah did not put fish in the ark, and we have fish today, so
if God killed the fish, how could we have fish today if none survived
the flood? Most scholars
feel that fish weren't killed in the flood. In
verse 18 God spoke to Noah and said that He would make His covenant with
Noah. This is the first time
we see the word "covenant" in the Bible.
What God promises Noah is normally called the "Noahic
Covenant." God
simply covenanted, or agreed with Himself at this point.
God didn't really enter into an agreement with Noah.
A covenant is simply an agreement between two people, or in the
case of God, He often makes a covenant with Himself to either bless or
curse man. You might say
what God told Adam, Eve, and the serpent in Genesis 3 concerning their
punishment was a covenant. At
that point God agreed with Himself to do certain things because of Adam
and Eve's sin. And in one
sense of the word, what God told Adam, Eve, and the serpent was a
covenant. The
covenant God is making here is that He will allow Adam, his wife, and
his three sons and wives and family to enter the ark to save them from
the flood that would soon cover the earth.
God stated the covenant. Noah
simply had to obey it in order to be saved. This
covenant is expanded on after the flood. Verse
19 states more of the covenant. Noah
was to bring in two of every kind of animal into the ark, male and
female. This is so that when
the flood was over these animals could reproduce and repopulate the
earth. Verse
20 specifies that all animals would be included, even birds.
There is no mention of fish. The
verse says that the animals "would come" to Noah.
Some suggest that God led them to Noah.
This might well be the case.
Yet once they got to Noah, as verse 19 says, Noah would actually
"bring" the animals into the ark.
So the animals entering the ark appear to be a combination of
both God and Noah assisting them. The
covenant continues in verse 21 where God tells Noah that he
has to bring in food for both the animals and his family.
Verse 22 says that "Noah did everything that God had commanded." This tells us that Noah was indeed a righteous man. He did everything asked of him by God.
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