9. The Striving of the Spirit (Gen. 6:1-8)
This sermon was preached on 24/1/2100
In our studies in Genesis we have noted several details that should help us understand why things are the way they are today. While Genesis 1–11 contains historical details it is not a record of history in the usual sense of that term. Rather it is a record of spiritual events that we need to know in order to make sense of life in God’s world.
We have seen that God created the world as a location for humans to exhibit what it meant for them to be made in the image of God. Sadly, through the temptation of Satan, the first human pair rebelled against God and brought about a change in themselves, their environment and their descendants. They became sinful, their environment was cursed, and their descendants would all be sinners subject to death. Nevertheless, the Lord, in his mercy, informed Adam and Eve that Satan would be defeated by one of their descendants called ‘The Seed of the Woman’.
Very quickly, the effects of sin were seen, climaxing in the murder by Cain of his brother Abel. This rash act led to the development of two societies. One was mainly the descendants of Cain who were characterised as living for what they could discover in this world; God gave to them many blessings of his common grace such as developments in agriculture, the arts and in metalwork. Yet sin increased despite these blessings. The other society was mainly the descendants of Seth and initially they were described as those who called upon the name of the Lord. God not only gave to them the benefits of common grace; he also provided them with spiritual blessings and gave them special insights into his saving will through men like Enoch, Methuselah and Noah. Yet, as with the descendants of Cain, these special blessings did not prevent the descendants of Seth eventually departing from God. This is where we find the human race in Genesis 6.
The state of human society in which the Spirit was striving
Luke 17:26-27 indicates that much of life in Noah’s time could be described as normal and regular. ‘Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.’ Jesus is not condemning their behaviour because such activities are always wrong; what he is condemning is that they left God out of their lives and did not listen to the warnings they had received. Their failure to listen resulted in the judgment of the flood being sudden.
In Genesis 6:5, there is another perspective on the lives of these people: ‘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.’ Here we note that sin is described as having its source in the heart of humans. Further, these sinful thoughts are the permanent attitude of all the humans.
Genesis 6 does give a specific example of sin when it refers to the union of the sons of God with the daughters of men. The interpretation of this verse is one of the most controversial among bible commentators and I will briefly mention the three views that are presented, detailing first the two that I think are unlikely and then mentioning the view that I think best fits in with the rest of Scripture.
One view, which is found among the Church Fathers as well as others, is that the sons of God here refers to fallen angels. It is the case that angels are called sons of God in the Book of Job. If this interpretation is correct, then the sin involved some form of occult activity. The obvious difficulty with this interpretation is that it is highly unlikely that fallen angels could father children.
The second view is that ‘sons of God’ refers to the descendants of Seth and that the daughters of men are the descendants of Cain. This interpretation argues that the sin was using marriage as a means of enjoying the various features of the Cainite civilisation. This view has many supporters, yet there is a problem with it. Why should only the male descendants of Seth and the female descendants of Cain be mentioned?
The third view, and the one that I think is most likely, is that the ‘sons of God’ are the rulers of the ancient world. Rulers are called ‘sons of God’ in the Old Testament (Psalm 82). In this interpretation, what happened was that the rulers engaged in polygamy or multiple marriages by enforcement. The sins of which they were guilty were tyranny (they are the mighty men of verse 4) and immorality, and an example of such a ruler is Lamech, the descendant of Cain (Gen. 4:19).
So Genesis 6 describes a sinful society led by godless rulers; it was a society marked by violence and immorality; it was a society, much like our own, with no time for God. Yet despite their determination to ignore God, he was determined not to ignore them.
The response of God
The writer gives several details about the Lord’s response to the sinful state of the human race. The first feature of the divine response is that God saw the sins of the human race. This is a reference to God’s knowledge, although it is not merely a reference to a detached, indifferent omniscience. Neither is it merely a look that gives information. The Lord looks at his creatures ‘to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God’ (Ps. 14:2). This is a look that is longing for intimacy because if he finds any that are seeking after him, he will make himself known to them.
But the consequence for God of his searching look is sorrow. ‘And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart’ (Gen. 6:6). This is perhaps a surprising response because we have expected his response to be that of judgement. Judgement did come, but it was preceded by God’s sadness.
Is this not the same response that Jesus displayed towards the city of Jerusalem? ‘And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation”’ (Luke 19:41-44).
What about sinful man would make God grieve? God was saddened by what sin had done to the creature made in his image. He is grieved that he must use his power to destroy what he had made. Man, with all his inbuilt creativity expressed in the technological and cultural developments of the pre-flood world, had become the opposite of what he was created to be. This is true of all who use their God-given talents against his revealed will. And their conduct saddens him.
God is also saddened because he knows the future misery of sinners. He is aware of what hell means in all its fullness. And he is grieved because he is the one who will inflict eternal punishment. Hell will not bring pleasure to God, although it will be according to the demands of his justice. Remember what he says in Ezekiel 33:11: ‘As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?’
When we think of God we must included this aspect of his character. As Horatius Bonar put it in a sermon called ‘The Sincerity of the Divine Compassion’: ‘Ah! it is only when we learn how profoundly he feels, that we know aright the character of that God with whom we have to do. It is only when we realise how sincerely he yearns, and pities, and joys, and grieves, and loves, that we understand that revelation which he has made of himself in the gospel of his grace, and in the person of his Incarnate Son. Nor till then do we feel the unutterable malignity of sin, as being a grieving of God, a vexing of his loving Spirit, and become rightly alive to the depravity of our own rebellious natures. It is only then that we can cordially enter into God's condemnation of the evil, and sympathise with him in that which makes him grieve. Never, till we give him credit for feeling as he says he does, can we really long for deliverance from that which is not only the abominable thing which he hates, but that thing of evil and sorrow over which he so sincerely mourns.’
This was followed by stages of judgement. To begin with, there was a reduction in the human lifespan to 120 years (Gen. 6:3). Perhaps the details of verse 3 were announced by Noah. This was a reminder that their lives, even at the longest, would end far sooner than their ancestors. In addition, there would be a global judgment as well as individual punishment; God intimated to Noah that he was going to destroy the whole system of things by a flood.
This too is similar to what we experience as we live in a society that is very like the ancient world. As individuals, our lives are going to come to an end. And eventually there is going to be universal judgement, not by flood, but by fire when Jesus returns the second time and all the human race, including those who perished in the flood, will be gathered before him, the Judge of all.
These stages of judgement remind us of the patience and longsuffering of God, of his willingness to endure human rebellion until sinners return to him. Each person can say to himself, ‘The reason why I am alive today is because of the patience of God.’
Throughout this period, through the stages of judgment up to the flood, alongside his sorrow at human sin, the God of mercy was striving with sinners by his gracious Spirit. This striving indicates the eagerness that marks God’s love, his burning desire that these sinners would listen to his voice.
God did not speak to them only through the preaching of men, but he also spoke to them by the almighty Spirit whom he delegated to bring forth the beauty of creation. In Genesis 1, the Spirit had come upon a formless earth and in the space of six days he had made it beautiful. And his divine energies were put forth repeatedly as he strove with sinners to return to God.
The Spirit strives with sinners by convicting them of their sins. Jesus describes this aspect of the Spirit’s activity in John 16:8-11: ‘And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.’ Obviously, in the pre-flood world, the Spirit would use the information that had been given by God: the coming of the Seed of the woman, the judgement predicted by Enoch, the warnings given by Noah. They did not have as much information as we have, but they had enough to save them – and to condemn them if they rejected it.
We have seen that God created the world as a location for humans to exhibit what it meant for them to be made in the image of God. Sadly, through the temptation of Satan, the first human pair rebelled against God and brought about a change in themselves, their environment and their descendants. They became sinful, their environment was cursed, and their descendants would all be sinners subject to death. Nevertheless, the Lord, in his mercy, informed Adam and Eve that Satan would be defeated by one of their descendants called ‘The Seed of the Woman’.
Very quickly, the effects of sin were seen, climaxing in the murder by Cain of his brother Abel. This rash act led to the development of two societies. One was mainly the descendants of Cain who were characterised as living for what they could discover in this world; God gave to them many blessings of his common grace such as developments in agriculture, the arts and in metalwork. Yet sin increased despite these blessings. The other society was mainly the descendants of Seth and initially they were described as those who called upon the name of the Lord. God not only gave to them the benefits of common grace; he also provided them with spiritual blessings and gave them special insights into his saving will through men like Enoch, Methuselah and Noah. Yet, as with the descendants of Cain, these special blessings did not prevent the descendants of Seth eventually departing from God. This is where we find the human race in Genesis 6.
The state of human society in which the Spirit was striving
Luke 17:26-27 indicates that much of life in Noah’s time could be described as normal and regular. ‘Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.’ Jesus is not condemning their behaviour because such activities are always wrong; what he is condemning is that they left God out of their lives and did not listen to the warnings they had received. Their failure to listen resulted in the judgment of the flood being sudden.
In Genesis 6:5, there is another perspective on the lives of these people: ‘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.’ Here we note that sin is described as having its source in the heart of humans. Further, these sinful thoughts are the permanent attitude of all the humans.
Genesis 6 does give a specific example of sin when it refers to the union of the sons of God with the daughters of men. The interpretation of this verse is one of the most controversial among bible commentators and I will briefly mention the three views that are presented, detailing first the two that I think are unlikely and then mentioning the view that I think best fits in with the rest of Scripture.
One view, which is found among the Church Fathers as well as others, is that the sons of God here refers to fallen angels. It is the case that angels are called sons of God in the Book of Job. If this interpretation is correct, then the sin involved some form of occult activity. The obvious difficulty with this interpretation is that it is highly unlikely that fallen angels could father children.
The second view is that ‘sons of God’ refers to the descendants of Seth and that the daughters of men are the descendants of Cain. This interpretation argues that the sin was using marriage as a means of enjoying the various features of the Cainite civilisation. This view has many supporters, yet there is a problem with it. Why should only the male descendants of Seth and the female descendants of Cain be mentioned?
The third view, and the one that I think is most likely, is that the ‘sons of God’ are the rulers of the ancient world. Rulers are called ‘sons of God’ in the Old Testament (Psalm 82). In this interpretation, what happened was that the rulers engaged in polygamy or multiple marriages by enforcement. The sins of which they were guilty were tyranny (they are the mighty men of verse 4) and immorality, and an example of such a ruler is Lamech, the descendant of Cain (Gen. 4:19).
So Genesis 6 describes a sinful society led by godless rulers; it was a society marked by violence and immorality; it was a society, much like our own, with no time for God. Yet despite their determination to ignore God, he was determined not to ignore them.
The response of God
The writer gives several details about the Lord’s response to the sinful state of the human race. The first feature of the divine response is that God saw the sins of the human race. This is a reference to God’s knowledge, although it is not merely a reference to a detached, indifferent omniscience. Neither is it merely a look that gives information. The Lord looks at his creatures ‘to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God’ (Ps. 14:2). This is a look that is longing for intimacy because if he finds any that are seeking after him, he will make himself known to them.
But the consequence for God of his searching look is sorrow. ‘And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart’ (Gen. 6:6). This is perhaps a surprising response because we have expected his response to be that of judgement. Judgement did come, but it was preceded by God’s sadness.
Is this not the same response that Jesus displayed towards the city of Jerusalem? ‘And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation”’ (Luke 19:41-44).
What about sinful man would make God grieve? God was saddened by what sin had done to the creature made in his image. He is grieved that he must use his power to destroy what he had made. Man, with all his inbuilt creativity expressed in the technological and cultural developments of the pre-flood world, had become the opposite of what he was created to be. This is true of all who use their God-given talents against his revealed will. And their conduct saddens him.
God is also saddened because he knows the future misery of sinners. He is aware of what hell means in all its fullness. And he is grieved because he is the one who will inflict eternal punishment. Hell will not bring pleasure to God, although it will be according to the demands of his justice. Remember what he says in Ezekiel 33:11: ‘As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?’
When we think of God we must included this aspect of his character. As Horatius Bonar put it in a sermon called ‘The Sincerity of the Divine Compassion’: ‘Ah! it is only when we learn how profoundly he feels, that we know aright the character of that God with whom we have to do. It is only when we realise how sincerely he yearns, and pities, and joys, and grieves, and loves, that we understand that revelation which he has made of himself in the gospel of his grace, and in the person of his Incarnate Son. Nor till then do we feel the unutterable malignity of sin, as being a grieving of God, a vexing of his loving Spirit, and become rightly alive to the depravity of our own rebellious natures. It is only then that we can cordially enter into God's condemnation of the evil, and sympathise with him in that which makes him grieve. Never, till we give him credit for feeling as he says he does, can we really long for deliverance from that which is not only the abominable thing which he hates, but that thing of evil and sorrow over which he so sincerely mourns.’
This was followed by stages of judgement. To begin with, there was a reduction in the human lifespan to 120 years (Gen. 6:3). Perhaps the details of verse 3 were announced by Noah. This was a reminder that their lives, even at the longest, would end far sooner than their ancestors. In addition, there would be a global judgment as well as individual punishment; God intimated to Noah that he was going to destroy the whole system of things by a flood.
This too is similar to what we experience as we live in a society that is very like the ancient world. As individuals, our lives are going to come to an end. And eventually there is going to be universal judgement, not by flood, but by fire when Jesus returns the second time and all the human race, including those who perished in the flood, will be gathered before him, the Judge of all.
These stages of judgement remind us of the patience and longsuffering of God, of his willingness to endure human rebellion until sinners return to him. Each person can say to himself, ‘The reason why I am alive today is because of the patience of God.’
Throughout this period, through the stages of judgment up to the flood, alongside his sorrow at human sin, the God of mercy was striving with sinners by his gracious Spirit. This striving indicates the eagerness that marks God’s love, his burning desire that these sinners would listen to his voice.
God did not speak to them only through the preaching of men, but he also spoke to them by the almighty Spirit whom he delegated to bring forth the beauty of creation. In Genesis 1, the Spirit had come upon a formless earth and in the space of six days he had made it beautiful. And his divine energies were put forth repeatedly as he strove with sinners to return to God.
The Spirit strives with sinners by convicting them of their sins. Jesus describes this aspect of the Spirit’s activity in John 16:8-11: ‘And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.’ Obviously, in the pre-flood world, the Spirit would use the information that had been given by God: the coming of the Seed of the woman, the judgement predicted by Enoch, the warnings given by Noah. They did not have as much information as we have, but they had enough to save them – and to condemn them if they rejected it.
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