Jesus in the OT – Genesis 6
Yes, I really did just use a picture of Laurence Olivier playing Zeus in the original Clash of the Titans for the next post in our study through the Old Testament. Now that I’ve thrown you off-guard a bit, hopefully you’ll forgive me by the time I’m done. We’re only going to work through the first half of Genesis chapter 6, so bear with me.
By the way, I should mention that I never intended to go down this rabbit hole in our Bible study at home. However, as I jumped into chapter 6 to discuss Noah, someone asked why I skipped the beginning since there were some "weird" verses in there. I responded that while it’s an interesting passage, I had figured it didn’t really fit in with a "Jesus in the Old Testament" study. However, as soon as I said that, T reminded me of a related study we just went through at Trekkers that week, which you can check out here if you would like to hear more on the topic. This will be a somewhat different, and perhaps "condensed" version, if you believe I can manage such a thing. ;) We’ll first deal with verses 1 through 4, which brought about the question.
1 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 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.
Genesis 6:1–4 (ESV)
One of the questions to ask with this passage, among others, is who are the "sons of God"? Now, I understand there are a few interpretations of this term, but I assume if you’re reading this blog you want to know what mine is. In this case, I choose to let Scripture interpret itself, rather than taking a wild guess. Let’s skip ahead a bit in the Bible to Job, a book we’ll work through several years from now, perhaps. ;)
1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Job 1:1, 6–12 (ESV)
1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
Job 2:1–2 (ESV)
We find the "sons of God" mentioned twice here in Job, each time referring to what appears to be the angels. I get this picture in my head of a periodic council God calls in heaven. We find Satan is involved in these meetings as well. Assuming you’re with me so far, what do we find the angels doing in Genesis 6? They were taking the daughters of men as their wives. Now, we know these couldn’t be the "good" angels in heaven, as Jesus had noted when dealing with the Jewish leaders.
29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
Matthew 22:29–30 (ESV)
So, these must have been fallen angels… those cast down from heaven. The Hebrew word Nephilim found in the passage literally means "fallen ones," if that doesn’t make it clear enough. These fallen angels were having children through the daughters of men. It would seem from verse 4 that these children were not even normal: "the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown." We will later find another reference to them in Numbers, as the spies return to tell Moses and the people what they saw in the Promised Land.
27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” 30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Numbers 13:27–33 (ESV)
These men were giants. We’ll find if we dig enough that Goliath and his brothers were in the same family tree. The fallen angels were making a mess of things. If we step back to Genesis, we find they were making such a mess that God brought about the flood.
5 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. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 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.” 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 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.
Genesis 6:5–7, 11-13 (ESV)
God determined to cleanse the earth of all life, except for Noah and his family. Why did God do this, while saving Noah? In order to figure that one out, let’s revisit the prophesy we read back in Genesis 3, which God gave to Satan after the fall of Adam and Eve.
14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Genesis 3:14–15 (ESV)
Do you see it yet? Recall that this was a prophesy of none other than Jesus Christ, who would eventually crush Satan under His feet. God gave Satan a warning… that there would be a time when Eve’s offspring, or of some woman in her line, would crush him. If we then look back at Genesis 6, perhaps we have a bit clearer picture of what Satan attempted to do.
4 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. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
Genesis 6:4, 12 (ESV)
Satan hatched a plan to contaminate humanity, and thereby prevent the possibility of Jesus Christ from fulfilling God’s prophesy. If we jump a bit ahead in Genesis 6, we’ll find something interesting in God’s comments regarding Noah.
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:8–9 (ESV)
If you look at the Hebrew word for "blameless," you find it might be better translated as "free from defect," or "unblemished," or even "perfect." Perhaps we are seeing here why God saved Noah and his family. They may have been the only "pure" humans left on the earth at this point. This makes much more sense to me as the reason for God sending the flood. He was preserving the line of Jesus Christ, wiping out the rest of what the fallen angels had brought about.
In fact, seeing as how Genesis 6:4 points out the Nephilim were "on the earth in those days, and also afterward" doing these things, it makes even more sense if we understand these sons of God to be fallen angels. While the flood would wipe out humanity, the angels would be able to survive and create the giants the Israelites would encounter many years later. This may also better explain why God had commanded the Israelites to kill all of the Canaanites, including the women and children. These were once again contaminated by intermingling with the fallen angels. If you still don’t accept this idea of these being fallen angels, I suggest you read Peter’s and Jude’s own words in the New Testament.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
1 Peter 3:18–20 (ESV)
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
2 Peter 2:4–5 (ESV)
5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Jude 5–7 (ESV)
If you feel so inclined, you could even check out the non-canonical Book of Enoch, chapters 6-11. You can find a free copy here. While this book is not part of the recognized canon, fragments were found with the Dead Sea Scrolls caves in Qumran, and were dated to the 3rd or 4th centuries BC. Even if Enoch was not inspired by God, it gives you a fairly decent idea how people of the time interpreted what happened during the time of Enoch, Noah and the flood.
We should actually find it important to go down a rabbit hole like this. Here’s why:
37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 24:37–39 (ESV)
When Jesus returns again, we should expect things to be going along as they were in the days of Noah. I don’t think this just means people were caught unaware. I think it also means Satan may be up to something similar again. He’s too late to corrupt the Messianic line, but he can certainly wreak havoc with humanity… perhaps creating clones with no spirit, or perhaps part of the great deception, as you might hear ideas of aliens (in reality demons) intermingling with humans to create a more perfect type of beings. Crazy? Perhaps. Then again, it’s Satan we’re talking about.
So, in summary, we find the following:
- Genesis 6:1-13 – chiasmus – Satan attempts to contaminate the Messianic line of humanity; God sends the flood to preserve the line of Jesus Christ
- Genesis 6:1-13 – picture – the times of Noah and the flood are a picture of Jesus’ second coming
Oh, I almost forgot… one more thing makes more sense to me in light of interpreting Genesis 6 in this way. Remember the picture I used up above? Laurence Olivier played Zeus, head of the Greek pantheon. Do you remember from your Greek mythology what Zeus did often? I can’t name all the children he had with the daughters of men. The same goes for many of the "gods" in mythology. What about the "mighty men who were of old, the men of renown"? Do you remember the children of the "gods" such as Heracles or Perseus, the "heroes"? Ever consider there to be some amount of truth behind the myths of the ancient world? Noah and his family surely would have passed down such knowledge to their descendants as they once again spread throughout the earth. Is history starting to make more sense yet? I’ll leave you to ponder that until next time. :)
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