Friday, July 23, 2010

Getting into the Word...

Genesis 6:1-8

1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Notes on the Scripture

To me, this is a puzzling passage in the Bible. In the first sentence, the daughters of men mate with the "sons of God", and God decides that His sons are tired of contending with men and limits their lifespan to 120 years. Who are the “sons of God”? They are Angels.

The second sentence is even more bizarre. Nobody really knows who the Nephilim were, and there is no hint to who they are. The word is translated literally from the Hebrew. There have been arguments that they were a race of men living in Canaan, that they were giants whose origins are not explained in the Bible. Some say that they are angels who lived on earth. Notice it says that they were on the earth in those days and also afterward. They did show up afterward after the Great flood!! You can find them again in...

 Numbers 13:33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

This may back up that they were like giants. Now how did they survive the flood?  It tells me that they were Angels. What does it say to you?

Also there are no explanations of how the "sons of God" differ from men, and they too have been deemed to be angels, another line descended from Adam, etc.

At any rate, the final paragraph is the beginning of the tale of Noah. God made mankind but became distressed when He saw how wicked His creation had become. So He decided, in effect, to wipe the slate clean and start all over. Luckily, there was one man who found favor with God, named Noah.

Sometimes when reading the Bible we just might find a passage that is confusing or just makes us ask questions. This is OK. It helps us dig deeper in the word to find answers and draws us closer to God. Just be careful not to take a passage out of context.

What do you think of this passage? Have you read it before? After reading this passage did you think it was strange? Did you find yourself asking questions?

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