The Days of Noah
Notes
Transcript
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.
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.”
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
From the beginning of time, God created a perfect and sinless world. Many times I have expressed my dismay that living in perfection, being in control of God’s creation, and walking and talking with God directly, that Satan was still able to be deceptive enough to cause Adam and Eve to disobey God and sin to enter the world. It didn’t take long for the effects of sin to impact the first family as Cain and Abel were the main characters in a source of conflict that led to Cain killing Abel. Ungodly actions continued to increase throughout the generations and now…we see the outcome and consequences of sin.
Believers were marrying unbelievers, there were those who neglected and denied God and were living unrighteous lives. It is the same scenario we see today, the ungodly seem to pull the godly down and lead them into a life of sin. The amount of disobedience and disregard had gotten to the point God was not able to find enough good that He was ready to destroy all the inhabitants of His creation.
So many of the same things are happening in our world today. We are seeing a change from godliness to ungodliness. You know years ago, even when I was younger, people may not have gone to church or said they believed in God, but they still respected those who did. They didn’t work on Sundays, stores were closed, and we spent time with family and friends. Now, we seem to not pay attention to the sanctity of Sabbath, we look at Sunday as any other day of the week - working 7 days a week or using Sunday as a day of rest and catching up around the house. There is a lessened respect for Sunday and an increased disregard towards God. This action resulted in an almost complete destruction in the days of Noah. We are told the world will continue to get worse and one day.
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,
There will be a complete destruction where God destroys the world completely and will start over with a new heaven and a new earth with the believers who have been faithful to follow Him.
Increase of Humanity
Increase of Humanity
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.
When God created humanity, He created them man and wife. Not man and wives… We see a picture of a perversion of what God had intended due to sin. I was particularly interested in verse 2 - the sons of God and the daughters of man - and wanted to take a few minutes to look at each of these. Unfortunately, there is not a clear cut definition or answer, especially when dealing with the “sons of God”. However, I will present the two most common theories.
The first theory is the “sons of God” somehow refer to a supernatural created being - most commonly thought of as angels. We do find in scripture that angels may appear in the bodily form of men.
1 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth
2 and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.”
3 But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house.
5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”
While there may be some merit to this thought, I tend to not follow this train of thought as we see in Matthew 22 and Mark 12 where (as resurrected beings) we are like angels in heaven neither marrying or being given in marriage.
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
My interpretation is this refers to men who were believers were marring unbelievers (daughters of men). When we look at the following verses we see God referencing the withdrawal of His spirit and wickedness as being directed towards man - humans. Each of these verses deal with humans, man, not angels. Godly man became corrupt and continued in sinful actions against God.
How many of us had parents tell us to choose our friends wisely? In many cases, we (as social people) want to be liked by others. We crave attention, and when we are accepted by others we want to continue associating ourselves with those who like us! Unfortunately, if we choose to associate with the wrong type people, it is difficult to sometimes remove ourselves from the relationship. On the other hand, once we have gotten a little older - especially during our teenage years - we get a little rebellious, wanting to defy anything and everything our parents tell us. Whatever the source of disobedience, we still go against what is best for us. Does it sound familiar? How many times do we rebel against what God tells us we should be doing, knowing it is not in our best interest. So how do we protect ourselves? We are called to a holy and separate life. We should live a life different than the world! As the old saying goes, we may be in the world, but we are not to be of the world. What does this mean? We are to separate ourselves from the world and its ungodly behavior.
A Change of Life Expectancy
A Change of Life Expectancy
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.
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.”
When evaluating the life expectancy from Adam until Noah, it was not uncommon to see these men of God living 900 years or longer. God had used these men to preach the truth, but people still continued to do their own thing. Living sinful and ungodly lifestyles. He still cared enough for His created beings that, when he sees the continual decline of morality, He gave two warnings that He would withdraw His Spirit. Once a person continues to disregard God long enough, not listening, keeping immoral lifestyles, living for themselves instead of God, he reaches a point of no return - being so entwined in sin they would not repent and turn back to God. Once God’s Spirit was removed, they would fall into a state of unrepentent, ungodly, and unrighteous lifestyles. We see a warning given - if there was no change in the next 120 years, then judgment would be forthcoming. God (even with the degenerate state they were in) would offer mankind one last chance.
Scripture says that Nephilim (the fallen man) had overtaken the world. The earth had become a place where immorality was rampant, where powerful and strong men dominated the world in lawlessness and violence.
Our society is quickly moving in the same direction as these times. We look at a moral decline, the strong and powerful (and unfortunately immoral) rule, and right is called wrong and wrong is called right. We are seeing more and more wickedness, lawlessness, and moral decline instead of society seeing these issues and getting better. Instead of being concerned over the issues of ungodliness, it’s almost as tough sins are getting more heinous and wickedness abounds. God saw that all the actions were evil and depraved.
We know that the sinfulness of man means we will fail. We can’t keep from sinning. We are not perfect and fall short of God’s glory. As theologian James Montgomery Boice put it, “we (mankind) are only evil all the time ... even their best is spoiled by their essentially sinful nature.” In God’s eyes, we are still evil, corrupt, sinful, depraved. The list of adjectives describing our sinfulness could go on forever.
Because of our sinful nature, judgment is coming. God flat out says in verse 6 He regretted making man. The word used for regret literally meant He was in misery, grieving over our creation. Why would God regret His creation?
Because we brought sin into the world against God’s plan.
Our wickedness cut God to the heart, like a disobedient child grieves their parents.
Because God is righteous, he can not tolerate sin.
We did this to ourselves, choosing to cut ourselves off from God, and choosing separation from our Creator.
God regretted making mankind. As a result of the increased sin, God judged their actions and condemned them to destruction. Everything - humans and animals would be completely wiped away.
We know God is a patient and loving God, but things had gotten so bad, he could no longer bear seeing the sinful nature of the world. We (creation) rebel against God, reject His love, and have forgotten His purpose in creating us. Why were the creatures to be destroyed along with man? Because they were created for man! Because of sin, even the innocent animals would suffer God’s wrath and judgment.
All sin affects even the most innocent. We can try to hide our sins, just as Adam and Eve did.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
But our sins will always be visible to God.
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
Can’t you hear the father in this question? Did you do what I told you not to do? Of course, He already knew the answer. Because of this sin, we all have suffered the consequences of the original sin. But…my favorite three letter word in scripture...
Grace
Grace
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
If the whole world was corrupt and sinful, how could Noah find favor in God’s eyes? Grace. Noah did not forget God, and God did not forget his promise to Adam and Eve - there would be a Savior that would deliver man from the sin and death of this earth. If God destroyed the earth, who would carry on the godly line of believers so the Savior could be born?
It is only through the promise brought by this Savior that we have the ability to find favor in God’s eyes also. Every person is saved the same way as Noah, by the grace of God through faith in the Savior - our Lord Jesus Christ.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
We can do nothing on our own account to save ourselves except believing in our Savior through faith. It is a gift given by God, nothing we could work for, earn, or do enough to earn. It is freely given.
Conclusion
Conclusion