THE BIBLE IN A YEAR WITH GBIBLE
DAY 2
GENESIS 4-7
We saw yesterday, God declared everything very good when He finished restoring the world, but that’s different from being perfect and complete. Imperfect man can’t live up to God’s standard of perfection. We see this when Cain murders his own brother Abel. Keep in mind, this happened about 2,500 years before God gave Moses the 10 Commandments, but Cain still knew murder was wrong. We know that Cain knew it was wrong because he feared other people killing him in response according to Genesis 4:14.
Genesis points out to us an interesting point of how God is in control of EVERYTHING, even and especially science. God governs science, science does not govern God. Which brings us to a somewhat uncomfortable topic for many. People often wonder whom Cain married. Scripture doesn’t tell us for sure, but it’s likely that he married one of his sisters or nieces considering Adam and Eve had lots of other children after Cain and Abel.
Here’s where scientific reasoning comes in for the somewhat uncomfortable case of incest. However, we can be sure that incest was all a part of God’s plan and His plan is perfect. You see, the reason incest isn’t problematic here during this time in His-story is that there is no genetic load yet. God doesn’t forbid incest until much later, and up until that time it serves as a means to populate the earth. This doesn’t mean God changed; it shows us that He has always had a pre-designed plan. We call this the Pre-designed Plan of God or the PPOG. Only God could know the point when genetic mutations will be a problem, so only He will know when incest has served its purpose and has crossed into dangerous territory.
The phrase “sons of God” in Genesis 6:4 is one way scripture refers to Angels. The prevailing view of ancient Jews was that sons of God referred to fallen angels, who, in this passage, took human wives and had kids with them, creating a crossbreed of angels and humans known as Nephilim.
Scripture tells us angels in heaven don’t procreate. However, that could be because of a few reasons:
(1) The angels in heaven are the elect angels who live under God’s rule and don’t rebel against Him.
(2) All angels referred to in scripture are male, so they can’t procreate among themselves.
Therefore, if they procreate with human females, then theoretically this kind of cross breeding would be possible. This brings us to the point that the presence of the Nephilim did contribute to the increasing wickedness of the earth.
Why would fallen angels do this?
First, the angels who lived in heaven with God knew His plan from before creation was to send God the Son to earth as a human named Jesus to redeem and restore everything; but then they rebelled against God and His kingdom, so they try to hinder and His plan to deceive His people. The enemy is Satan and his fallen angels and we refer to them as the Kingdom of Darkness or KOD. This is one attempt from the enemy, KOD, trying to corrupt the human bloodline to prevent the birth of the Messiah by counterfeiting the supernatural-natural union. Then people could say that Jesus was not the Messiah, He was not 100% God, 100% man (Hypostatic Union). Instead, they would try to say that he was a descendant of supernatural creatures and that is just one of their BIG lies.
We don’t have all the information here, so we must keep an openmind. After all, the Bible is not designed to answer our questions, although it will. The Bible is designed to reveal God. And if this did happen the way the ancient Jews understood it, it makes sense that God would wipe out the crossbreed population via the flood. The only family whose bloodline hasn’t been infiltrated by fallen angels is Noah’s, therefor, God preserves them. God set apart this family, these particular descendants of Adam, as the family He is in relationship with.
So, God has Noah build an ark and it’s a huge one. With God giving precise directions and measurements, Noah builds an ark that is one and a half football fields long, the width of a six lane interstate, and as tall as a four-story building. Noah probably takes the tiniest of each kind of animal, and there are more breeds of animals now, but God certainly knows the arc is the perfect size to hold whatever He needs it to hold. These are God’s perfect measurements from God’s perfect design. He is the creator of all things and He will never leave alone to figure things out on our own. And like the ark, it may not always smell too good to us!
Next, God mentions the word “covenant” for the very first time. This is what we refer to as a “first mention principle” which may be said to be the principle that requires one to go to that portion of the scriptures. He singles out Noah as the start of this covenant and He’s continuing to work through this one family of people. Noah and his family made themselves available to God and God always uses people who make themselves available to Him to further His plan. Before the flood comes, God reminds Noah that this is only the beginning of their relationship and he is not going to die in the waters. If the timeline is spot on, the flood happened 1,656 years after Adam was created.
God’s sovereignty is on display here. Nothing can hinder His plan. Nothing can keep Him from His plan to rescue the people He entered into relationship with. The enemies attempt to disrupt and corrupt the bloodline of Christ don’t prevail. Never forget it, God is even sovereign over weather and creation. He’s at work and all things to restore fallen humanity in relationship with Himself.
