LESSON 9 – THE STORM CLOUDS GATHER
Genesis 6:1-8
Preparing for Lesson 9
As we studied Genesis 5, it was impossible to ignore the repeated words, “…and he died.” But Enoch walked with God and was consequently raptured to heaven without having to suffer death. I wonder if his loved ones knew exactly what had happened to him.
But what an encouragement it would have been if the people had known that God took Enoch to heaven where he no longer had to live in the midst of the evil and wickedness of this world. But as we see elsewhere in Scripture, people forget. They forgot about Joseph (Exodus 1:6-10); they forgot about Joshua (Judges 2:9-10). And they apparently forgot about Enoch, because God sent the Flood to destroy the world about 700 years later.
Here is something interesting that I did not mention in Lesson 8. Noah’s grandfather was Methuselah, whose name had a special meaning. J. Vernon McGee says, “The name of Methuselah means “sending forth”. Others believe that Methuselah means “When he is dead, it shall be sent.” What will be sent? The Flood. As long as Methuselah lived, the Flood could not come. The very interesting thing is, that according to a chronology of the genealogy of the patriarchs, the year that Methuselah died is the year that the Flood came. ‘When he is dead, it shall be sent.’ That is the meaning of his name.”
So now, in preparation for Lesson 9, please read Genesis 6:1-8.
Lesson 9 – The Storms Clouds Gather
When I began studying for this lesson, I did not realize that this section of Scripture contained such controversial material. I’m talking about these words and phrases:
Sons of God
Daughters of men
Nephilim
120 Years
So buckle up, hang on and let’s see if we can find out why these topics are so controversial.
Sons of God and Daughters of Men
There are many theories concerning the identity of the these people groups. A good summary of these theories comes from the Holman Bible Dictionary. According to Holman’s, there are three main schools of thought concerning these groups:
Option 1: The “sons of God” were princes or civil rulers and the “daughters of men” were socially inferior women. However, nowhere in Scripture is “sons of God” used to refer to royalty.
Option 2: The “sons of God” refers to human men from the godly line of Seth, and “daughters of men” were worldly women descended from the line of Cain. However, good exegetical principles require that “man/mankind” has the same meaning in 6:2 as in 6:1, where the word is understood generically as “mankind”. Thus the meaning would be that both the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men” refer to men and women from all of humanity.
Option 3: The “sons of God” were supernatural beings (fallen angels). This option seems the most likely since the phrase “sons of God” appears three times in the Old Testament outside of this reference in Genesis, and each time it refers to angels (Job 1:6, 2:1 and 38:7). The “daughters of men” were human women from all lines of humanity.
R. Kent Hughes says, “The earliest Jewish exegetes held this view (that “sons of God” represent fallen angels) and is represented as such in the writings of Philo, Josephus, and in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The same position was held by the early Christian writers Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Origen.”
Based on the commentators that I studied, Option 3 seems to be the most widely accepted theory. But acceptance of this theory brings its own problems. Since angels are without gender, they must have taken over the souls of men (demon possession, in modern terminology) in order to “marry” the women they lusted after. A fallen spirit having sex through the body of a demonized human takes perversion and depravity to a whole new level.
The wording of Genesis 6:2(b) gives the impression that these “sons of God” legitimately married the women they lusted after: “…and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.” R. Kent Hughes says that in the ancient world, there was no marriage without the consent of the woman’s father, implying that the woman’s parents not only approved of but actually encouraged these unions.
However, Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg puts an entirely different spin on these so-called marriages. “The singular Isha and plural nashim in Hebrew does not have to mean ‘wife’, but can also be translated ‘woman’. Therefore, we are justified in thinking that a culture of systematic rape and non-traditional marriages are being described here.”
Holman adds, “It is this sexual union that prompted God to judge the world by flood. This sin was such a terrible act of rebellion against God’s standards that complete destruction of the world by flood was the only response of a holy God.”
So not only did God destroy the entire world (except for those humans and animals within the Ark), but He severely punished the demons (fallen angels) who committed this rebellion against God’s standards. Jude 6 tells us, “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.” The context of this verse also supports the fact that the “sons of God” were indeed demons who lusted after human women and “indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh.” Also see 1 Peter 3:19-20 and 2 Peter 2:4-9.
Nephilim
The Nephilim are mentioned in Genesis 6:4 which reads, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
We see in this verse that the offspring produced from the union between the sons of God (fallen angels) and the daughters of men were called Nephilim. The Hebrew word Nephilim used in Genesis 6:4 means “the fallen ones”, which supports this view. The same word is also used in Numbers 13:33 where it is translated “giants”.
How did the sons of God and daughters of men produce giants? It has been suggested that these fallen angels, having knowledge of human genetics, indwelt certain men who had the right genetic makeup to produce a race of giants, and they mated with women who also possessed these traits. Perhaps giant humans were simply the result of normal genetic variability within a society. According to Dr. David A. DeWitt, Professor of Biology at Liberty University, says, “Scientific evidence supports that all humans are descendants of Adam and Eve. Moreover, we are all connected to each other through our first parents regardless of superficial traits.”
We know from Scripture that giants were on the earth after the flood.
Think About This: In order for giants to have appeared on earth after the Flood, someone on the Ark had to have carried the “giant” genes.)
In Numbers 13:33, the spies reported seeing the Nephilim, and in fact, Numbers 13:22 confirms that the Anakim were living in the land at that time. Goliath, all 9 feet 9 inches of him, was descended from the Anakim. People known as the Rephaim (translated “the terrible ones”) are mentioned in Genesis 14:5 and again in 15:20. Deuteronomy 2:10-11 describes the Rephaim as being as tall as the Anakim. As far as I can tell, the names Rephaim and Nephilim are used interchangeably.
So, as strange as this seems to us, actual giants did live on earth before and after the flood. I’m not talking Jack-in-the-Beanstalk giant, but if we use Goliath as an example, they were, well, really big. Were they in any way related to the union of demons and humans? I don’t think there is any way to tell for sure.
120 Years
Finally, we look at Genesis 6:3, which reads, “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
Was God saying that He was going to limit the lifespan of all humans to no more than 120 years? We’ve already seen how the lifespans of humans who were on the earth after the Flood were significantly less than those who lived before the Flood, partly due to the change of conditions on the earth. But Moses lived to be 120, and in the first generations after the flood, Genesis records that a number of men exceeded that age. Not only that, but Scripture foretells that during Christ’s Millennial Reign, men at 100 years of age will be considered young.
A better explanation is that God was issuing a warning. He was drawing a line in the sand by declaring that He would wait 120 years from that time to send the Flood. In other words, Noah had 120 years to build the Ark. He warned the people they had 120 years to repent and save themselves. During that time, not only did Noah supervise the building of the Ark, but he was a preacher of righteousness, proclaiming God’s message to all who would listen. It seems very likely that Noah would have had a wide audience but apparently, no one took heed and all were destroyed in the Flood.
In the June 1, 2004 edition of his column “My Answers”, Billy Graham answered this question from a reader: “Will God somehow warn people before the Day of Judgment comes?” This was his answer:
“God has already given us all the warning we need to be ready for Christ’s return. Jesus said, ‘So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him’. (Matthew 24:44).
“The problem isn’t that God’s Word hasn’t already warned us, for it has. It even says that before Christ comes again, God in His grace will give us other signs to indicate that Christ’s return is rapidly approaching. For example, Jesus said, ‘You will hear of wars and rumors of wars…Nation will rise against nation…There will be famines and earthquakes in various places’. (Matthew 24:6-7) In light of today’s headlines, don’t those words warn us that Jesus could return at any moment?
“The problem is that most people will ignore those warnings. They may even mock and laugh at those who say Jesus will return. But the Bible warns that for them ‘the day of the Lord will come like a thief’ (2 Peter 3:10). They have spent a lifetime ignoring God, and suddenly Christ will come again and it will be too late.
“Don’t let that happen to you. Some day you will enter eternity, either when Christ comes again or through death. Are you ready for that day? You can be, by turning to Christ and giving your life to Him today.”
And one final Scripture will bring this message home:
“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:37-39)
Think About It, Talk About It
What factors contributed to the evil and wickedness on the earth in the days of Noah before the flood? What parallels do you see when you compare society in Noah’s day against our own modern society?
What are some arguments that support the belief that “sons of God” refer to fallen angels?
If Noah warned the people through his preaching that a global flood was coming as judgment from God, why didn’t they believe him? If something similar happened today, do you think the people would believe? How has God already warned us that His judgment is coming again?
Sources
DeWitt, Dr. David A.: What Color Was Adam? (www.answersingenesis.org)
Did God Limit Man’s Life to 120 Years?: (www.versebyverseministry.org)
Graham, Billy: My Answers (www.billygraham.org)
Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible-NASB, AMG Publishers, Inc.
Henry, Hugh: Who Are the “Men of Renown” in Genesis 6? (www.reasons.org)
Hughes, R. Kent: Preaching the Word-Genesis
Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, Dr. Eli: Who Were the Sons of God? (www.weekly.israelbiblecenter.com)
McGee, J. Vernon: Through the Bible Genesis – Deuteronomy, Vol 1
Noah, A Preacher of Righteousness (www.gotquestions.org)
von Buseck, Craig: Did Fallen Angels Have Sex with Humans and Create a Race of Giants? (www1.cbn.com)
Who Were the Rephaim? (www.gotquestions.org)