During the summer have been
spending our time together wrestling with a fundamental question. And that
fundamental question is this: If the Bible tells us that God created everything that exists out of notheing...and it was all very good! If God
created humanity to reveal and represent Him as they live in relationship with
Him and one another...
and it was all very good! If God created marriage to engage
one man and one woman in a lifelong commitment that reveals and reflects God’s
love for us…and it was very good! Then what happened? If everything was so
good, then what happened to make things so bad?
We talked
about the reality that there is something within all of us that recognizes that
things are not the way they should be. There is something within all of us that
senses that we are flawed and broken people. To find the answers to these
questions, we have been looking at a section of the very first letter in our
Bibles called the book of Genesis.
This week I
would like for us to jump back into a section of the very first letter in our
Bibles, called the book of Genesis, beginning in Genesis 6. However, before we
can jump into Genesis chapter 6, we first need to understand what happened in
Genesis 5. In Genesis chapter 5, we see Moses record for humanity throughout
history the family tree of Adam.
When we look
at this family tree, or genealogy, two things almost immediately jump out at
us. First, we notice that people lived for a really, really, long time at the
beginning of God’s story. The average lifespan of people during this period of
history is between 750 and 970 years.
Second, we
notice that the family tree, or genealogy, of Adam is incomplete. What I mean
by that is that this genealogy does not give us a detailed description of every
descendant of Adam and Eve. Throughout Genesis chapter 5, we read that so and
so lived for x amount of years and became the father of y child and he had other
sons and daughters.
Now this is
significant for two reasons. The first reason that this is significant is this:
just think how many sons and daughters one could have if you lived for over 700
years? A common objection that I often hear about the Bible is “so how did the
earth get populated if there was just Cain, Abel, and Seth? Are you saying that
Adam and Eve’s children had sex with one another?”
Just imagine
how quickly the gene pool would diversify if Adam and his descendants were
having 50 plus kids during their lifetime? While initially Adam’s immediate
offspring would be marrying their brothers and sisters, within two generations
of people that lived for between 700-900 years, the earth would be populated to
the point where they would not be marrying what we would call today close
relatives. You would not have a bunch of “blue blood” kids running around,
because the genetic pool would become very diverse, very quickly.
The second reason why this is significant is due to the
reality that while the Bible records events that occurred in history, it does
not record every event that occurred in history. And the Bible does not provide
us an exhaustive genealogy of every human being that was ever born. The Bible
records the lives of those in God’s story who played a significant role in
God’s story.
Now, with that in mind, let’s look together at what is
probably the most difficult passage of the Bible when it comes to trying to
picture and understand what happened. We find this mind numbing section of the
Bible beginning in Genesis 6:1:
Now it came
about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were
born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were
beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 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."
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.
To which we say “What?” These verses have sparked great
debate for thousands of years. And since none of us were around when this
happened, we will never be able to fully answer the questions that these verses
provoke with certainty. Now the reason why these verses spark such debate and
provoke such questions is due to the phrase “sons of God”. In other words, who
are these sons of God who married daughters of men and produced children who
were referred to as the Nephilim?
In the vast majority of cases, the phrase “sons of God” is
used in the Bible to describe angels. If that is the case then Moses is
recording for us that there was a group of angels who had rebelled against God
and married beautiful women. And as a result of those marriages, children were
born, who were called the Nephilim, who Moses describes as mighty men, men of
renown, which literally refers to a type of glory that never fades.
Now some of you right about now you are thinking “so
Dave, you’re saying the angels had sex with humans and produced a group of half
angel half humans who had superhuman powers?” That is one possible
interpretation of these verses. There are a couple of problems with that view
however. The first problem is that in the Bible, there are places where the
phrase “son of God” refers to men as well, such as Psalm 82:6. The second
problem is that Jesus stated that angels are not male or female and do not
marry.
Third, Moses does not mention angels anywhere before or
after this story. And finally, the story that follows involves God’s response
to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity. God’s response would not have
effected or impacted angels as only humans experienced God’s response.
A second possible interpretation of these verses is that
descendants of Seth had married descendants of Cain. This was forbidden per
God’s command against Cain because of his sin of killing his brother Abel, which
we looked at two weeks ago. However, instead of living as a wanderer Cain and
his descendants defied God and began to have children. And over time, as Cain’s
family tree grew and Seth’s family tree grew, they began to marry and have
children, in rebellion to God’s command. However, the problem with this view is
that the phrase “sons of God” is most often used to describe angels in the Old
Testament.
So which view is right? The short answer is that no one
on the planet can say with certainty, because no one was there and the Bible
leaves sufficient room for debate. I personally lean toward the position that
descendants of Seth had married descendants of Cain against God’s command. I
lean that way based on the fact that God states that His response was to deal
with the selfishness and rebellion of humanity. God does not mention angels of
judgment of angels here.
While we may not be clear who the sons of God refer to,
we are 100% clear on God’s response to the situation. God makes it abundantly
clear that "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also
is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."
But what does that mean?
While some have held this to
mean that God would only allow humanity to live for 120 years, the reality is
that after this, we see humans who live longer than 120 years. If Moses was
communicating this to us today in the language that we use today, this phrase
would have sounded something like this: “since humanity has clearly demonstrated,
by their very nature, that they are more than willing to selfishly rebel and
reject Me, I am no longer going to contend and fight with them. Instead, in 120
years, I will exercise my right and just response to their selfishness and
rebellion. Humanity has 120 more years and then they are going to deal with Me
regarding their rebellion against Me”.
Tomorrow, we will see this
reality revealed for us in stark detail…
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