Evil and Wickedness = A Bad End

Good evening from the Panhandle, sorry I'm a little late with this post. As I said last week we are starting on Chapter 6 and our look at Noah. The only one along with his wife, their sons and their son's wives to find favor with God. There are two major themes in the story of Noah, they are: 1. The reason for the judgment of the flood, and 2. Preparation of God for the flood and His provision of salvation in the ark.

The story of the flood, like the fall of man, has wandered all over the world where men are found. All tribes and people have a flood story. It has been distorted and made ridiculous by many. Again the scriptures maintain its credibility by the exalted and reasonable record it gives of this event. The ark is not the boat generally depicted on Sunday School cards. It corresponds favorably with sea going vessels today and the measurements of the ark are in proportion to Modern Ocean going vessels.

The most remarkable thing we have upon record concerning the old world is the destruction of it by the universal deluge, the account of which start in this chapter, where we have,

I. The abounding iniquity of that wicked world v. 1-5,11-12.

II. The righteous God's just resentment of that abounding iniquity, and his holy resolution to punish it v. 6-7.

III. The special favor of God to his servant Noah. - (from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

CHAPTER OUTLINE:

1. Cause of the flood, v. 1-7
2. God’s Deliverance from Judgment of Flood, v. 8-13
3. Instructions to Noah for building the Ark, v. 14-16
4. Passengers in the Ark, v. 17-22

Genesis 6:1-86:

1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Chapter 5 having traced the line of descent from Adam through Sheth, the seed of God, to Noah, the author proceeds to describe the general spread and growth of moral evil in the race of man, and the determination of the Lord to wipe it away from the face of the earth.

When man began to multiply, the separate families of Cain and Sheth would come into contact. The daughters of the stirring Cainites, distinguished by the graces of nature, the embellishments of art, and the charms of music and song, even though destitute of the loftier qualities of like-mindedness with God, would attract attention and prompt to unholy alliances.

The phrase "sons of God," means an order of intelligent beings that "retain the purity of moral character" originally communicated, or subsequently restored, by their Creator. They are called the sons of God, because they have His spirit or disposition. The sons of God, are those who are on the Lord's side, who approach him with duly significant offerings, who call upon Him by His proper name, and who walk with God in their daily conversation. The figurative use of the word "son" to denote a variety of relation’s incidental, and moral as well as natural, was not unfamiliar to the early speaker.

The word "generations" (Gen 5:1) exhibits a similar freedom and elasticity of meaning, being applied to the whole doings of a rational being, and even to the physical changes of the material world (Gen 2:4). The occasion for the present designation is furnished in the remark of Eve on the birth of Sheth. God hath given me another seed instead of Habel. Her son Sheth she therefore regarded as the son of God. Accordingly, about the birth of his son Enosh, was begun the custom calling upon the name of the Lord, no doubt in the family circle of Adam, with whom Sheth continued to dwell. And Enok, the seventh from Adam in the same line, exhibited the first striking example of a true believer walking with God in all the aspects of life. These descendants of Sheth, among whom were also Lamek who spoke of the Lord, and Noah who walked with God, are therefore by a natural transition called the sons of God, the godlike in a moral sense, being born of the Spirit, and walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Ps 82:6; Hos 2:1).

Some believe "the daughters of man" were the daughters of the Cainites only. But it is enough to understand by this phrase, the daughters of man in general, without any distinction of a moral or spiritual kind, and therefore including both Cainite and Shethite females. "And they took them wives of all whom they chose." The evil here described is that of promiscuous intermarriage, without regard to spiritual character. The godly took them wives of all; that is, of the ungodly as well as the godly families, without any discrimination.

"Whom they chose," not for the godliness of their lives, but for the goodliness of their looks. Ungodly mothers will not train up children in the way they should go; and husbands who have taken the wrong step of marrying ungodly wives cannot prove to be very exemplary or authoritative fathers. Up to this time they may have been consistent as the sons of God in their outward conduct. But a laxity of choice proves a corresponding laxity of principle. The first inlet of sin prepares the way for the flood-gates of iniquity. It is easy to see that now the degeneracy of the whole race will go on at a rapid pace.

NOTE: NEPHILIM

This word, translated "giants" in the King James Version, but retained in the Revised Version (British and American), is found in two passages of the Old Testament-one in Gen 6:4, relating to the antediluvians; the other in Num 13:33, relating to the sons of Anak in Canaan. In the former place the Nephilim are not necessarily to be identified with the children said to be borne "the daughters of men" to "the sons of God" (verses 2,4); indeed, they seem to be distinguished from the latter as upon the earth before this unholy commingling took place (see SONS OF GOD). But it is not easy to be certain as to the interpretation of this strange passage. In the second case they clearly represent men of gigantic stature, in comparison with whom the Israelites felt as if they were "grasshoppers." This agrees with Gen 6:4, "the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown." Septuagint, therefore, was warranted in translating by gigantes. - (from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft)

Sadly through out the Bible we see a familiar pattern: Follow God; start to drift from His precepts; full blown back turned on God and His ways. Punishment and a return to God. Here in the first 8 verses of Chapter 6 it is no different. Those who descended from the line of Seth followed God for awhile, but just awhile and then: how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. It's time to be like Noah and be found righteous instead of wicked.