Chapter 5 describes the long lifespans of mankind before The Flood. Some would argue they had a different definition of years in those days, but the theme I get is man lived, multiplied and died…except for Enoch. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away (Genesis 5:24). He must have been a model follower of all God had envisioned. “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death…he was commended as one who pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5).
What is really meant by “Sons of God” and “Daughters of Humans” and who were “The Nephilim” mentioned in Genesis 6:4?
These are hard topics to discuss because we lack details and as a result the “experts” provide all kinds of interesting insight. Those who are far from Christ will use these types of references in an attempt to destroy our credibility. Many of those who have been raised in the church don’t even know how to approach the subject because they weren’t taught much (back to the “lack of details” concept).
If we are to be the light and salt in this every postmodern world, we must not simply skip verses we don’t understand. At the same time, it doesn’t make sense to overemphasize concepts that aren’t well substantiated. All that to say, in my perspective, we should step back and look at what God is telling us in Genesis 5 through most of chapter 11 — this is the core theme: mankind (that which God created, Genesis 5:1-2) had become corrupt and required a restart. I’ll continue to pray for insight into the sons and daughters and Nephilim, but I cannot ignore that there is evil in this world, that there are those bent on selfish desires of their fleeting flesh. So there, I just skipped verses I don’t understand, but at least with the caveat that I don’t fully understand them either. I hope I’m not a stumbling block for someone reaching out to Christ as a result.
We will soon see the full fury of God’s wrath in the next few chapters. This prelude gives us a glimpse of creation in chaos. Such disorder is not acceptable to God and he will put an end to those who have taken sin to an extreme.
Noah is given a job to do because of his reputation, his faithfulness. The weight of this responsibility is beyond my comprehension. God provides detailed instructions to preserve life as the world gets a jump start. We teach this in kids Bibles and VBS all the time, but honestly, it’s one of the saddest stories in the Bible. It truly breaks my heart to think about the masses of humanity that died as a result of depravity. I’m not questioning God here, just extremely sad.
God help us to pull people out of darkness and into your great and glorious light!
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Let the Word evoke words. May your life encourage lives.