Angelic Conflict part 107: Human history – Gen 6:1-8; 19:1-11; Num 13:33; 2Pe 2:4-5; Jud 6-7; 1Sa 15:11, 29, 35.
length: 62:18 - taught on Jun, 26 2013
Class Outline:
Title: Angelic Conflict part 107: Human history - GEN 6:1-8; 19:1-11; NUM 13:33; 2PE 2:4-5; Jud 6-7; 1SA 15:11, 29, 35.
Throughout the Old Testament times one of the great subjects is the story of how Satan tried to frustrate the true humanity of Christ.
Once Jesus Christ is born of a virgin the whole principle changes.
No longer does Satan try to attack the seed by which Christ would come into the world, the seed of the woman, because Christ has already come. Now the attempt is to distort the fact, to ignore the fact, or to somehow discredit the fact concerning the virgin birth and the cross. The virgin birth and the cross form the central principles of salvation. It is now Satan’s attempt today to do everything possible to discredit these doctrines so that people will not be concerned about receiving Jesus Christ as saviour.
Think of the attacks in America concerning Christmas, nativity, Easter, and removing the right to celebrate in the schools.
In Genesis chapter six we have the greatest attempt to frustrate the plan of God in the virgin birth and in the cross. There are two great principles in this chapter: a) Satan’s great attempt to destroy true humanity and with it the promise of GEN 3:15; b) How culture, art, music, science, pleasure, and so on, were used as substitutes for fellowship with God, and how none of them succeeded.
Satan will do anything he can to invalidate any one of God unconditional promises or covenants. If he can discredit God then he can escape his sentence.
GEN 6:1 Now it came about, when men [mankind] began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,
Gen 5 is the genealogy of Adam. Like all genealogies it deals with Adam’s sons, however this section in chapter 6 deals with Adam’s daughters.
When it says that men began to multiply on the earth the word men, ha adam, is a generic term for mankind and can be used to mean males and females. This is how it is used here since it wasn’t just men who were multiplying on the earth but women as well.
Take for instance the genealogy in Gen 5. One son is mentioned as being in the line, the first born male, and then we constantly have the phrase other sons and daughters were born.
GEN 5:6 And Seth lived one hundred and five years, and became the father of Enosh.
GEN 5:7 Then Seth lived eight hundred and seven years after he became the father of Enosh, and he had other sons and daughters.
Enosh is mentioned by name because he is the seed child. The same pattern is seen in all ten generations.
So the emphasis in verse one is on the daughters that were multiplying on the earth.
GEN 6:2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
“sons of God” - bney ha-Elohim. In the OT this is always a reference to angels, both fallen and elect.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
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.
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Slight variations are also used and as well refer to angels:
Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty,
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
For who in the skies is comparable to the Lord?
Who among the sons of the mighty is like the Lord,
I said, "You are gods,
And all of you are sons of the Most High.
Gen 6 is no exception.
Interestingly, in the NT the term “sons of God” is applied to other entities besides angels, but the common element is that of being directly created by God.
Luke lists the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam, the only one called the son of God:
the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Adam was directly created by God.
The CA believer is created by God a new creature:
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name
We are not children of God in the flesh or through our human genetics for we had to be born again to become sons of God and that was by means of the power of the Spirit in making a brand new creation and not a remodeling of the flesh. “Am I to go back into my mother’s womb?”
The exception is the uniqueness of the only begotten Son of God; He was always in existence and not created.
Those who wish to deny Him His deity (all motivated by satan) ignorantly use this title to discredit Him.
Another point to observe about GEN 6:1-4 is that the context of this passage is cause for the Flood, and such a worldwide catastrophe would require a very unusual cause.
It’s not going to be the run of the mill sin that is going to move God to repent and cause a worldwide catastrophe.
There are two causes:
Angelic cause: a cohabitation that is unusual and unnatural.
Human cause: the degree of sin that resulted from this.
Now we can all speculate how it occurred. This is a waste of time. The fact that children were born to them is the fact given and so it was done.
One more note before we get into this.
"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
MAT 22:30 says that angels in heaven don’t marry; Gen 6 takes place on earth. Likely Jesus was speaking of elect angels whereas in Gen 6 these are fallen angels.
Not marrying doesn’t indicate not having sexual ability. Though we don’t see anywhere in the Bible that angels procreate, and so it would seem odd to give them sexual ability, it doesn’t rule out that these fallen angels could have somehow devised a way to violate God’s law and attempted to corrupt the line of Christ.
The angels of Gen 6 are incarcerated in Tartarus until the judgment, never to be released; therefore they violated the law of God for the AC.
They violated the set barrier that God had set between angels and men. In effect, this is witness tampering, which gets one disbarred and can be criminally prosecuted.
GEN 6:2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.
“took” - jq^l*[laqach] = to take, to receive, to take away. It is commonly used for marriage transactions, for taking a wife, and has sexual connotations.
This is the intermarriage between fallen angels and human women.
The angels who intermarried were angels who were already fallen; they fell when satan fell. Whether they did this of their own motivation or satan arranged for them to do so; of this we are not told. It is most likely that this was satan’s scheme.
GEN 6:1-2 is satan’s response to GEN 3:15 in order to corrupt the Seed of the woman so that the Messiah could not come. He has to be “true humanity.”
This was done by having some of his angels take on human form and intermarry with human women.
There is a parallel here with GEN 3:6. The woman saw that the tree was good for food and she took. Angels saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took. Saw - Good - Took.
For each it is a plan in which they think they can better their station in God’s universe. How silly to think that opposing God’s laws can make one better or more prosperous in God’s universe.
Eve, by doing so, violated the barrier between God and man and angels, in like manner, violated the barrier between angel and man.
GEN 6:3 Then the Lord said, "My Spirit [plurality; My - God; Spirit - HS] shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."
The work of God the HS is to convict mankind of the gospel of Christ. He will continue to do so for 120 years.
Verse 4 goes on to describe the results of the union between fallen angels and human women.
GEN 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
“Nephilim” = fallen ones. The result of fallen angel and women they were superhuman and exceptional compared to humanity.
The word does not mean giant. We have gotten that misconception because the Septuagint translated this word gigentes which when transliterated into English is giant. But the Greek word gigentes was translated into Latin as Titans. Titans were gods before the gods of Olympus and were somewhat human is behavior so we can see that Nephilim is closer to a part human and part god in mythology than an actual giant.
“And also afterward” does not mean after the flood. There is 120 years until the flood. None survive except Noah and his family.
NUM 13:32 So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size.
NUM 13:33 There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
Should we believe the ten spies who give a bad report? Either they are lying because they don’t want to go (there’s a lion in the square) or they were such cowards that they thought they saw Nephilim (by the way, how would they know what one looks like?) or what they thought were Nephilim.
When Joshua conquers the land he does conquer the sons of Anak and there is no mention of Nephilim.
GEN 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Mighty and renown means that they were superhuman both mentally and physically, but not necessarily in size. They were most likely very mighty in their rebellion against God.
This actual historical event is very likely the source of Greek and Roman mythology, where the gods and goddesses intermarry with humans, producing great men such as Achilles.
2PE 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
“hell” - Tartarus - a section of Hades, which is permanent place of confinement for these angels. It is distinguished from the Abyss.
They are reserved for judgment, the GWTJ, which will occur at the end of human history and so these will go straight from Tartarus to the LOF.
Verse 5 reports on the timing of their confinement, and that timing is in conjunction with the Flood.
2PE 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Jud 6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
Four things become apparent here:
First, the rebellious angels did not keep their own domain, meaning they did not remain in their position and place of rank in the satanic cosmos.
Second, they abandoned their proper abode, meaning they left the demonic angelic sphere and then entered the human sphere by intermarriage.
Third, they are kept in eternal bonds under darkness, meaning they are kept in Tartarus for the first and second sins.
Fourth, they are being kept there until the judgment of the great day, that is, the Great White Throne Judgment.
The angels who perpetrated this intermarriage will never be loosed at any time to roam free again.
Verse 7 reveals the nature of the sin, in that like Sodom and Gomorrah, the nature of the sin was a sexual sin.
Jud 7 Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
GEN 19:1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
GEN 19:2 And he said, "Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way." They said however, "No, but we shall spend the night in the square."
GEN 19:3 Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
GEN 19:4 Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter;
GEN 19:5 and they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them."
GEN 19:6 But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him,
GEN 19:7 and said, "Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.
GEN 19:8 Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof."
GEN 19:9 But they said, "Stand aside." Furthermore, they said, "This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them." So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door.
GEN 19:10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
GEN 19:11 And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.
GEN 6:5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
God evaluates humanity and He saw overt acts of sin and covert acts of sin, sins of the mind and that they intent or deliberate and cognitive plans were to do evil all the time. The word “every” emphasizes the pervasive manner of it.
“intent” - yatzar - same word used in GEN 2:7 “God formed man.” God formed humanity by design, but man took its God-given abilities to design evil continually.
GEN 6:6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Does God repent?
“sorry” - <j^n*[nacham] = to repent, a change of the heart or disposition, a change of mind, a change of purpose, or an emphasis upon the change of one's conduct.
God cannot change. He is immutable. What did change? Man changed. He was formed for God’s design and man, in independence from God, used his God-given abilities to intention evil in his heart continually.
It’s not an anthropopathism since God definitely changes policy, yet He Himself does not change. The same sun shines on the clay and the wax. It hardens one and melts the other. If somehow the clay baking in the sun turns into wax or is exchanged with wax the same sun shines but has a different effect.
We have a perfect example of this with the first king of Israel.
1SA 15:10 Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying,
1SA 15:11 "I regret [nacham - repent] that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not carried out My commands." And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night.
1SA 15:29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind [nacham - repent]; for He is not a man that He should change His mind [nacham - repent]."
1SA 15:34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, but Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul.
1SA 15:35 And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death; for Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted [nacham] that He had made Saul king over Israel.
God didn’t change but Saul did. God is not a man, so when God regrets or is sorry He did things a certain way it is a way in which only perfect deity who sees the end from the beginning can regret, and so it this sense it is an anthropopathism.
GEN 6:6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
So God responds one way when man obeys and another way when man disobeys. Initially, Saul was obedient; and he was made king. He then became disobedient, so God removed the kingship from him. It appears from a human perspective that God changed His mind.
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