Are You Ready? Series

Genesis 6:1-8

January 19, 2003

We were not living in Harrow at the time of the great flood. However, when we came to Harrow on March of 1996 we could still see the effects of that flood. In several of the houses that we looked at, when we went down into the basement we could see a line on the foundation blocks that the water had left.

I have a question for those of you who lived through the flood. If you had been given 24 hours notice that there was going to be a flood, how would you have used that day? Would you have checked the sump pump? Would you have made sure that drains weren’t blocked? Would you at least have moved some of your belongings out of the basement to make sure they would survive on higher ground?

Today we are going to start through the section of Genesis that deals with the flood. Not a little local flood like the one in our Harrow history, but a universal expression of God’s judgment on the world. Today we start with perhaps the most important question - why was there a flood?

Now to discover the answer to that question we need to wade through one of the most difficult sections in the book of Genesis.

Problem #1

Who are the Sons of God?

A. Fallen angels

NAS Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.

GiantsKJV Genesis 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

NIV Jude 1:6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home-- these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

Against:

Mark 12:24 Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

There are no indications of angels in the context

If sons of God are angels who initiate the sin, then why does 6:3 only give judgment on men?

B. Line of Seth

Context - chapters 4 and 5 have all been about the contrast between the line of Cain and the line of Seth.

The language of verse 2 mirrors Eve’s sin in 3:6

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

Saw - Good - Took

The Nephilim are not the offspring of an angel and human pregnancy.

- verse 4 - they were men of renown

-NIV Numbers 13:33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

The sin - giving in to their depraved desires

Problem #2

What does 120 years mean?

- new duration for the life of man - problem - everybody is still living longer than that

- better - period of God’s putting up with man’s wickedness

Problem #3

God repented

KJV Genesis 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Showing us God’s emotions - not that he had made a mistake rather NIV

NIV Genesis 6:6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

Man’s depravity grieves God deeply

What better description of the depravity of man than verse 5.

The Point

Matthew 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

37 "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

38 "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

40 "Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.