Read with Me
Genesis 6:1-8 (HCSB)
When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. And the LORD said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men.
When the LORD saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the LORD said, “I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind, whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the LORD.
Listen with Me
These verses have caused much discussion and disagreement among both theologians and those who simply want to understand what the Scriptures are saying. But at its root, this section is transitional, explaining why a global flood was necessary, why a restart was desirable.
Simply put, in the world leading up to the time of Noah, there were two kinds of people: those who worshiped God, who called on His name (Genesis 4:26), termed here “sons of God”, and those who followed their own desires and turned away from following God, the sons of mankind. As long as there were people who follow God and obeyed his commands, they could act as salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-16). But soon, those who follow God were enticed away by the “daughters of mankind” who were beautiful, but morally corrupt.
When this happened, it signaled a turning point in the history of the world. The children of those unions were not godly, they were increasingly wicked, using their might and power to war against each other. Moses terms these men “Nephilim”, which comes from a root having the sense of strength and unbridled power. He then states that these men were the powerful men of old, famous men., but we would call “giants” of history. Later, of course, the memories of these men and their deeds would be preserved in the mythologies of the many cultures established after people were scattered from Babel, with them being classed as gods or as powerful but morally deficient heroes such as Hercules.
The Hebrews remembered these great men as well, but they remembered them not as merely “giants” in the history of the world, but literally as giants, men of great size. And when they saw the large inhabitants of the Promised Land (Numbers 13:33), they reported that they had seen Nephilim. Of course, unless Noah was one of the Nephilim, which he was obviously was not, none of them would have survived the flood, they would have all been destroyed and so could have left no descendants.
The most important part of this passage, though, is not the Nephilim themselves, but what these powerful but wicked men represented. With their rise, the light of the “sons of God” was dimmed and was in danger of being extinguished. The world had reached a tipping point that could not be backed away from. So, at that point, God set a time for the coming of the flood: 120 years. At the end of that time, God would destroy all people on the earth with a global flood except for the one righteous man he could find, Noah, and his immediate family.
Pray with Me
Father, we don’t like to think of tipping points like this, whether it is of the whole world, or individual nations, or even individual people. But the history faithfully recorded in Your word shows that for all three there can come a point where Your judgment becomes inevitable. Help us, Lord, Your people today, to painstakingly avoid compromise with the world, and to stay true to You not just so that we ourselves can walk with You and ultimately be saved, but so that we can continue to be effective salt and light in the world, lighting the way for all who will to come to You so that they can be saved and transformed. Amen.