The Decay Of Man Series

How could God allow this to happen? We can’t have it both ways. We cannot be morally responsible beings and not have to deal with the consequences. God gives us enough rope to hang ourselves. We have a responsibility to listen to Him.

Its not that God is out of control, but He always planned to give us real responsibility on the earth. We are not puppets.

Chapter 6 - we did hang ourselves. And we as people need to take responsibility for the choices we make that lead us into trouble. We don’t want to go back and look at the choices we made - but if we do, that is the beginning of repentance.

It’s more amazing that God didn’t destroy EVERYTHING - that instead He saved a family.

Vs 1 - 2

Some commentators and teachers suggest that the "sons of God" were demons and that the children born were some kind of super beings. I’m not really sure I buy that. Others feel that what’s being compared here are the godly line of Seth (the "sons of God") and the ungodly line of Cain ("children of men").

What’s meant is that godly men would indiscriminately marry ungodly women - taking no thought for how their kids would be raised. There’s a good lesson to learn from that - echoed by the Apostle Paul.

2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?

But there is a third possibility - that the "sons of God" refer to rulers - rulers who used what was called the "right of first night." Did any of you see Braveheart? In the movie Mel Gibson marries a girl but the local tyrant comes and asserts his right to sleep with any woman who is being married on the first night. It was a brutal practice - but fits in well with the narrative - showing how man, society, and its rulers have become so depraved. No wonder God judged man.

Who were the "sons of god?" 3 best guesses:

It doesn’t matter which position you hold - the meaning is clear.

1. Angels - fallen, - demons. They supernaturally take on human form and have sexual relations with beautiful women and have kids. They are offspring- not the nephillim. The Septuagint put "angels of god" in there - wasn’t in the original. Its really "sons of god" Not out of the realm of possibility that there was an interface between the spirit world and our world in that time.

2. These refer to sons of god (line of Seth) and the sons of men (line of Cain). The godly line men were seduced by the ungodly - so there was no longer a distinction between the righteous and the unrighteous. Put a glove in the mud and the mud doesn’t get glovy - the glove gets muddy. Not sure if this works.

3. May have been powerful rulers. Potentates. Great kings of the age. Kings were treated like gods. If that’s true then the race of violent people that came from them is a little difficult to explain.

4. Some believe it is 1 & 3 - demonized humans who gave birth to people who had some sort of violent tendency.

Vs 3

This doesn’t necessarily mean that each man should live 120 years - it could actually mean that 120 years from when these words were spoken, the flood would come. The narrative is holding two lines of thought simultaneously - the godly line of Seth and the ungodly line of Cain - the ungodly will perish in 120 years.

Vs 4

The Nephilym - or "giants" as the King James calls them, were the results of these ungodly unions. The word actually comes from a "feller" - think of Paul Bunyon and you get the idea. It was a time when might made right - violence and strength were renowned.

Of course, that’s not true today. Hmm. I don’t think we need to attach some kind of good quality to these "heros." They were just big strong bullies.

The Hebrew word can mean: "the fallen ones" or "the ones who fall on others and make them fall." Nephilim means "to fall." Later the Israelis called them giants in the land of Canaan - but that’s not what the word means.

We don’t know who they were but we do know that God looked at it and didn’t like what was going on.

The "offspring" are NOT the Nephilim. The mighty men of old are not necessarily the Nephilim.

"Famous guys" same word as for David’s mighty men. Some guys had made quite a name for themselves for being violent.

Vs 5 - 7

God looked down and realized that the disease of sin had metastasized throughout the race. Even after the flood - because our beings are infected with sin at birth - we go towards evil and away from good.