6
1. Now it came to pass, when man began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 1:28
2. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they choose.
As the years went by, men became more sinful and sought after their lustful desires of the flesh, which was not according to the spirit of God. Instead of having only one wife: which was God’s true intent of marriage between a man and a woman; as it is written: “The two shall become one” (Gen. 2: 22-24) ,man began marrying many women, according to their own passions.
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 and twenty years.”
God did not pour out His spirit to all mankind in the Old Testament, with the exception of a handful of men. Because of this man is not of the spirit, but of the flesh; man can only live by the flesh. The spirit and the flesh cannot co-exist with one another. which is to say that man will chase after all their sinful desires of the flesh, for the flesh is carnal and subject to sin (Rom. 7:14-25), The spirit is of God and all it’s righteousness. (Rom 8:6-9). When God comes to the conclusion about not being able to always strive with man, In his merciful way, He gives man one hundred and twenty years to repent of their ways, and uses his messengers Noah, Methuselah and Lamech, to warn the people of the earth of their evil ways and to repent so that they can be spared of God’s wrath, but they would not repent. I would like to say hear that God Himself does not put even Himself above His own laws. In His law it takes two witnesses to condemn someone to death. god sent two witnesses against Sodom and Gomorrah, and He will also send two witnesses again in the latter days before the return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
4. There were giants On the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Giants (H5303): נְפִל נְפִיל: nephı̂yl / nephil
BDB Definition:
1) giants, the Nephilim
Strong’s definition: From (H5307); properly, a feller, that is, a bully or tyrant: – giant.
As we can see above, The Greek definition of Giant is not what we would think of, when we hear the word giant. Now lets go a little further into detail and see what the definition of bully is, using the Webster dictionary.
Bully: BULL’Y, n. A noisy, blustering overbearing fellow, more distinguished for insolence and empty menaces, than for courage, and disposed to provoke quarrels.
BULL’Y, v.t. To insult and overbear with noise and blustering menaces.
BULL’Y,, v.i. To be noisy and quarrelsome.
Now we have a better understanding of what God is describing to us here. Like I said previously, These were men who were going to live life according to their own ways, which of course provoked Quarrels with God, God goes on to tell us that these weren’t the last of this type of sons of God. There have been men like this ever since. In the KJV, KJV+ and the ASV bibles this verse reads this way:
Gen 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.
What i’m trying to point out is that these giants (well renowned men of their time), raised their children to be like-minded as them “The same became mighty men which which were of old” These men were also of great importance to the people of the time. They were the leaders of the community, well respected, or maybe even feared at times. sometimes the people may have even looked up to these men. So these giants (if you will), were corrupting the minds of the people. The sons of God that are being referred to here are not talking about angels or fallen angels.
5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 8:21
Sound familiar? Jesus warns us that in the end times, men will be the same as in the days of Noah (Matt 24:37-39), (2Ti 3:1-7). The descriptions we see in the new Testament can also be used to describe what the Lord saw in hearts of men during the times of Noah.
6. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.
7. so the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. Num. 23:19
These are two very sad verses, and it brings tears to my eyes when I think of what God is going thru here. God is spilling out his guts. God has very true emotions like man (or should I say man is like God): for we were made in his image. It would be like a father seeing his son addicted to that drug, or being sentenced to prison, or living on the streets begging for money to get that quick fix, What father wouldn’t be saddened? I can imaging when God was revealing this to Moses (who wrote this book) that they both shed a tear or two. It must have been a rainy day. I can imaging the crackling of Gods voice as one’s voice sounds when they are trying to talk thru their sadness, when he spoke these words to Moses, and Moses in turn, feeling God’s pain tearing up himself. When I think of this I Can only venture to guess that God is probably getting to these same heartfelt emotions again in today’s world. Just look at how people are treating each other day in and day out. He went thru these same emotions during Jeremiah’s time and just as it was in the times of Noah, so to was it in Jeremiah’s time. God gave man ample warnings to turn from their wickedness. Yet man has the audacity to be angry with God for all the evil in the world. Man lives what, an average of 75 years nowadays? That’s a very short time to be suffering (especially if you take into account that every day we live is not always suffering), in the grand scheme of things, compared to how long God has been in existence(infinity) God has had many more days of grieving than man since the beginning, and will continue to do so till the end of this age. What about the pain and suffering that we (mankind) have caused upon God throughout time. We have taken him out of our schools, and we ask, “why does God allow all these killings of our children” He did not turn his back on us. We are the ones who Have turned our backs on him time and time again. Our Government (which if you read the first part of the Declaration Of Independence):
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
Our forefathers recognized God and his Creation. We have taken God out of our daily lives, and sadly enough even from the pulpit. There are false doctrines being taught: saying it’s okay to go against which is unnatural to man (men lying with men and, women lying with women).
This is not to say that God is always unhappy with his children. Just as us who have been fathers have our ups and downs and emotional roller coasters, so to does our Father in heaven. I’m sure God was very happy of the birth of King David (for he was a man after God’s own heart). Or Samuel, or Noah, Moses and all the prophets who obeyed his commands: sometimes reluctantly, but nevertheless, Their love For God, wanting to please Him, and the faith in Him was pleasing to God. And I cannot leave out the most faithful man of all; the father of faith: Abraham. Abraham was willing, and according to God’s word, without hesitation, to sacrifice his only son for the Lord. He was so pleased with Abraham that he blessed him tremendously. Which leads us to God’s most precious of all: His only begotten son Jesus Christ, who Gave his life not only for mankind, but also for his father’s namesake. Talk about an emotional roller coaster; On the one hand God was well pleased for his sons willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of all, yet God had to sit there and witness the brutality that was inflicted upon his son. Those twenty four hours: or if you count the three days in the ground till the resurrection also, was an emotional roller coaster that no father would want to endure. Yet God did this because he loves Each and everyone of us dearly.
I just want to take a minute to say thank you Lord for this revelation that you have giving me. My whole purpose of this work i’m doing here is to get closer to you. I have never felt more closer to you than now, while I have meditated on this verse. It makes me want to please you even more, for I do not want my Father to be grieved in his heart for something I have done.
8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Ex. 33:12, 13; Ps. 84:11
Noah was a righteous man who lived according the word of God. Because of this God showed Favor towards him, and will spare him, and his immediate family from the soon coming destruction of the whole earth, and all that is in it. This reminded me of a conversation that I had with one of the teachers in my church; I was concerned with the fate of my family and their salvation. The instructor quote Job 42:7-9. The point he was making, is that because he found true repentance and asked for forgiveness, and even though Jobs friends weren’t of the same mind as Job, Thru Jobs righteousness, God would forgive his friends, on behalf of his prayers and offerings. Through my righteousness, (if I am found worthy) God will also save my family from the tribulation days through my prayers, although they are still responsible for their own salvation at their appointed time. This is the same thing that happened with Noah. Not only did God find grace with Noah but thru that grace his wife, his sons and their wives, God Saved Noah’s family from the flood, but only the flood. We are all still responsible for our own salvation (1 Peter. 4:17), God did the same thing with Lot. Lot was the only righteous one the angels of the lord found when they came into Sodom and Gomorrah, and thru his righteousness his family was saved from the destruction. Compare the conversation Abraham had with God in Gen 18:22-33, and then combine that with Gen 19:12, 29, and you will see that Lot and his family was saved from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, just as Noah and his family were saved from the flood.
9. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.
10. And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 10:1,32
Throughout Noah’s life he never wavered from God and his ways: he was perfect: as perfect as man can be, in God’s eyes. This is what it means when God says that Noah walked with him. Noah had three sons in his lifetime.
11. The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Ezek. 8:17; Rom. 2:13
12. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. Ps. 14:1-3; Rom. 3:23
13. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Other than Noah, the rest of the people of the earth had become ruined and in utter decay because of the cruelty and injustice in the world. So God took a good look at the earth, and perceived that it was indeed in ruin and total decay, because the people of the earth were living according to their own desires and not that of God. On account of mans behavior, man has come to the point that they will utterly destroy themselves (Compare Matt 24:22). As it is in Noah’s time so shall it be on the great day of the Lord.
14. “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.
15. “And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, and it’s width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
16. “You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.
17. “And behold I myself am bringing the flood waters on the earth, to destroy from under the heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.
18. “But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark- you, your sons, your wife, and your sons wives with you.
19. And every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.
20. “Of the birds after their kind, of the animals of their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 7:2, 3, 9
21. “And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and shall be food for you and for them.
22. Thus Noah did; According to all that God commanded him, so he did.
Just as Abraham, Noah did not question God and willingly obeyed Him, down to the letter. Because of this obedience, God will make a covenant between Him and man. The covenant that God makes with man is an everlasting covenant that God will not break. It is always man who breaks their covenant with God first. Because man cannot keep their promises (covenant) with God, God throughout time has to establish new ones, or if you will? amend the covenants. Verses 14-16 gives us a good idea of the massive undertaking that God commands Noah to accomplish. The description of the ark is clear on the size of it. A Cubit is the equivalency of 18 inches. With this in mind we can deduce the size of the ark: 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and approximately 45 feet high. Now if we go back to Genesis 5:32:
Gen 5:32 And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Then let’s go to genesis 6:3
Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
And then let us take a look at Genesis 7:6
Gen 7:6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
And I will also include genesis 11:10
Gen 11:10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was a hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
Since Shem was one hundred years when he bore his first son (Arphaxad): two years after the flood, that would mean that Shem was 98 years old at the time of the flood. Now Noah begot his sons at the age of five hundred years. The Bible does not state how old Noah or any of his sons were when Noah began to build the ark. However, if we take a look at Genesis 6:18
Gen 6:18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
We can clearly see that when God first informs Noah about the flood, that his sons were already married. we do not know how old they were when they married? I believe that at the time of Genesis 6:3 Noah was around 500 years of age. since we know that Noah was born in 1056 Ac, (Gen. 5:28,29) and the flood came in the year 1656. This would have made Noah 600 years of age at the time of the flood. So it could have taken Noah anywhere from 75-100 years long to build the ark.
I believe it is important to understand how long it took Noah to build this ark, this to show how much Noah had faith in God, and also to show God’s patience with mankind. Just imagine, day in and day out, the ridicule that Noah got from the neighboring community. Noah never once took his eye off the ball, and succumb to the temptations of giving up on the ark and on God. Year in and year out he kept his faith in God, no matter the obstacles he had to overcome. Even though the Bible doesn’t say, I imagine even his own family at times thought he was nuts, and tried to persuade him to give up. The other thing I take from this is the patience that God shows with mankind, and the difference between him and us. It was 120 years between the time that God revealed his displeasure with man and his destruction of the earth. We, mankind, who live in the flesh, often times act out of impulse and make quick and foolish decisions when we become angry or grieved by what other people have done to us. God who is rich in mercy, thru Noah, still gives mankind 120 years to repent and change their ways. Undoubtedly, During this time, as Noah is being criticized, he is witnessing to the people of the pending disaster to befall them if they do not turn to God. I have said before and will say it again now, and probably even later on in my writings. If the people of Noah’s time would have just repented, and turn to God, then He would have spared their lives, just as he did with Nineveh.
Jon 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.