Genesis 5:23-6:13

Then we saw Cain populating the earth and the birth of another son to Adam and Eve named Seth. It’s from this line that the saviour, will come into the earth and die to pay the price Himself for the sin of Adam and Eve and to redeem all those who place their faith in Him. Cain and Seth represent the two groups of mankind right through history up until today. Cain represents the group, who believe in their own self goodness, who scorn the very idea of God and refuse to accept or even seek Him. Seth represents those who, even though they’re far from perfect, accept their sin and their failings and believe what God has said through faith.

Then we moved on to Genesis chapter 5 which is a genealogy, a list of generations, showing us the descendants of Adam.

Finally, we saw the amazing story of Enoch and how he was taken by God alive before the calamity of the flood came as a judgement on the earth. We saw how this is a picture of another soon coming judgement on the earth that is imminent or could happen at any time.

Now let’s read Genesis 5 from verse 21 to 32 straight through to get the feel of this genealogy from Enoch to Noah, “Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.  Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died. Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.” After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”

Methuselah lived longer than Adam.

These two men, Adam and Methuselah, pretty well cover the gap between creation and the Flood. According to our genealogy, Methuselah could have told Noah everything from the creation of the world.

Many Bible teachers believe we have a gap in the genealogy given here.

We know that in the opening of the New Testament the genealogy that’s given of the Lord Jesus purposely leaves out quite a few because there’s an attempt to give it in three equal segments.

Certain ones are left out, but of course, it completes accurately.

This genealogy is accurate, but we may have a gap here that would mean that man has been on this earth a great deal longer than we thought.

We’re not getting into the details here because it is quite involved and scripture isn’t clear. Why? Because this is not God’s focus. He’s trying to get over to us is history from the point of view of the redemption of mankind.

Now, the name Methuselah means “sending forth.”

Many believe that Methuselah means: “When he is dead, it shall be sent.” What will be sent? The Flood. As long as Methuselah lived, the Flood could not come. The interesting thing is that according to a chronology of the genealogy of the patriarchs, the year that Methuselah died is the year that the Flood came. “When he is dead, it shall be sent”.

Why did Methuselah live longer than any other person?

God kept him here to let mankind know His patience and mercy. God will also wait for you and me—all of our lives.

Peter speaks of the long–suffering, or the patience, of our God in 1 Peter 3:20, “who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. ”

As we continue down through this chapter, each man after Enoch is mentioned and then he dies.

And then we get to Genesis 5 31 to 32, “So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.

And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. “

Now as a quick sideline here. It’s the popular theory that human nature is basically good and that it can be improved. Everything we see and hear today is about self-improvement.

If we will just try to improve the environment of man we can move toward perfection, Utopia.

Communism and socialism seek to improve man by making the state man’s protector.

Arminianism means that man can assist in his salvation.

Modernism says that man can save himself. In other words, salvation is sort of a do–it–yourself kit that God gives to you.

Some of the cults tell us that human nature is totally good and that there is no such thing as sin.

But what does God say concerning man? God says that man’s nature is totally wicked with absolutely no possibility of self-improvement.

That is the condition of all of us. “They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one. ” This is from Romans 3:10 and is a quote from Psalm 14:3, Psalm 53: 1 and others.

That ‘s the estimate of the Word of God.

Now If you will accept God’s Word for it, it’ll give you a truer conception of life today than is given anywhere else.

There’re two ways of looking at our walk through life. We can look at either the romance or the reality. If we plan our lives and our future looking only at the romance without the reality, life will hand out harsh lessons. If we do the same with our eternity it’ll be catastrophic.

The romance is that man is basically good and we can, by our own efforts, achieve a type of perfection. The reality is that man is hopelessly lost and completely unable to make himself righteous by his own efforts and because of this his future is death. He’s in desperate need of a saviour and we have one available just by asking.

The next chapter delivers the reality of man’s state when it tells us that a Flood, a judgment from God, came upon the earth.

In chapter 6 we see not only the Flood, but also the reason for the judgment of the Flood.

In Genesis 6 :1 to 2 we read, “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

Now, the “the sons of God” and “the daughters of men” has caused great discussion and a lot of speculation. Here’s another one of those places where God has not seen fit ti fill in all the details to try to satify our human understanding.

During these days of rapid population expansion (especially because of long lifespans in the pre-flood world), there was a problem with ungodly intermarriage between the sons of God and the daughters of men. Who were these groups?

Many good and faithful students of the bible believe that “the sons of God” were angels. Many others don’t.

Here’s my question regarding this.

If these were good angels, they wouldn’t commit this sin, and evil angels could never be designated as “sons of God.” Also, the offspring here were men, not monstrosities.

I’m not sure why it’s assumed by so many that the offspring were giants. We’ll look at this more closely when we come to Genesis 6:4.

In Genesis 6:3 we read, “And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

Noah seams to have preached for 120 years, and during that time the Spirit of God was striving with men.

Peter makes it very clear in 1 Peter 3:18 to 19 that it was back in the days of Noah that the Spirit of God was striving with men in order that He might bring them to God—but they wouldn’t turn.

We read, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison..”

These spirits were in prison when Peter wrote, but they were preached to in the days of Noah. How do we know that?

1 Peter 3:20 tells us, “who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. .”

When were they disobedient? During the long–suffering of God in the days of Noah—during those 120 years.

Now to Genesis 6:4, “There were giants 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.”

Let’s look closely. “There were giants in the earth in those days,” but it doesn’t say they are the offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of men.

It does say this about the offspring: “the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” You see they weren’t monstrosities; they were men. The record here makes it very clear that the giants were in the earth before this took place, and it simply means that these offspring were outstanding individuals.

So, what then do we have here in  Genesis 6:4?

Well, Genesis is a book of genealogies—it is a book of the families. The sons of God may simply be the godly line who’ve come down from Adam and then through Seth, and the daughters of men belong to the line of Cain.

It’s an intermingling or intermarriage of these two lines, until finally the entire line is totally corrupted (well, not totally; there is one exception).

On the other hand, God is getting ready to judge the earth by destroying every living thing in a flood. This points to a deep and serious problem in the world at that time, and it would seem that it’s way beyond the problem of believers marrying those who do not believe.

Regardless of which view you take of this strange event, wether you believe it’s simply the Godly line mixing with the ungodly line or that angels were involved, It’s simply a matter of interpretation. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not you believe the Bible but concerns only the interpretation of Scripture.

The main danger would be to get hung up on this to the point of obsession where the real message becomes hidden. Unfortunately, there seems to be more fascination with this today than in the real reason for the flood.

What was the condition on the earth before the Flood? What caused God to bring the judgment of the Flood?

In Genesis 6:5 now we read, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

We should take special note here. “the wickedness of man was great in the earth.” “and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil.” Only evil—that is all it was—and that “continually.” This reveals the true condition of the human family that was on the earth.

Verse 6 reads, “And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

God’s sorrow at man, and the grief in His heart are striking. This doesn’t mean that creation was out of control, and it doesn’t mean that God hoped for something better but was unable to achieve it. God knew all along that this is how things would turn out, but this text clearly tells us that as God sees His plan for the ages unfold, it affects Him. God is not unfeeling in the face of human sin and rebellion.

Although God was grieved because of man’s sin, thank God, He didn’t destroy him.

Verse 7, “So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD, we read in Genesis 6 verse 8.

And why did Noah find grace?

Verse 9 says, “This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.”

Why did God save Noah?

Because he walked with God? Yes, but we are also told in Hebrews 11:7 that, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. ”

It took faith to prepare an ark on dry land when it hadn’t even drizzled yet!

In this same chapter in Hebrews, we’re told that it was by faith that Enoch was translated. You see, when the church is taken out of this world, every believer is going because the rapture is for believers, and even the weakest saint is going. They’re going out because God extends mercy, and we’re told that the mercy of God will be demonstrated at that time.

Why the Flood? Why is God going to send the Flood?

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

Genis 6:11 to 12 tells us, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. ”

Man had corrupted God’s way and was going his own way. He had turned from the purpose for which God had created him. Man is performing exactly according to Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

Genesis 6 verse 13, “And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.“

God‘s going to send the Flood. Let’s look closer.

Man had a promise of a Redeemer, and he was told that there was coming a Saviour on the earth.

That’s what man should’ve been looking for; instead of that, he turned from God.

God had provided a sacrifice for Adam and Eve, and we find that a great, eternal principle was put down with Cain and Abel. These two boys, Cain and Abel, stand as the representatives of two great systems, two classes of people: the lost and the saved, the self–righteous and the broken–spirited, the do-gooder and the genuine believer. That’s what was present in the human race at this time.

The patriarchs were living so long that the lives of Adam and Methuselah bridged the entire gap from the creation to the Flood.

They certainly could have given a revelation to all mankind, which they did.

We’re told in Jude verses 14 and 15 that Enoch preached, he prophesied, during that period.

We’re also told that Noah preached during that period as he was building the ark.

When Enoch disappeared, that should have alerted the people to the intervention of God in human affairs. They also knew about this man Methuselah and the meaning of his name; and when he died, they should have known the Flood was coming.

Finally, there was the ministry of the Holy Spirit. God said that His Spirit would not always strive with man. The Spirit of God was striving with him, but, when man totally rejected God, the Flood came in judgment upon the earth.

The entire human family has turned from God “… There is none righteous, no, not one” says Romans 3:10.

There are just a few, though, who do believe Him—Noah and his family. Here is one man who walked with God; he believed God. Here is a man who still trusted God—“by faith Noah.”

Here is a man who was willing to risk building a boat on dry land. If the rains did not come, he certainly would be the laughingstock of the community.He probably was just that for 120 years, but Noah believed God.

There’s a striking comparison in the fact that the days of Noah are to be duplicated before the Lord comes again to the earth, not for the Rapture, but to establish His Kingdom. But there are some remarkable parallels that have already taken place. For instance, this chapter opened: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them….” There was this tremendous population increase, and by that time man had spread pretty much over the earth.

Today we have a tremendous population explosion, and men again have increased upon the face of the earth.

Also, there ‘s the fact that during the Great Tribulation period, the Holy Spirit will no longer restrain evil. He will be there to convert men, but we’re told very definitely that He will not be restraining evil on the earth.

God’s efforts to reach out to fallen man will be despised and rejected, and certainly they are today. God’s message to man, the bible, is rejected and ridiculed today as much as at any time of calamity in past history.

Finally, the world in that day will be faced with the great problem of the Rapture—there will have been a great number of people who have mysteriously left the earth, causing a multitude of speculation as to why but people will still reject God’s message to come, just as they did in Noah’s day.

Until next time friends when we see the building of the ark and the arrival of the flood, may God bless you and keep you.