Sermon – Genesis 6, 9-10 – Christian Memes

Two weeks ago, we took a look at creation; Adam and Eve; and their fall into sin; which is recorded in the first three chapters of the book of Genesis.
Last week, we read about Cain and Abel; and not giving in to our anger, not sinning when we are upset, and about bringing our best to God – the story of Cain and Abel is found in Genesis 4.
Three weeks ago, (on Father’s Day), we looked at Noah, and while we may mention him today, the focus of the sermon is not about him; although the story of Noah and the Flood is next major one in our Bibles.
After Cain killed Abel, he was punished and forced to be a wanderer the rest of his days. In Genesis 4:17-24, we can read about the descendants of Cain.
In Genesis 4:25-26, we read about the birth of Seth.
- (25) Adam had sexual relations with his wife again and she gave birth to another son. She named him Seth, for she said, “God has granted me another son in the place of Abel, whom Cain killed.” (26) When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. At that time people first began to worship the LORD by name.
So, around the time that Seth was born was when people first began to worship God; and that is something to keep in the back of our minds as we move forward today.
Genesis 5 provides the genealogy from Adam down to Noah’s sons; along with how old the men were when they had the son and how long they lived afterwards.
- Adam Born – 1 Died – 930
- Seth (Adam’s son) Born – 130 Died – 1042 w/Noah for 14 years
- Enosh (Adam’s grandson) Born – 235 Died – 1140 w/Noah for 84 years
- Kenan Born – 325 Died – 1235 w/Noah for 179 years
- Mahalalel Born – 395 Died – 1290 w/Noah for 234 years
- Jared Born – 460 Died – 1422 w/Noah for 366 years
- Enoch Born – 622 Taken to Heaven in 987
- Methuselah (Noah’s granddad) Born – 687 Died – 1656 w/Noah for 600 years
- Lamech (Noah’s dad) Born – 874 Died – 1651 w/Noah for 595 years
- Noah Born – 1056 Died – 2006
- Shem – Ham – Japheth Born – 1556 Died – 2158 (Shem)
What the genealogy doesn’t tell us plainly is who was alive at the same time. Noah would have been born in the year 1056; and the following people would have been alive at least for a short while during his lifetime: Enosh (Adam’s grandson) … Kenan … Mahalalel … Jared … Methuselah … Lamech … so, Noah could have learned from Adam’s grandson about the creation of the world; and this where our story begins today.
Genesis 6:1-8 (NLT – A World Gone Wrong) … (1) Then the people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them. (2) The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives. (3) Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.” (4) In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times. (5) The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. (6) So, the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. (7) And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing – all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.” (8) But Noah found favor with the Lord.
After the events of the first-five chapters of Genesis, people began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them.
Then we read that the “sons of God” saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives; and in those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth, because they were the results of the intermingling between the “sons of God” and women.
Now, there are three main theories about who these “sons of God” are. The first is that the they were the descendants of Seth; and if that is the case, then they are contrasted with the daughters of men, which would have been the descendants of Cain or perhaps another child born to Adam and Eve. Seth’s descendants would have been righteous and Cain’s descendants would have been wicked. This is an alright theory, but it doesn’t explain how two humans, regardless if they are wicked or righteous, can produce giant offspring.
Another view is that the “sons of God” refer to a kingly or tyrannical line of men. Perhaps these men were of great stature and passed along DNA that enabled them to father giants, but DNA doesn’t always guarantee that children will receive the best qualities of their parents.
The other main theory is that the “sons of God” are some kind of angelic or heavenly being; or at least were before they decided to leave Heaven and mate with human women. The same phrase “sons of God” appears in Job 1 and 2 when they appeared before God, (along with Satan), to report on what was going on in the world. The book of Jude, verse 6, maybe referring to this as well … “angels who did not stay within their own positions of authority, but left their proper dwelling” … and continues to compare them, in verse 7, to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were sexually immoral and pursued unnatural desires.
My opinion is that the last theory is accurate and that the Nephilim – the giants – the men of renown of the ancient world – were the offspring of human women and these angels.
So, who are these Nephilim, those that the Bible calls heroes or famous warriors or men of renown. What did they do to become famous or infamous? The Bible isn’t clear and only mentions them again when referring to the inhabitants of the Promised Land.
You have to go outside the Bible for theories on who they are … they could be the people from stories of other religions or cultures … fairy tales speak of giants … other cultures have tales of half human-half gods doing amazing things … think of the Greek gods and their kids – Hercules for example … these stories came from some place; but again, this is all speculation as the Bible does not tell us what they did, just that they were well known.
Right after the mention of the sons of God intermingling with human women, the Lord said His Spirit would not put up with humans and their years would be 120. The Lord observed the extent of wickedness on the earth and saw that everything humans thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil; and He decided to send a flood to wipe them out.
Remember what Genesis 4:26 says, “When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. At that time people first began to worship the LORD by name.”
It is amazing how quickly the people went from worshipping the LORD, to doing nothing, but imagining and thinking about evil. So, how did this happen? Who taught them to be evil? Who influenced them to abandon God and focus on evil?
The simplest answer would have to the devil – Satan – that lured the people to evil. It was also the devil that was the first to sin and he tempted Adam and Eve to sin; and he was the example to the fallen angels – 1/3 of them that also rebelled against God; and then for these “sons of God” that also rebelled to do wrong; and he continues to tempt people today, to follow him – to sin and be wicked – and to ignore God’s command to be holy.
With Satan influencing these “sons of God” to mate with human females, he could try to ruin the line of Adam – the line of Seth – from being about to be purely human, and if he could prevent this, then Jesus would have nobody to descend from.
So, God sees this mess – this wickedness – and has a solution for it. He will send a flood to wipe out the human race, of everyone except Noah and his family. This would ensure that a true human bloodline would still exist after the flood.
However, this is not the last we read about the Nephilim or wicked men or sin. Genesis 6 tells us that the Nephilim were in the world before and after the flood, so how is that possible.
For this to be possible, it would go back to your view on where the Nephilim came from. If it was from wicked people, then the wives of Noah’s son would carry those genes; or the flood was just a local flood and did not destroy all the people – all the Nephilim; or angels rebelled again after the flood and created more Nephilim with different women.
Jude 6 tells us that the angles who did not keep their positions of authority, but abandoned their own home – these were kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the Great Day … and 2^nd Peter 2 also references this … so, this must keep this from happening again – as we do not know of any Nephilim around today.
Genesis 6-9 tells us about Noah, his family, the flood, and what happened after the flood.
Genesis 10 tells us about the descendants of Noah’s sons – Shem, Ham, and Japheth; which went out and filled the world, (eventually), and were identified by clan, language, territory, and national identity … with Abram and the Israelites descending from Shem.
The beginning of Genesis 11 is very similar to the beginning of Genesis 6; with the Lord looking at the wickedness of man and intervening.
As mentioned just a moment ago, the Israelites descended from Shem; but those who built the Tower of Babel descended from Ham, which was the son Noah had cursed to be the lowest of servants to his relatives; and other descendants of Ham were all the “ites” that lived in Canaan; and those that lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. These people remembered this curse, and would not have it; so, the devil schemes and influences them to sin more and more.
Genesis 10:8-11, tells us about Nimrod, who was a mighty hunter before the Lord, but some rabbis have interpreted this to mean in the face of the Lord or in opposition to the Lord; and that he built his kingdom in the land of Babylonia, (which in Hebrew is Shinar); and also expanded his territory to Assyria, which included Nineveh.
Genesis 11:1-9 goes into more detail about this event and the Tower of Babel … (1) At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. (2) As people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there. (3) They began saying to each other, “Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.” (In this region bricks were used instead of stone, and tar was used for mortar.) (4) Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.” (5) But the LORD came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. (6) “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! (7) Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.” (8) In that way, the LORD scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. (9) That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the LORD confused the people with different languages. In this way, he scattered them all over the world.
At one time in the history of our world, everyone spoke the same language and those that settled in the land of Shinar decided; and schemed to do something, in their mind, would make them famous and bring them power and security.
Depending on your translation, the people that built the Tower of Babel wanted to reach into the sky, unto the heavens, or actually into heaven; and if you could build a tower or anything else that could actually reach Heaven, where God is, then your motives would have to be to overthrow God or at least to try rule alongside Him and ignore Him.
The people that built the tower used tar or pitch for mortar, which was waterproof; so, if God would have sent another flood, then they would be safe within their tower. Also, if this tower would have reached into heaven, then the depths of Noah’s flood wouldn’t matter as the tower would be higher than the water. So, they didn’t believe God’s promise to not send a flood on the entire earth again.
Even if they could not reach into Heaven, they wanted to make a name for themselves and not point others toward God. The Bible does not tell us the dimensions of the Tower of Babel, but sources outside of Scripture have varying accounts;
300 Feet as compared to the Great Ziggurat of Babylon that Alexander destroyed in 331 BC
The Third Apocalypse of Baruch says the Tower was 695 feet high.
Medieval accounts say it was 80 miles around and 3.68 miles high.
Josephus (a Jewish historian) said the tower was more like a mountain – larger around than high, but estimates of about 4.7 miles high.
The Book of Jubilees said the tower was 5,433 cubits and 2 palms high (8,150 feet).
Several researchers have said the tower could have been no more than 1.3 miles high before the weight of the bricks would have been too much to support.
The LORD, however, knows the hearts of men and how evil it is; and put a stop to their plan. He came down and confused the languages, which forced the people to scatter and only associate with those that could understand them; thus, the tower would have been incomplete. This time God did not wipe everyone out, but confused their languages; as annihilation had not taught people to be holy or to revere and follow God.
We have just begun to dive into the Bible – we have only made it through the first part of Genesis 11, but already we can see how sin, how evil, how the devil, has impacted God’s perfect world. Rebellion to God happened sometime after Creation by Satan falling; then in the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve, then by the “sons of God,” then by the whole world which was wicked (save Noah); and then by those wanting to build the Tower of Babel.
All the people we have talked about over the past 3 weeks, were influenced, by someone or something and allowed that to dictate everyday choices and what they did with their lives; who they worshipped, who they sacrificed to, and also who they ignored.
Adam and Eve were influenced by Satan in the Garden of Eden and sinned.
Cain was influenced by his anger and jealously; and killed his brother, Abel.
The world, (save Noah), was wicked and was influenced by all matters of desires; which took them away from God.
Noah was influenced by everyone from Adam’s grandson down to his father, (minus Enoch), and some right up until the year of the Flood. He would have been told about creation, the fall, and from men that walked with God for many hundreds of years.
Those that build the Tower of Babel would have been influenced by Nimrod and his supporters to try to make themselves famous and not point people to God.
The next main character we reach in Genesis is Abraham, (who will be discuss in the upcoming weeks), and who was from this same location of the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 10:25 we read about Peleg whose name means divisions, and during his lifetime the different languages were created and the people were divided. Peleg would have been the great-great-great-grandfather of Abraham and doing the math from Peleg to Abraham would have been roughly 191 years and we read that Peleg lived another 209 years after he became a father for a total of 239 years – which would make it a solid possibility that Abraham was alive when the Tower of Babel was constructed and when the languages of the world were confused; and this may be the set-up for Abraham’s call by God in the following chapter; and not only that, but if my math is correct, Shem – Noah’s son, would have also been alive during Abraham’s lifetime.
Hopefully, my main point of people being an influence for good or evil – to bring people closer to God or keep them from God has come out this morning; as that has been my desire.
Influence and choices can have an impact for many generations and we have read about that this morning. Those that chose to do evil and be wicked and be influenced by wicked people were wiped out during the flood of Noah’s day. Those that were influenced by Nimrod were scattered all over the earth and were separated by language barriers – something that can be an issue today when communicating with people from other parts of the world.
All of us, here, this morning, have been influenced by someone or else we would not be here – someone shared the Gospel with us and we were saved – someone invited us and we accepted – someone was diligent and kept praying for us and did not give up until we were right with God. Our challenge this morning is to be a positive influence on our community and to not allow evil to win out and take people away from their families, away from God, and to an eternity in Hell. Our challenge is to impact our community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ; to be salt and light, to use our spiritual gifts, and to bear spiritual fruit.