SS7: I NOAH GUY
(Sorry, had to)
Genesis 6
The earth was getting populated. The “sons of God” thought the girls were hot and married them. Super-men were the result. This feels very Greek myth-like. What is going on here? Better check with Bibleheads. Went to my favorite source, Got Questions. I like them because they often give an overview of all possibilities. They say:
The three primary views on the identity of the sons of God are 1) they were fallen angels, 2) they were powerful human rulers, or 3) they were godly descendants of Seth intermarrying with wicked descendants of Cain.
They believe number one is correct, given the context. Other Bibleheads seem to agree, and so do I. Creepy. The main problem with this theory is that angels do not marry and have kids. But these would have been fallen angels and we are not talking about heavenly relationships here.
God is not happy about this and limits the life of humans to 120 years. That is teenage years in prior generations! Seems unfair that humans get punished for Nephilim deeds. But I guess we played along. How does a shorter life solve this issue? Speed up the experiment? And what about the sons of God? Are they punished? Maybe their nether-bits are shriveled off since this is not an ongoing problem. I guess we are not entitled to know all of God's interaction with angels, demons and principalities.
The children of these Nephilim created super-men of legend. I was thinking, what if this is a different category of people -like cavemen with big foreheads? Whatever this is, I am not too concerned because it gets wiped out in the flood. I just do not like the feel of this section because it feels like mythology. I found a good paper on this – will include the link. It says this chapter is one of the hardest to interpret. Treating this section as including an inelegant reference to myths undermines the Bible. It uses a lot of original Hebrew and it is deep stuff, but to dumb it down to a donut hole: if anything, this section is an anti-myth because the creation of this hybrid is cut off rather than deified. That actually helps me.
God starts to regret His choice in creating the world. He decides to reboot the system. He decides to keep Noah's family and flood out the earth. He explains to Noah how to build the ark. I always really struggle with this story. For me, it is the most challenging one in the Bible.
First, I do not like the idea of God “regretting” His own decisions. He already knows how things will turn out and he is perfect. So, how can he regret? Bibleheads say that regret here is not like human regret. It is more like a wish for better behavior. Hmm…You can regret that something has to be a certain way even while knowing it is required for a purpose. For example, I can regret the pain my child is experiencing while getting a shot but know that it is needed to prevent disease. I wish this hurt less but know it is necessary. One source (reknew) gives an intriguing idea that God is the God of infinite possibilities. This is the sort of multi-dimensional idea that has birthed a lot of good sci-fi. God saw several directions man could take when making them and regrated that the choices they made took them to this reality. Mind-blowing.
My other problem is all the animals. I looked it up and there are 8.7 million species of animals on earth today. How do you fit even one of each on a boat? It is a big boat (see images below). Yes. But big enough? I am thinking of Doctor Who's Tardis that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. God could do that. It also possible that God has added animals since the flood. It is also possible that all the people were living in one area and the flood destroyed that area along with the animals there. I don't know. But something has to give. I am going to look at what Bibleheads think. I went to Got Questions. They use a study by Woodmorappe that says maybe the animals were all babies. And he thinks there were just 8,000 kinds of animals on the ark. A kind was limited to a species. That is easier to wrap my head around.
Let's move on. What was the trouble with people? People were wicked. People had evil thoughts. People were corrupt. People were violent. Sounds pretty familiar.
God makes a covenant with Noah. This is the first covenant we have encountered. Noah was to be obedient in following God's instructions. God would save Noah. Notice God used Noah's obedience to help Noah. I think God still does that today. When God instructs me to avoid sexual sin, He is protecting me. When God says to pray, He is creating a relationship with me. Not all obedience is like that, but much is. Noah was obedient.
Genesis 6
1 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their 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 humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
5 The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence.
12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.
17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
https://reknew.org/2016/03/when-god-regrets/
https://www.gotquestions.org/sons-of-God.html
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/who-are-sons-of-god-genesis-6/
https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/genesis-6/
https://answersingenesis.org/genesis/is-sons-of-god-passage-genesis-6-adapted-pagan-mythology/
