Please turn in your Bibles this evening to Genesis chapter 6 as we continue our study through the Word of God. As we have seen so far in our study of Genesis, as soon as sin enters the picture, things deteriorated very quickly. As we are going to see tonight, only 10 generations from Adam the earth was filled with wickedness, with rebellion against God. So much so that God is going to have to step in and do something about it. So with that said, let’s begin reading in Genesis chapter 6, starting in verse 1 and see what the Lord has for us as we study His Word.
VERSES 1-2
Now this is a very controversial portion of Scripture. The problem is this, who are the sons of God and who are the daughters of men that are spoken of here? Some feel that the sons of God are the godly line of Seth and the daughters of men are the ungodly line of Cain. That sounds good and is the least controversial, but there are some problems with that, big problems.
You see, when you look at the linage of Seth, they, for the most part were not godly. You see, at this point in time, from the linage of Seth there was only one family that was godly, so that can’t be it. Also, just because a believer and an unbeliever have children, it does not mean that they will produce some kind of ungodly offspring or Nephilim in the Hebrew. Yes, God says we are not to unite with unbelievers, but just because they come together it surly doesn’t mean they will produce some kind of unnatural offspring!
That phrase, “sons of God” or BEN ELOHIYM refers to angels, and in this case, fallen angels, demons. We see this in Job 1:6 where we are told, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.” (See also Job 2:1, 38:7). In fact, the translators of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures, which took place in around 250 BC, translated the phrase “sons of God” as angels!
I do realize that some point to what Jesus said in Matthew 22:30 and say that angels can’t have sex, but that is not what the text says. Jesus said, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.” And keep in mind that the angels we are talking about here in Genesis chapter 6 are fallen angels.
In Jude 6-7 we are told, “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 and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Not all of these fallen angels are chained, but some are and I believe it is these angels who committed this sexual sin with the daughters of men that God has chained and one day will release during the Tribulation Period to bring about one of His judgments, the fifth trumpet judgment spoken of in Revelation chapter 9.
Thus, I believe these fallen angels cohabitated with women and produced “giants” or the fallen ones. You see, it had to be sexual sin, they left their proper domain, the boundaries that God has set, and in Jude 7, as he speaks of the sexual sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, he says that their sin was similar to these angels, why? Because they too left their proper domain or the boundaries that God had set, they went after strange flesh, men having sex with men and women with women, these cities were filled with this sin. And when Jude tells us that they went after “strange flesh” the Greek word of “strange” is HETEROS and it means that they went after something that was not natural to fulfill their lustful desires, to satisfy the flesh! Thus, these angels are bound until Judgment Day, and like I said, I believe they are going to be released from the bottomless Pit, part of the fifth trumpet judgment spoken of in Revelation chapter 9, those demon locusts!
Listen to how The Living Bible puts these verses here in Genesis 6:1-2. It reads, “Now a population explosion took place upon the earth. It was at this time that beings from the spirit world looked upon the beautiful earth women and took any they desired to be their wives.” I think that is the correct way to look at these verses.
Also, from the book of 1 Enoch, which of course is not an inspired book but may give us some accurate historical information, we are told: “And it came to pass that the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children . . . [They] took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments . . . And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants . . . And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways.” Obviously this is speaking of the fallen angels or the demons!
Now, why did they do this? Keep in mind that God told Adam and Eve that it would be through the seed of the woman that salvation would come to man and death to Satan. Thus, Satan influences Cain to kill his brother Abel, but God’s plan was going to go through Seth and not Cain or Abel! And here he is trying to pollute the genetic pool or making it so the Messiah could not be born. And he came very close to succeeding! Boice tells us, “The Savior could not be born of a demon-possessed mother. So if Satan could succeed in infecting the entire race, the deliverer could not come.”
So you can agree with me or not, but I think the point that is being made here is that these fallen angels cohabitated with women to produce the fallen ones!
VERSES 3-4
God is patient, He is longsuffering, but there does come a point where He will judge sinful man. But again, notice God’s grace. He is waiting 120 years before He pours out His judgment, 120 years for man to repent and get right with God!
In regards to salvation, I also see God saying this. That there does come a point where a person has rejected God so much, his heart is so hard, that he no longer can be saved; he has passed the point of no return! Let me give you an example. The religious leaders of Jesus day saw the miracles that He did and yet they WOULD not believe. And they kept hardening their hearts so much that eventually, they COULD not believe. In John 12:39-40 we are told, “Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’” God is gracious and longsuffering but His Spirit will not strive with men forever!
The word “giants” in the Hebrew is NEPHILIM or “fallen ones”. This is speaking of the unnatural offspring that was produced by these fallen angels and the daughters of men. Now it does say that some were around after the flood, but I don’t believe it was on as large of a scale as we see here in Genesis chapter 6! But we do see demonic activity on the increase in the days we are living in!
VERSES 5-7
We do complain a lot about how wicked our world is, but it is not different than the time spoken of here in Genesis. In fact, it is probably better at this point in time than it was back then. The depravity of man as his thoughts are wicked throughout the day! Keep in mind there were probably over 5 billion people living on the earth at this time, and some feel that number is even higher, and wickedness permeated their lives!
Jesus made these interesting remarks in Matthew 24:37-39 in regards to His return. He said, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Notice, society was filled with wickedness and yet life went on. They were totally unaware of the coming judgment of God. Now, look at these conditions before the flood came and see how they parallel what is going on today and how people are totally unaware of the coming judgment of God!
· THERE WAS A POPULATION EXPLOSION – GENESIS 6:1
· THERE WAS SEXUAL PERVERSION THAT PERMEATED THE WORLD – GENESIS 6:2
· THERE WAS HEAVY DEMONIC ACTIVITY IN THE WORLD – GENESIS 6:2
· MAN’S HEART WAS CONTINUALLY EVIL – GENESIS 6:5
· THERE WAS WIDESPREAD CORRUPTION AND VIOLENCE – GENESIS 6:11
It is as Peter reminds us, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” II Peter 3:9-10. Yes, God is patient, He is longsuffering, and He wants people to come to Him, but remember that His Spirit will not strive with man forever. He is going to judge the world for their wickedness and I believe that day is fast approaching!
Don’t think that God changed His mind about creating man. We are told in Malachi 3:6a, "For I am the LORD, I do not change . . .” Then what is this all about, that God was sorry that He made man and that this grieved His heart? Folks, God is not unfeeling or uncaring. Yes, He knew exactly what man would do and thus, He is sorry to see how sin is destroying people’s lives, it broke His heart. Remember when Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus, His friend and he wept, why? He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, so why did He weep? I believe it was because of the affects of sin upon people’s lives, how it causes so much pain! That is our God; He truly loves us and is grieved over our rebellion and sin!
Here we see the wrath of God that is going to be poured out upon a world that is in rebellion against Him. Please understand that God did not fly off the handle and lose His temper. His judgment is righteous, it is fair. You see, the land needed to be cleaned but who would carry on the race if God wiped man out and everything that lived? Where would the seed come from in the midst of all this evil? Look at the next verse and you will see!
VERSE 8
Notice what this verse says and doesn’t say. Noah FOUND grace, it doesn’t say he EARNED grace or WORKED for grace. You see, grace is the unmerited favor of God upon us, giving to us what we don’t deserve. Yes, sin filled this world, but in the midst of all that sin we see Grace abound even more! Paul makes that point in Romans 5:15-21 as he tells us, “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” That is the grace of God and you can’t add to grace because you can’t add anything to that which is perfect for it will only cheapen it, weaken it, make it of no value!
Many years ago a London traffic jam prevented C. S. Lewis from arriving at a certain religious symposium on time. The panel, comprised of the world’s most highly esteemed religious thinkers, began without him. Their first question was this: “What is unique about Christianity?” A great question but the Buddhist, Muslim, Jew, Taoist, as they all discussed this they could not arrive at a conclusive answer. In the midst of their debate, C. S. Lewis burst into the room. “Dr. Lewis,” said the moderator, “tell us what is unique to Christianity.” “That’s easy,” Lewis replied, “It’s grace.”
Christianity is the only religion where you don’t have to earn merit to get into heaven; you don’t have to do this or that because it is all grace! Paul said in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Every other religion wants you to do something; they require you to do this or that, while Christianity tells us to receive the free gift of life by faith, which is found in Jesus! Folks, it is all God’s grace, there is nothing more, there is nothing less, there is nothing else!
Paul, in Hebrews 4:16 tells us, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” You see, outside of Christ the enemy condemns, while the Lord pours out His grace upon us, even and especially during our time of need!
VERSES 9-10
I believe this is not only speaking of Noah living a life that was pleasing to God, but also his family was not corrupted with the fallen angels infecting his gene pool you might say. In other words, we are told that he was “perfect in his generations” or that he was pure in his genetic profile! In II Peter 2:5 we are told of Noah, “and 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.” That was this man Noah, in a world of darkness he shinned brightly!
We are also told that Noah walked with God. Folks, we are saved by grace and we don’t have to do good works, but we get to and as we do we bring Him honor and glory! Our actions are not based on a works salvation but we are saved for good works! It is what should flow from our lives!
Here is an interesting picture of two men who walked with God. Enoch walked with God and he was taken to be with the Lord before God poured out His judgment upon an ungodly world. Enoch is a type of the Church who will be taken up to be with the Lord prior to God pouring out His wrath during the 7 year Tribulation Period. Then who does Noah represent? I believe Noah represents the faithful Jewish remnant that will go through the tribulation period and God will see them through this storm of judgment!
Noah has three sons, we are told: Shem, Ham and Japheth and as we will see, they will all play a part in propagating the human race after the flood.
VERSES 11-13
God puts forth his sentence by first saying that man is guilty before Him and thus, He will destroy them because of it. Some feel this is not fair, how can God do something like this? Folk’s, God is holy; He is righteous and ever since sin entered the world, death has occurred; now God will speed that up a bit! Now, in saying that don’t lose sight that in the midst of this judgment we see God’s grace extended to Noah and his family and what God has promised, salvation through the seed of the woman, is still going to come to pass in spite of Satan’s attempts to prevent it! God always has a faithful remnant, even if it is just 8 people as we see here, 8 people that will be spared the judgment of God!
VERSES 14-16
God tells Noah to build an ark. Folks, he did not contract this work out. God called and Noah took those steps of faith and obeyed! This boat was approximately 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, using 18 inches for a cubit. Think about it, this boat measured 1½ times the length of a football field and it was not until 1858 that a boat bigger than the ark was built. And keep in mind it was more like a barge, it was not built for speed or navigation, it just needed to float and withstand this storm of judgment. It was built for stability.
This ark had 3 decks on it with ceilings at least 12 feet high, giving the total deck space to be about 95,700 square feet! There was also a window around the top of the ark, near the roof, measuring about 18 inches that was used for light and ventilation. The weight of the ark has been estimated at about 15 to 20 tons!
One of the other problems that people have with this account is, “How in the world could all those animals fit into this boat?” First of all let’s deal the total volumetric capacity of the ark, which was approximately 1.4 million cubic feet. Now that may be hard to picture, so let me explain it this way. The three decks of the ark would be able to hold approximately 522 standard box cars. And each box car could hold 240 animals the size of a sheep. That means the ark could hold 125,000 animals with an average size equaling that of a sheep.
Dr. Henry Morris estimates that only 146 of those box cars would be needed to house the entire vertebrate population of about 35,000 distinct kinds. And some even bring that number down further, to only 16,000 distinct kinds of animals to preserve the created kinds. That would still leave more than enough room for food, water and living areas for only 28% of the arks volume was being used for the animals, the other 72% was open.
Were there dinosaurs on the ark? You bet, but again, keep in mind most of the dinosaurs were the size of sheep, only a few were large and if the large ones were taken on board, they were probably babies at that time, you would not need a full grown dinosaur on the ark!
The inside of the ark was covered in pitch to seal out the water. Now to me, that seems like overkill, why do both the inside and outside? The simplest explanation is that you want to make sure this boat is watertight; you don’t want to take any chances of it leaking. Also, maybe God wanted to preserve it as a witness to a future generation of what God has done in the past and is preparing to do once again, pour out His judgment upon a wicked world. Does that mean the ark is still around today? It is very possible and there has been many reports from people saying they have seen the ark in the mountains of Ararat! Let me just share with you a few of these reports. We are told:
In 275 B.C. Berosus, a Babylonian historian, wrote: “But of this ship that grounded in Armenia some part still remains in the mountains . . . and some get pitch from the ship by scraping it off.”
Around 75 A.D. Josephus said the locals collected relics from the ark and showed them off to this very day. He also said all the ancient historians he knew of wrote about the ark.
In 180 A.D. Theophilus of Antioch wrote: “the remains [of the ark] are to this day to be seen . . . in the mountains.”
An elderly Armenian man in America said that as a boy, he visited the ark with his father and three atheistic scientists in 1856. Their goal was to disprove the ark’s existence, but they found it and became so enraged they tried to destroy it, but could not because it was too big and had petrified. In 1918 one of the atheistic scientists (an Englishman) admitted on his deathbed the whole story was true.
In 1876 a distinguished British statesman and author, Viscount James Bryce, climbed Ararat and reported finding a four-foot long piece of hand-tooled timber at an altitude of more than 13,000 feet (4,300 meters).
Six Turkish soldiers claimed to see the ark in 1916.
In the early part of this [past] century, a Russian aviator named Vladimire Rokovitsky claimed the discovery of Noah’s ark. He was stationed in southern Russia near the Turkish border and Mount Ararat. As he tested a plane he and his co-pilot flew over Ararat and discovered on the edge of a glacier what he described as a boat the size of a battleship. He said it was partially submerged in a lake, and he could see there was an opening for a door nearly 20 feet (7 meters) square, but the door was missing. Rokovitsky told his commanding officer and an expedition was dispatched to find the ark and photograph it. The report was forwarded to the Czar, who was soon overthrown and the photos and the report perished.
In 1936 a young British archaeologist named Hardwicke Knight hiked across Ararat and discovered interlocking hand-tooled timbers at a height of 14,000 feet (4,600 meters).
During World War II two pilots saw and photographed something they believed was the ark on Mount Ararat.
There have been many more recent attempts to find and document the ark, but they have been hindered by politics and surrounded in controversy.
- David Guzik
Do we need to find Noah’s ark to prove of a past judgment of God? Not at all. Just look at this earth and you will see the evidence of a worldwide flood, of a judgment of God! You see, as you look at this earth what you find are billions of dead things, buried in rock layers, laid down by water, all over the earth! Will they find the ark? They might, but for most people, it won’t change their minds because the heavens declare the glory of God and if you refuse the evidence that is now before you, finding the ark won’t change that!
Also, the word “pitch” is the Hebrew word KAPHAR, (kaw-far’) and in the over 70 times that it is used in the Old Testament it is always translated “atonement” except here in Genesis 6:14, where it is translated as “pitch.” Why is that? Think if it like this. The ark is a type of Christ as we shall see and as we are in Him we are at-one-ment with God and it is the Lord who will see us through the storms of life as we remain in Him!
Now, we are told that the ark was made of gopherwood, what is gopherwood? We are not sure what kind of tree species that was, but some feel that this does not refer to a tree species at all. They feel it is related to a lamination process they used. Thus, as they built this ark they would cement several layers of wood together with glue or pitch. Interestingly enough, if this process was used, it would have made the ark stronger than the steel ships of today!
VERSES 17-21
As Noah heard of this coming devastating judgment upon the earth, we are no different. You see, we too know of a coming judgment by God upon a Christ rejecting world. God called Noah to be a preacher of righteousness in a very dark period of time just as He has called us to be. You see, God has established His covenant with us, found in the blood of Jesus, and like Noah was to save a remnant of each animal, God has called us to save people, to be fishers of men and pull them out of this coming judgment. We are living in dark days but we also are to be a light in this dark world. Does that mean the world will want to hear what we say? Not exactly, but like Noah, don’t let that stop you, keep speaking forth the truths of God in love and let the Holy Spirit touch the lives of people and bring them into the kingdom of God before this judgment comes!
VERSE 22
Look at the faithfulness of Noah here. Folks, it took him 120 years to build this boat and he built it where there was no water, no lake, no rain and yet God said He would destroy the earth by a flood. Noah had to walk by faith here. God called him to do a work and the world laughed at him, mocked him and yet he was steadfast, he was immovable; he abounded in the work of the Lord because he knew that his labor would not be in vain in the Lord. How about you?
For 120 years Noah preached, he was a preacher of righteousness, (II Peter 2:5), and yet not one soul was saved. Did that stop Noah from the work that God called him to do? Not at all. But why? Because his eyes were upon the Lord and the work the Lord called him to do. God is looking for faithfulness and He will take care of the rest. How about you, are you keeping your eyes on the Lord even though things may not be going like you think they should?
I like the way Poole elaborates on this. He wrote:
The work of building the ark was laborious, costly, tedious, dangerous, and seemingly foolish and ridiculous; especially when all things continued in the same posture and safety for so many scores of years together; whereby Noah, without doubt, was all that while the song of the drunkards, and the sport of the wits of that age. So it is not strange that this is mentioned as an heroic act of faith.
- Poole
Paul, in Hebrews 11:7 tells us of this great man of faith, of Noah, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” May we walk by faith as Noah did in a time when God’s judgment is getting closer, just as it was in Noah’s day!
And folks, as we will see next time, this was not a local flood, but a worldwide flood. Just think about that for a minute, if it were a local flood, why build an ark for 120 years when you can just move to the next town? It would make no sense. Can you imagine building this boat for 120 years, the flood comes and then as the waters receded you see your friends who moved to the next town who survived the flood. I don’t think you would think too highly of God at that point. Obviously it was not just a local flood but a worldwide flood, the waters covered the face of the earth and we will look at this a little closer next time in our study of Genesis. Let me leave you with these words from Peter that we have read this evening but it is a good way to close. Looking at the grace of God and yet, His righteous judgment, that God’s Spirit will not always strive with men. He said, ““The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” II Peter 3:9-10.