WICKEDNESS That INVITES REPERCUSSION-I—Genesis 6:1-8
Attention:
Reiterate the flow of events concerning Cain ‘s legacy of unrepentance & Seth’s transmittance of righteousness.
Genesis records the wanton wickedness of humanity & its repercussions.
Repercussion—An unintended consequence occurring some time after an event or action, esp. an unwelcome one.
Wanton wickedness invites repercussion.
How/When does wickedness invite repercussion?
7 dispositions/qualities of wickedness that invite repercussion.
1—Wickedness invites repercussion thru...
Aberrant RELATIONSHIPs(:1-2)
Explanation: (:1-2)
:1—“Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, & daughters were born to them,”
“Men” began to “increase” in number on the earth, as shown from the genealogies of 4:16—5:32. The birth of “daughters” was obviously part of that equation. And this has been specified in the formula—“& had sons & daughters” of 5:4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 26, 30. As well as implied thru Naamah’s birth as the “sister of Tubal-Cain” in 4:22.
“6:1 introduces the story of the “daughters” often mentioned in passing in chapt. 5 despite their...[seeming]...irrelevance to the genealogical line.”—WBC-G.J. Wenham
“Men”—Mda aw-dawm'—N. m.—1) Man, mankind. Strong—Ruddy i.e. A human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.).
“Multiply”—bbr raw-bab'—1) To be or become many, be or become much, be or become great. Strong—a primitive root; properly, To cast together, i.e. Increase, especially in number; also (as denominative from hbbr reb-aw-baw') To multiply by the myriad.
“Daughters”—tb bath—N. f.—1) Daughter; 2) Young women, women. Strong—from hnb baw-naw'; a primitive root; to build (literally & figuratively) (as feminine of Nb ben); A daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms of relationship, literally & figuratively).
“Born”—dly yaw-lad'—1) to bear, bring forth, beget, gender, travail. Strong—To bear young; causatively, To beget; medically, To act as midwife; specifically, To show lineage.
:2—“that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; & they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.”
However, “the sons of God” “saw” the beauty of the daughters of these men. This evidently is a bad combination of events...“the daughters” of men & “the sons of God.”
These sons of God “took wives” from the daughters of men. This ‘taking of wives‘ describes a legitimate marriage & is not a description of force. This behavior was unacceptable or unbecoming, in God’s eyes, for the group referred to as “the sons of God.”
The “beauty” of the daughters outweighed the moral commitment of “the sons to God,” so that they intermarried—when they should not have(A previous & gracious attempt to circumvent this by removing Cain to a wandering lifestyle(4:11-16))—regardless of the moral consequences.
Note Gen. 3:5-6—The draw of the fruit initiated & invited sin thru fleshly satisfaction, appearance, & lust...as sin always does(Js. 1:13-15).
“...mere lust reigned. For marriage is a thing too sacred to allow that men should be induced to it by the lust of the eyes!”.... “our appetite becomes brutal, when we are so ravished with the charms of beauty, that those things which are chief are not taken into the account.”....[These] wandered without discrimination, rushing onward according to their lust. We are taught... in these words, that temperance is to be used in holy wedlock, & that its profanation is no light crime before God. For it is not fornication which is here condemned... but the too great indulgence of license in choosing themselves wives. And truly,...the sons of God should degenerate when they thus bound themselves in the same yoke with unbelievers.”—John Calvin
“Sons of God” was also a Canaanite term used to describe “the council of the gods.” Likewise in other ancient religions, deities are recorded as mating “with beautiful women by force or persuasion” & thereby producing demigods.
*Therefore, it is “more likely,” that what is seen in our text, in verses 1-4 is actually “a refutation of pagan stories that told of a race of superhuman giants.”—NAC
**Who are these “sons of God?”” The meaning of the phrase is debated to this day.
To me, it appears to refer to the line of men thru Seth, who “began to call on the name of the LORD”(4:26). These were the ones thru whom Noah was produced & thru whom mankind would repopulate the world, eventually producing the Christ.
If the above is true, then the unqualified term “men,” in this verse, is both technical & significant. It would refer to those produced thru the legacy of unrepentance maintained thru the genealogical line of Cain(4:16-24).
“By the former[“sons of God”] is meant the family of Seth, who were professedly religious; by the latter[“men”], the descendants of apostate Cain. Mixed marriages between parties of opposite principles & practice were necessarily sources of extensive corruption. The women, religious themselves, would as wives & mothers exert an influence fatal to the existence of religion in their household, & consequently the people of that later age sank to the lowest depravity.”—JFB(also Gill, Calvin, but Contra MacArthur)
However, 1Pet. 3:18-19 seems to lend much credence to the idea of ‘demonic(angelic) possession’ of men(the only way it could occur) so that cohabitation with “the daughters of men” was possible. Particularly heinous act on the part of both “the sons of God” & the daughters of men.” Deserving such a Flood described later & needing a savior in Noah(5:29).
“How can an immaterial spiritual being, a fallen angel, a demon marry a woman? How can they chose a wife & have a legal ceremony? How can they engage in a marriage?”.....They have to take the body of a man.—John MacArthur
“...one should consider the effect of these evil influences in order to provide sufficient cause for the corresponding divine judgment. The cleansing Flood of Noah was brought about to maintain the sacred messianic lineage, & thus a single generation was left to repopulate the earth (9:1).....Through the descendants of Noah’s son Shem (9:26), Jesus Christ the Son of God came to complete the Christocentric them of the Old Testament (Matthew 5:17).”—Trevor Major
There is much I cannot grasp about these verses if this describes an angelic(demonic) intervention. However there is much that is answered otherwise.
Supposed Key(?) NT Passages:
1Pet. 3:18-19—“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went & preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.”
2Pet. 2:3-11—“By covetousness they[False prophets & teachers] will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, & their destruction does not slumber. 4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell & delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 & did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 & turning the cities of Sodom & Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; & delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing & hearing their lawless deeds)-- then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations & to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, & especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness & despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power & might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.”
Jude 4-8—“For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness & deny the only Lord God & our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom & Gomorrah, & the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality & gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, & speak evil of dignitaries.”
The reference to angels is unqualified even by implication. To me, the Jude verse seems to refer to demons in general or more probably, some particularly nefarious demons or demonic heads.
*“...if Jude & Peter[Jude 6-7 & 2 Peter 4,5] are referring to Genesis 6, it is only on the prior assumption that the latter passage is in fact about fallen angels. In fact, these New Testament passages nowhere refer to angels partaking in earthly marriages & having children.”—Trevor Major
“Sons of God”—Myhla el-o-heem'—1) (plural)—1a) Rulers, judges, 1b) Divine ones, 1c) Angels, 1d) gods; 2) (plural intensive - singular meaning), 2a) god, goddess, 2b) godlike one, 2c) Works or special possessions of God, 2d) the (true) God, 2e) God. Strong—gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) Of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to Magistrates; & sometimes As a superlative.
“Beautiful”—bwj towb—adj.—1) Good, pleasant, agreeable. Strong—Good (as an adjective) in the widest sense; used likewise as a noun, both in the masculine & the feminine, the singular & the plural (Good, A good or good thing, A good man or woman; The good, Goods or Good things, Good men or women), also as an adverb (Well).
“Took...for themselves”—xql law-kakh'—1) To take, get, fetch, lay hold of, seize, receive, acquire, buy, bring, marry, take a wife, snatch, take away. Strong—a primitive root; To take (in the widest variety of applications).
“Wives”—irregular plural—Myvn nashiym’—1) Woman, wife, female.
“Chose”—rxb baw-khar'—1) To choose, elect, decide for. Strong—a primitive root; properly, To try, i.e. (by implication) Select.
Argumentation:
*2Cor. 6:14—7:1—“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons & daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.” Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh & spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
Ex. 34:12-17—““Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, & cut down their wooden images ‘(for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, & they play the harlot with their gods & make sacrifice to their gods, & one of them invites you & you eat of his sacrifice, & you take of his daughters for your sons, & his daughters play the harlot with their gods & make your sons play the harlot with their gods. You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.”
1Cor. 5:1-13—“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, & such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles--that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up, & have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice & wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity & truth. I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner--not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.””
Illustration:
The painter from Venezuela visited by our Houston Association DOM in Cordele, GA(some-how had inroads to his visit)/Given a tour of some local churches/Visitor was absolutely taken aback that the churches were voluntarily supported with no government intervention or involvement!/For the first time, it dawned on him that a State Church is a conflict of interest/A State Church is politically & financially motivated rather than Divinely motivated/Its ministries will always be spiritually substandard/Aberrant RELATIONSHIPs
If I was to walk into Team Chevrolet-Cadillac-GMC in Salisbury & ask them to recommend a make of car, I sincerely believe that the odds of their telling me I should go down the road & buy from Gerry Wood Honda-Kia-Chrysler dealership would be slim to none!/Aberrant RELATIONSHIPs
Its only a movie!—What does it preach?
But I love him Daddy!—Why?!
Liberal Church...But my friends go there!—Is your’s a social club?
Application:
?You invited Divine Repercussions thru Aberrant RELATIONSHIPs?
?Your Wickedness invited God’s Repercussion?
2—Wickedness invites repercussion thru...
Aberrant BURDENs(:3)
Explanation: (:3) Cause God strife/To Burden God
:3—“And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred & twenty years.””
The mind & heart of YaHoWeH are revealed. It appears that He is speaking to Himself &/or Noah but obviously & ultimately reveals His heart to Moses.
God’s Spirit would not contend for control with any person for any great deal of time, as had been exemplified in the unusually(?) long lives in the genealogy of Adam(5:1-32).
God has granted man much time, individually as well as corporately, to respond positively to God’s love.
*Probably:
This may also be interpreted as YaHoWeH’s having reached the point of ultimate frustration with His offer of grace. God is giving man 120 years to repent prior to the arrival of judgment, i.e., prior to the Flood.
*This scenario seems a better fit in the context of ‘the times’(4:16—5:32), than to see it as a lowering of the physical age of men(in general) following the Flood.
“What's He been doing? Striving with man. He's been trying to bring these sinners to repentance & He says, "I'm not going to do this indefinitely."—John MacArthur
“The word yadhon has been rendered variously as contend, strive, or abide; the etymology is uncertain. It is usually taken to mean that “God will not forever bear the consequences of man’s sin.”—’THE MEANING OF “SONS OF GOD” IN GENESIS 6:1-4’—Trevor J. Major
“Spirit”—xwr roo'-akh—1) Wind, breath, mind, spirit. Strong—Wind; by resemblance, Breath, i.e. A sensible (or even violent) Exhalation; figuratively, Life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension, A region of the sky; by resemblance Spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression & functions).
*“Strive/Contend”—Nyd dee-yn—1) To judge, contend, plead. Strong—a primitive root; To rule; by implication, To judge (as umpire); also To strive (as at law). Used 24X.
“Forever”—Mlwe o-lawm'—N. m.—1) Long duration, antiquity, futurity, for ever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, old, ancient, world. Strong—properly, Concealed, i.e. The vanishing point; generally, Time out of mind (past or future), i.e. (practically) Eternity; frequentatively, adverbial (especially with prepositional prefix) Always. Used 439X.
“Flesh”—ggv shaw-gag'—1) To go astray, err, commit sin or error. To stray, i.e. (figuratively) Sin (with more or less apology). Used 5X.
Argumentation:
Gal. 5:16 -24—“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
1Thes. 5:19—“Do not quench the Spirit.”
Jn. 3:3-7—“Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”
Lk. 11:45-46—“Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, “Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.” And He said, “Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.”
Isa. 5:3-4, 7—““And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?..... For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.”
Such things Burden our God unjustly.
God knows that we are but dust...but that is no excuse for acting like you’re unsaved by serving the flesh!
Illustration:
Granny’s yard/She is pushing 80yrs. old/She has a 3 ½ acre yard & a large garden/To leave it all to her effort would be wrong!/It would place an undue & unjust burden upon her...An Aberrant BURDEN
My brother & sister-in-law remove the BURDEN by regularly mowing, plowing, planting, trimming, picking, etc. They spend about as much time at Granny's as their own house!
Application:
?You invited Divine Repercussions thru Aberrant BURDENs?
?Your Wickedness invited God’s Repercussion?
CONCLUSION:
Action:
Wickedness invites repercussion thru...
1. Aberrant RELATIONSHIPs(:1-2)
2. Aberrant BURDEN(:3)
Presented 12/04/2011am to:
Needmore Baptist Church
1620 Mt. Vernon Rd.
Woodleaf, NC 27054
