Genesis 6 | God’s Grief
Oh, the Nephilim! What do we do with the Nephilim!?
So far, we have avoided some controversies in Genesis even where we could have dived into them. Some people spend A LOT of time in Genesis chapters one and two debating the age of the earth. Is a day really a day (it says 'evening' and then 'morning,' but maybe that is figurative)? Could it be a day-age, a longer period of time? What about the dinosaurs? What about micro- and macro-evolution?
I purposefully chose to avoid some of those discussions in the early chapters of Genesis because I wanted to remind us that there are more important questions and main points in that part of Genesis. Some of the main points of Genesis chapters 1 and 2 that we looked at are:
This is all about God!
God Who Creates Out of Nothing (God is Transcendent)
God Who Reveals Himself to Us (God is Immanent)
God Who is Present with Us
God Who is for Our Good
And it tells us about Humanity:
Image Bearers: Inherently Worthy
Image Bearers: Sons & Daughters, Kings & Queens, Priests
Image Bearers: Purpose of Dominion and Guarding God’s Ways
Those are amazing aspects of God and our relationship with God that matter much more than the age of the earth. It isn’t wrong to wonder about the age of the earth, but that isn’t the main point of the first chapters of Genesis! Even though some people may have deep feelings and beliefs about evolution, old-aged earth, young-aged earth, or a mediating view, that discussion doesn’t really bear on our faith the ways THESE points bear on it.
As I told my kids before when they were young, for all you and I know, God got a good laugh putting dinosaur bones in the earth when he created everything and put sedimentary layers in such a way to make the earth look instantly old, knowing how much it might make us spin later. Or he made it and then let it sit there for millions of years before he began creating the garden and everything else. That may not be what I believe happened, but many ideas are just as valid a hypothesis as my opinion on the age of the earth.
And I can hold my opinion loosely because the age of the earth isn’t the main question that God is trying to tell us through his Scripture. Scripture is primarily about who our God is and how much he has loved me and you THROUGH his creation and his care for us in Jesus. And recognizing THAT means I hold my opinion on the age of the earth very loosely, knowing God is sharing more important things with me, and the ways God moves are often a mystery to me.
But isn’t that often our problem?! We take an issue that isn’t as big an issue as God would make it, and we hold onto it more tightly than we should.
We have talked before about the different levels of theology and belief that we each have and hold in our lives:
First Level:
Doctrine and understanding that make you a Christian.
Second Level:
Doctrine and understanding that rightly divides churches.
Third Level:
Doctrine and understanding that should be lightly held and with charity.
Fourth Level/Other:
Fun/random ideas from Scripture we like to follow.
We sometimes call this “Theological Triage. Like medical triage in the ER, we want to take the most important doctrines first.
So, first-level issues are things like whether Jesus is truly God AND Man, or whether Jesus died on the cross for your sins that you might have eternal life. Every Christian church since Pentecost has held those two ideas as THE right and proper view of God and how we are saved. There are not very many issues that fall into this category. If you look at our church’s website and our statement of faith, you will see only ten statements that we put into this first category.
Second-level issues are things like how to baptize or who can be elders in your church. Those things are not about salvation, but they are so core to how a local church functions that churches rightly make decisions there and expect their members not to argue about it, so they can move forward with the larger ministry they feel called to. There are definitely more issues here, but definitely not THAT many. Our elder affirmation of faith is where you can find these types of issues for our church, and that is only eleven pages.
Third-level doctrine is pretty much everything else that has some importance! Things that are wonderful to think about and discuss. Some areas would seem more important to our day-to-day lives than others (for example, how to parent well from Scripture may seem more important than how to rightly build a railing around your roof), but these are areas we will all focus on, likely with different emphasis, and we will likely find different conclusions. But they shouldn’t make us unable to be friends and partners in a church together!
This fourth level, or “other” category, exists because we can always find all sorts of randomness to pull out of Scripture that is really just intellectual curiosity. Like the Nephilim! It won’t change anything about our day at all, what we decide on the Nephilim! Or whether or not Nebuchadnezzar was a prototype of Sasquatch, and people are still punished like him today, and roaming the forest, mistaken for Bigfoot (think about it!). Fun to think about it, but not a necessary aspect of faith at all!
However, OUR tendency is to often make the third-level and the fourth-level “other” issues the most important. We spend so much time on them. If we study, we are often studying our favorite subject. Or listening to podcasts about it. Or following preachers who spend much time talking about these types of things. Some people even go to a church where these third-level issues and this “other” category are THE primary issues, specifically so they can make these issues their rallying point together rather than the primary things of God.
Again, it is not wrong to consider these ideas, but it is wrong to hold tightly to them or to make them a priority. God warns us not to do that. Not to make secondary, third, and fourth-level things more important than first-level things. Paul, in writing to Timothy and Titus, says this:
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
1 Timothy 1:3–7 ESV
But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
Titus 3:9–11 ESV
Paul wrote those admonitions to Timothy and Titus as a man who has been around the block a time or two! He knew what caused divisions in churches—Nephilim…and similar issues! We, like Timothy and Titus, are to avoid speculation, endless genealogies, and quarrels. As he says to Titus, these are “unprofitable and worthless.” We want to be careful to make sure our own life, our devotion to God, and our walk, exhortation, and care for one another are focused on the primary things of God.
Paul summarizes those primary issues for the Corinthians succinctly. He says:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…
1 Corinthians 15:3–4 ESV
That is what we want to focus on—JESUS, and everything he has done for us! We want to focus on how the entire story is pointing to Jesus from Genesis through Revelation. Jesus is THE embodiment of God with flesh, and he alone is the one who has saved us and brought us to himself. His life, death, resurrection, and reign today are what change everything about our lives!
On these third and fourth level issues (even some second level issues), we are challenged by God to not hold onto them too tightly. To rightly recognize where they fall in our lives and their utmost importance. That is part of our path of maturity as Christians, AND it is part of our humility in knowing we are not God.
In fact, we need to be able to believe what Deuteronomy says about God:
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to our children and to us forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV
There are many things that God has chosen not to share with us in Scripture. The Nephilim may very well be that kind of thing. And that is okay! Even more, there are many things you and I will never know about God, even when we get to the new heavens and new earth. God is utterly different than us, and there will always be things about him we cannot comprehend. Beginning to accept that NOW allows us to focus on what has been revealed, and to make those things—Jesus, his life and death for us, his Holy Spirit active in us today—are the main focuses of our life.
Nephilim
And yet the author of Genesis has given us the Nephilim this morning! So, with all of us agreeing that this is likely a fourth-level issue (something we can all disagree on and still be friends and worship together), I want to spend just a couple of minutes giving you some categories of how to think through these types of questions. Let’s look at that section again:
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
When you run into something like this—a section of Scripture that seems difficult or even confusing—I find there are several things to think through to examine it well.
Narrow the Problem
State Your Question
Grammar/Language
Definitions
Immediate Context
Other Context (Scripture)
Other Sources/Commentaries
First, I would narrow down the problem:
Narrow The Problem
When we break that section down, the really confusing sections are just these two statements:
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
The next thing is to state our question.
State Your Question
The question here is threefold:
Who or what are the sons of God and the daughters of man?
Who or what are the Nephilim?
How do the sons of God and the daughters of man relate to the Nephilim?
We might want to start by looking for answers to each of those through the next steps. Let’s start with the grammar or language itself.
Grammar/Language
Some of these questions might be questions of punctuation, which Hebrew doesn’t have! We could read the whole thing as a parenthesis:
(The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.)
That would make this section just a detail that, while the story of Noah was happening, we also had these Nephilim roaming around during this time, and THEY were known as great beings/people. In this situation, they really aren’t the main point of the passage; the author just wants us to know they existed both before and after the flood for some reason.
We could view it as a partial parenthesis, like this:
(The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them.) These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
In this case, the author of Genesis (like the first choice) wanted us to know these Nephilim were there on the earth during this time of Noah and afterward. But the second part is about the offspring of the sons of God and daughters of men, and not the Nephilim. THEY (the offspring) were known as mighty men or men of renown.
Or, we could view the whole thing without any parentheses. That would mean that the Nephilim are likely the ones who were created FROM this union, and THEY were the ones known as men of old and men of renown.
We might want to then look at the meaning of words:
Definitions
Nephilim here literally means “fallen ones” or “ones who are falling” in Hebrew. It wasn’t until we got the Greek version of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) that we got the phrase gigantes, or giants, tied to the Nephilim in the third century BC. They were commenting, not really interpreting. That means what we really know about Nephilim from the definition could be anything that is fallen, falling, or sinful. They could be offspring of the woman, but they could also be something else. So, this doesn’t help us as much as we would like.
Similarly, sons of God and daughters of man are literally those words (sons of God and daughters of man), so their definition doesn’t help there either (however, how it is used will…we will look at that in a minute).
Next, we might want to think about how these questions fit into the larger, immediate context:
Immediate Context
In this immediate context, it would seem like the sons of God would be, literally, the sons from the line of the godly lineage, or Seth’s sons. Similarly, in this context, it would seem like the daughters of men would mean the daughters from the sinful line, or the line of Cain. We have just heard about the lines of Cain and then the lines of Adam/Seth, and without any outside information, that would be the simplest reading of this passage. To add anything else in would come from knowledge the normal reader doesn’t seem to have.
Some of Seth’s godly line seems to have become infatuated with the line of Cain and have intermarried with those who are not following God. This rightly angers God. It is one thing to have people who don’t trust God and work together on their projects and goals; it is another to have the godly line abandoning their trust and faith in God and merging with the ungodly line.
Hence, we get God’s declaration of how bad things have become:
Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years…
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Since this still doesn’t solve the question, we may want to look at other Scripture where these “Nephilim” are mentioned:
Other Scriptural Context (Mentions)
Is there any other place in Scripture that mentions these Nephilim? Only one spot!
And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who came from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.
Numbers 13:33 ESV
When the spies went into the land of Canaan before Israel went in to conquer the land, one of the reports from the spies was that they had seen the Nephilim again. They identify these Nephilim as the sons of Anak. They seem to know the family heritage, and Moses even identifies the lineage later in Deuteronomy 9:2, and this family is mentioned again in Joshua 11:21-22 and 15:14.
The only other questionable place that we see this idea is in Ezekiel 32, where the prophet says:
And they [God’s people] do not lie with the mighty, the fallen from among the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid under their heads, and whose iniquities are upon their bones; for the terror of the mighty men was in the land of the living.
Ezekiel 32:27–28 ESV
It sounds like these “mighty” here might be the Nephilim, if they are mighty ones, who are now down in Sheol. The point in Ezekiel is that these mighty men (maybe the Nephilim?) were never a problem for God, only a problem for mankind while they lived on this earth.
But that is it! If we take it on face value, either these Nephilim seem to be a group of giant-like people—either they are the people of renown, or simply like these people of renown—and they came from a certain lineage, maybe a lineage that came from the intermarrying of Seth’s and Cain’s line, or who lived at the same time as these people. Or, the Nephilim are some unknown group, perhaps mentioned because it may be confusing if the offspring of Cain and Seth’s lines are Nephilim, but they are really just mighty people.
You may be wondering then, “How in the world did we get to them being the product of angels and people?”
WELL, there is this pesky phrase here:
Sons of God
In other places in Scripture, specifically in Job (1:6, 2:1, and 38:7) but also in Psalm 29:1, this phrase “sons of God” is used for the angels. However, God’s people and his godly line are also known as the “sons of God” in places like Deuteronomy 14:1, Jeremiah 3:19. Many scholars simply differentiate between the two and say that in some places they refer to God’s lineage of people, in some places they refer to angels.
Therefore, everyone must decide what it means here in Genesis six. Are these angels referred to as Sons of God (or rather, demons since they are sinning), demons who have possessed people and caused them to do something evil, or just humans in the line of Cain sinning? That is a weird idea. That is something that isn’t obvious, but as many of you know, it is a conclusion some people come to.
That likely would lead you to a last very helpful category!
Other Sources/Commentary
Read and listen to other RESPECTED people. Note the word “respected.” Not necessarily your favorite podcast…real scholars!
And you would find most scholars agree that this discussion is highly influenced by the book of 1 Enoch. Many of you have never heard of that book, and that is just fine. 1 Enoch is an “apocryphal” book, meaning “hidden away.” These are writings that didn’t make it into our Bible. There are many of these writings, and some of them get very weird, including Enoch.
As you can likely guess from the name, the author of this book was writing about what happened to Enoch in his lifetime and after he was taken up by God. Like you and me, someone was very interested in why Enoch was taken up by God and didn’t die (what we talked about last time we were in Genesis), and they found a lot to write about him. Sadly, none of it was able to be verified as from God, and it was not included in our Scriptures because no one seemed to trust it (it’s not even in the Catholic apocryphal writings).
It is a wild story! 1 Enoch talks about a group of angels called the Watchers who come to earth and take human wives, and their offspring are like giants. Sound familiar? These giants devour humans and unleash violence. God unleashes some of his angels to destroy these demonic angels and their giant offspring. And Enoch gets to talk with them and prophesy to them! Similarly, another apocryphal book of Jubilees also mentions the Watchers and their sins and how they are connected with the flood. A book called the Book of Giants was found with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which also talks all about these giants/Nephilim.
Many people take these extra writings as pointing to the real answer, even though they are not Scripture. People who believe the Nephilim are fallen angels who had sex with women also go to Jude 6 or 2 Peter 2:4 and find passages that seem to talk about condemned angels that may line up with these “Watchers.”
Nephilim Summary
Even in considering all these categories (and there are more to consider as well):
Narrow the Problem
State Your Question
Grammar/Language
Definitions
Immediate Context
Other Context (Scripture)
Other Sources/Commentaries
You can see there is no clear answer or smoking gun. If anything, we should see from this quick glance at the Nephilim this morning how this section of Genesis has inspired much curiosity and much debate. That was quite the tour of many Scriptures and other writings we just talked about, and that is exactly my point. We had to jump all over to even TRY to follow this discussion, and even in this amount of time, I am certain I didn’t really help many of you know what to think. You would need to do a lot more thinking, reading, and studying to come to some conclusions for yourself.
You can see how people might believe this section is about the lines of Cain and Abel and their choice to procreate together, or how it is about angels who come and procreate with women, or how potentially angels even came and possessed humans to have them do this sinful act, and the resulting offspring were unique for some reason. Perhaps Nephilim is the name for these offspring, perhaps they are just contemporaries to these offspring, and the author doesn’t want us to be confused. It just isn’t very clear.
If it helps, in my studies, I personally think this section most likely is about the lines of Cain and Seth intermingling. A literal account of a particular people—perhaps people bred through sinful desires for strength and size to improve the stature of their people and clan—that were a direct result of Seth’s family sinning and pursuing Cain’s line in this particularly sinful way. These people become a sign of just how sinful people have become—that people are willing to intermingle godly with the ungodly, to produce a sought-after offspring of mighty people. It is there to help us know how bad it is and why God is doing what he is doing. Whether they are called Niphilim or just contemporary to some beings called Nephilim doesn’t really matter in my view. I think this way of seeing it works best, all things considered.
And I know that might feel disappointing…it is a little disappointing to me as well! But I am not going to be bothered at all if I get to heaven and find out these were angels/demons somehow sinning—either by possessing people to make sinful choices or by themselves sinning.
However, I think this whole expert this morning begs the question:
What do we miss if we get stuck on this question of the Nephilim?
God’s Sadness & Anger at Sin
I think this section of Genesis is a great example of why we want to be careful not to spin on third-or fourth-level issues. Again, we should really be asking ourselves:
What do we miss if we get stuck on this question of the Nephilim?
Look at this section of Genesis again without the Nephilim sections:
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
What we miss is likely a section we would like to avoid. God is telling us and telling his people in Noah’s days how much he hates sin. How much he hates our sin. That is not something I want to think about. I would much rather debate about the Nephilim than think about my sin. I especially don’t want to think about the consequences of my sin. That is what third-level issues can do, just like Paul tells Timothy and Titus. They distract us from the main story and the main solution.
Here, in the setup of the flood, we see that the consequence of sin should be utter destruction. In fact, God is willing to destroy everything else he has created—the earth, animals, creeping things—to punish mankind for our sin. That is tragic. That is severe. That IS the cost of sin. Sin is to be purged at all costs. We are told:
For the wages of sin is death…
Romans 6:23 ESV
Wages mean what is deserved for sin. And the deserved payment is death. If we focus on the Nephilim, we are likely tempted to ignore and maybe even completely miss what God is really wanting us to see here. He wants us to acknowledge and lament the severity of sin and its consequences. Since we still create today in our lives, as we rebel against God.
God’s Favor: Relationship
In fact, if we are honest, what Genesis is showing us is how bad humans are—how bad you and I are—at dealing with sin ourselves through the beginning of Genesis. And in missing the main point of sin and our failures, we also likely miss the amazing statement that comes next:
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
We didn’t see this type of statement in Genesis chapters one through three in God engaging with Adam and Eve, but we talked about it. God showed them favor when he came to them again, in the garden, and talked to them amidst THEIR sin and rebellion. You may not have thought much about that because there were no other people as a contrast to NOT having God’s favor.
But here at the start of Genesis six, with Noah, we know that there is so much sin going on, and so many people God doesn’t choose to come to. But God comes to Noah. And the order is SO important. Before we know anything else about Noah, anything Noah did, we are simply told:
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
That is the beauty of God’s saving work. It doesn’t start with me and you; rather, it starts with him. With what God does. This is how salvation has always worked! It starts with God!
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:1–10 ESV
What you and I experience in Jesus, as Paul describes to the Ephesians, is no different than what Noah experienced. You and I, like Noah, live in a time and in our own lives filled with sin and rebellion, including our own rebellion against God. BUT GOD! God chooses to come near to his people. God did that literally for all of humanity to see by becoming the God-Man Jesus, but he also does it personally with each person he saves through his Holy Spirit. He did the same thing with Noah. He has done the same thing with you.
God looked at Noah and chose to pour out favor on Noah! That is incredible! The story here is that amidst a generation of people who were ALL beginning to walk away from God—the godly line of Seth and the ungodly line of Cain (if my perspective on the sons of God and sons of daughters is right)—God chose to show favor and to save some. And he did that of his own choice, as a gift, for Noah. To finish that quote from Romans 6:
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 ESV
Noah received a gift from God that he did nothing for! That is the gospel right here in Genesis!
God’s Words
It is only after God shows Noah favor, after God chooses to save Noah, that God comes and gives his people—in this case Noah—his commands. For Noah, it is the literal story of God’s means to save his people THROUGH the coming judgment. That is our story as well. That is what we see here at the end of this section:
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of 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. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.”
Noah did this. Not because he first wanted to please God, but because God first loved him. Because God first came to Noah and showed him favor. Because God chose to save him!
Friends, what we miss at the beginning of Genesis six, if we get stuck in the Nephilim, is no less than the gospel story. Everything about the flood is an image of what salvation looks like. It is another pattern, similar to Adam and Eve, of God coming to his people, showing them favor, THEN giving them his word and commands, and finding they can begin to walk in his ways because he has ALREADY given them favor. It is an unfolding, through stories and the lives of God's people, of how he relates to each of us individually. It is the beauty of the gospel! The gospel was in Genesis three and four as Adam and Eve were punished yet promised future salvation, and the gospel is here in Genesis six as God comes to Noah, how he will come to every single one of his people.
Application
Sadly, our temptation in Scripture is too often to make it about what it isn’t about. Here, we may have wanted to focus on the Nephilim. It may be fun to ponder, but it isn’t what we are meant to dwell on. Another, maybe even more common mistake you and I make when reading through the stories of Scripture is that we try to make them about how we should act to make God happy with us, so he will THEN choose. There is much in Scripture about what holiness looks like and what pleases God. But we act a certain way because of WHO we have been made to be by God’s grace and what he has done for us. Don’t get it backward! Again, as Paul says in Romans 6:
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 ESV
We see this pattern in Adam’s and Eve’s sin and God’s grace to them to promise a seed that would conquer sin and death. We see this here, where amid a sinful world and Nephilim, God comes to Noah and promises salvation if he will just put his faith in God and his plan. We will see the same thing in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and many more throughout Scripture.
Previously, in Romans 4, Paul said:
And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
Romans 4:5–8 ESV
Friends, that is what we see here in Genesis 6. We see the gospel of the one who justifies the ungodly. We see the gospel of the one who washes away sins and safely carries us through the judgment that we might stand again on the mountain of God!
Is that what you see as the grand story of Scripture?! God’s story about HIS amazing love for us that justifies the ungodly through faith. A God who comes to us FIRST, and THEN asks us to walk with him in his ways and his plans for us?
Response
I want to leave us with just one question today:
Do you see all of Scripture as primarily pointing to the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
That is what we see here this morning in Noah, and it is what we are meant to see as we come to each major turn in Scripture. Take a moment as a way of reflecting to think through every major story you may know in the Bible. You may not have read much of it, but undoubtedly you know stories about Noah, Moses, and the people of Israel coming out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, David fighting Goliath, and many others. We may be curious about Nephilim, the Red Sea parting, and the fact that David fought a giant. But more importantly, they are each pointing us forward to one main, beautiful storyline. A storyline of God’s love and his salvation of us through Jesus.
Do you see all of Scripture as primarily pointing to the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
This is what we want to pause and consider this morning, and then give praise and thanks to God for this morning!
