God Isn’t Gonna Like This Series

OPEN: Mary Farwell of Green Castle Missouri, told of the time she was listening to her 5 year old son, Matthew, as he worked on his Speak and Spell™ computer. He was concentrating intensely, typing in words for the computer to say back to him.

Matthew punched in the word “God.” To his surprise, the computer said, “Word not found.” He tried again with the same reply. Staring at the computer in disgust he declared: “Jesus is not going to like this!”

APPLY: What is it that God doesn’t like? Obviously, there is a point where you can end up pushing God too far.

In the Bible we’re told that this God of ours:

 Kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden

 Condemned Satan to ultimate defeat in the fires of

hell

 Flooded the world destroying all but 8 people

 Came down onto tower of Babel - scattered people to the 4 winds by confusing their languages

AND THAT was just the 1st eleven chapters of Genesis.

There’s obviously a point where you can push God too far. The God of the Bible kind of reminds me of the big gentle kid we had in High School. Everybody seemed to like him. He was friendly, outgoing, and caring. You could trust him. But he was obviously a strong, powerful giant of a boy who could be somewhat imposing. I heard somebody once observe - "you don’t really want to get him mad"

Likewise, we have a God who is loving, merciful, gentle and kind. David describes Him this way: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:8-14)

But there is a point to which you don’t want to push God… You don’t want to get Him mad. In Genesis, chapter 6 - somebody obviously got God good and mad. What did they do that made Him so angry? What was it that brought down the wrath of God so severely that He destroyed every living creature upon the face of the earth, except those in the ark Noah built?

I. In Genesis 6:1-3 I believe Scripture hints at part of the problem = the cheapening of marriage. Question: What seems to have been the primary qualification that the "Sons of God" applied in finding their life mate? Answer: beauty. Now, what’s wrong with marrying someone you like looking at? I mean, does God expect us to marry people we think are ugly?

Is it somehow "righteous" for a man to tell a woman: "honey, I want to marry you cause you’re as ugly as they come" OR "you look like you’ve been beat with the ugly stick 3 or 4 times and I really want to marry you?" No, not only is that not "righteous," a man who would say that is bound to be a bachelor for a long, long time.

Besides in the Song of Solomon, we read the words of a righteous man telling his bride that he loves her eyes, her hair, her skin, etc. - he likes looking at her. There’s nothing wrong with being married to someone you like looking at.

So, what’s God so upset about here?

Well, the problem here seems to be in "Sons of God" marrying "daughters of men." There are several theories on who these 2 groups were, but the one I like best is the one I think is the simplest: The sons of God were the children of Godly parents who became attracted to women who weren’t godly. Women who were given over to idol worship and loose living.

Why would Godly men be attracted to such women? Simply because they were good looking.

We read in Deuteronomy 7:2-4 "when the LORD your God delivers them (your enemy) over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.”