Noah. And the flood. Genesis 6

Yesterday we were introduced to Noah. Today we jump into the deep end! Chapter 6 begins the account of the flood. We will see: The Condition on the Earth, The Call of Noah, and the Construction of the Ark.

The Condition on the Earth 6:1-8

The strange: 2 The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

the sons of God took wives of the daughters of men. The most ancient understanding of this is that this refers to a monstrous union between heavenly beings and earthly women. The other view is this refers to men of the righteous line marrying women of the unrighteous line. I agree with the first view, the ancient view. Something to think about: sons of God only occurs five times in the Old Testament, Gen 6:2 & 4; Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7. In Job, without controversy, it refers to the hosts of heaven, angels. I believe it does here in Genesis 6 as well. 

The other notable event is there were giants in the earth in those days - some of the offspring of this unholy and unnatural union were giants. The word here is Nephilim. But this is not the only place in the Old Testament that refers to giants. The most common word is Rephaim. They are also called sons of Anak, Anakim, Zamzummim, and Emim. There were a lot of giants in Canaan. 

The situation: v 5 tells us, the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This was no light or temporary thing; wickedness and evil were literally world-wide and non-stop.

The solution: I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth: both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air. It’s not like the race had been long abandoned by God, for he says, My spirit shall not always strive with man. He had been speaking to the world, perhaps through the righteous line (ch 5), and they had stubbornly resisted and refused the warnings and invitations. So God gave a time limit – 120 years. Noah built the ark and preached during this 120 years.

v 6 is sad: So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.* Oh the love of God! He created mankind to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and here the race is wholly given over to wickedness and evil and rebellion.

v 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. He was living a righteous life in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

The Call of Noah
This actually begins a new section in Genesis. The book of the generations of Adam goes from 5:1-6:8. Now we have the generations of Noah (see here)

v 9 Noah was righteous, perfect, and walked with God – this man had a relationship with God! There is an old Frances Ridley Havergal hymn that captures this (you can see it here):

“True-hearted, whole-hearted, faithful and loyal” Great song and one that captures Noah’s heart! Noah was righteous, whole-hearted, and walked with God.

11  The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Conditions on earth are repeated. Notice how bad it was: ‘filled with violence’ and ‘all flesh had corrupted his way’

13  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
God reveals his plan to Noah. This is repeated in v 17, I am about to bring the Flood -- waters upon the earth -- to destroy all flesh under the sky in which there is breath of life; everything on earth shall perish.+

14  Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch
This is God’s call upon Noah, build an ark. Why? To save Noah and his family (18) and animals (19). God plans to start anew.

The Construction of the Ark 6:15-21
15 This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.+

The blueprint comes with the severest of warnings (17 destroy all flesh… everything in the earth shall die) as well as a promise (18 but with thee I will establish my covenant).

22  Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. How do we recognize a righteous person? Someone who is whole-hearted, who walks with God? They do all that God commands, the way he commanded it. This was Noah.

People often have a problem with the flood. “A worldwide flood. Are you serious? The Bible is so stupid.”

Ah, but many cultures have stories of a worldwide flood (see here). This once was a commonly held memory of the human race.

Now the real objection: “What kind of God is this? Who would do this?” The problem people have with the flood is the same problem they have with judgment day at the end of the world, and hell. They don’t take God seriously; they don’t take sin seriously; they don’t take His Word seriously. God says they were wicked and doing evil continually; yet they say, “They were mostly nice, innocent people, who maybe made a mistake every now and again. How could God be so mean? Cruel? Vindictive?”

Scriptures tells us: God is in heaven; he does whatever he pleases.^ 

So was this simply a power play by a cruel, vindictive being? No, for Scripture also tells us

God is holy and righteous – He only does what is right. Whatever He does is the right thing to be done. Because He is holy and righteous, sin, rebellion, wickedness are very serious matters.

God knows all things – he knows whether there is a hope of repentance or not. We pretend to have such knowledge when we want to judge God, but we don’t know squat. This is especially true about a generation we never even met. But God saw what they did, knew what was in their hearts, and knew what they would do in the future.

God is good and loving – he does what is the best thing to be done

Of course I understand, this is the crux of the matter: If you reject the Bible and what it says about God, you believe Him to be cruel and vindictive. If you receive the biblical witness you accept these three declarations. If God is the Creator, He can do what He wills; if God is holy, righteous, and good, then whatever He does is the right and best thing. The people in Noah’s day rejected God and the testimony concerning Him. They did not believe His Word delivered through Noah for 120 years, nor did they believe what they saw with their own eyes - Noah building an ark; therefore the flood came and took them all away.

Next: Noah. And the flood. Genesis 7

* NLT New Living Translation I believe this captures the Hebrew the best

+ Tanakh Jewish translation of the Old Testament. The Jewish Publication Society

^ Psalm 115:3 NKJV