Seven Covenants: The Rise of Culture

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Gavin Stevens
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1 Seven Covenants: The Rise of Culture Genesis 6:1-8 - Faith Comes By Hearing - No Wednesday Bible Study I. Introduction A. Review 1. Dispensation of Innocence - Man, set in a garden paradise, is tested by a single, simple command not to eat of the fruit if the Tree of Knowledge, Good and Evil. Failing this test Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden and sent into the world to labor against a cursed earth. - God made a covenant with Adam in which He promised to send the Seed of the Woman to undo what had been done by the Fall. 2. Dispensation of Conscience B. Context - Responsibility: To master sin by heeding their conscience, which is the moral law of God written on the heart. 1. Archetypes: - Cain and Abel (and subsequently Seth) stand as symbols of the two streams of humanity: the righteous (by faith) and the wicked. 2. Two Lines - The genealogies of Genesis 4 and 5 contrast the ungodly line of Cain with the godly line of Seth. 1

2 - In each line, seventh from Adam is put forth as the epitome of that line s defining characteristic the ungodly Lamech versus the godly Enoch. J. Budziszewski We are passing through and eerie phase of history in which the things that everyone really knows are treated as unheard-of doctrines, a time in which the elements of common decency are themselves attacked as indecent. Nothing quite like this has ever happened before. Although our civilization has passed through quite a few troughs of immorality, never before has vice held the high moral ground. Our time considers it dirty-minded to treat sexual purity as a virtue; unfeeling to insist too firmly that the sick should not be encouraged to seek death; a sign of impious pride to profess humble faith in God. The moral law has become the very emblem of immorality. We call affirming it being judgmental and being intolerant, which is our way of saying that it has been judged and will not be tolerated. 1 Genesis 6:1 8 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. 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. 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. 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. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 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. II. The Sons of God A. men began to multiply 1 J. Budziszewski, What We Can t Not Know (Ignatius Press: San Francisco, 2003),

3 - Population is beginning to explode under the blessing of procreation. - Men, ha adam, probably refers not to gender but to the race as a whole. - Matthews says, Babylonian Atrahasis (ca b.c.) begins in a similar way, telling of rising human population that becomes a threat to humanity s own survival. In the Babylonian myth the noise of expanding humanity angers the god Enlil, who plots their extinction. In Genesis, however, the threat lies in the moral decline of human behavior, which elicits God s retribution. 2 B. sons of God 1. Fallen angels - This view ties the sons of God to the Nephilim of verse 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. - In this view, the heroes are the product of the unholy union of fallen angels and human women. This correlates to the pagan concept of the union of gods and humans that produced the heroes of mythology. - It is alleged that the motivation is to corrupt the seed of the woman. - Problems with this view include the obscurity of the term nephilim which is of uncertain derivation. It could mean fallen ones or could simply be a proper name. It is also unclear if the nephilim are the sons of God or are contemporaries. Furthermore, it is not clear if they are the heroes / men of renown, or if the heroes are the children of the sons of God. - It is also argued that this view contradicts what Jesus said. - Matthew 22:30. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. 2. Mythic reference - This view assumes that the author of Genesis incorporated mythic elements into the text. It must be admitted that several ancient Flood myths have remarkable parallels to Genesis. 2 K. A. Mathews, vol. 1A, Genesis 1-11:26, electronic ed., Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001),

4 - Those who hold this view point out that Sons of God is a common expression for the council of the gods in Canaanite usage (bn ʾlm). This expression and related ones, describing the assembly of the lesser deities under the chief god El, are well attested in Ugaritic texts and in Phoenician and Ammonite inscriptions. 3 - However, we cannot embrace a mythological view of Genesis. If the Canaanite pantheon is in view, then the point is that God has refuted the claims to power and authority set forth by the false gods of mythology, similar to the way this is accomplished in the creation account with God s victory over the Babylonian goddess of chaos, Tiamat. 3. Judges / Kings - Scripture uses the term to refer to judges and that is what is in view here. - Psalm 82:6 7. I said, You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes. - Some speculate that the mention of the Nephilim points to some kind of demonic possession that elevates their power and reputation. 4. Descendents of Seth - Could be taken as a genitive in which case it would mean godly sons. - The idea is that the Sethites intermingle, through marriage, with the ungodly line of the Cainites, resulting in severe moral decline. - This view is commended by the fact that this theme is repeated in the history of Israel when they take wives for themselves from among the nations and when Solomon is lead astray by all his wives. - Furthermore it fits the context of the archetypal parallel lines of Cain and Seth seen in the preceding genealogies. 5. Conclusion - Matthews says, These disparate views hold an essential tenet in common: the narrative tells how human conduct transgressed divinely established 3 Ibid.,

5 boundaries. Precisely how this occurred is the problem the expositor faces. 4 - There are four basic viable options: 1) the intermingling through marriage of the godly with the ungodly; 2) the cohabitation of fallen angels with women; 3) powerful kings or judges who act in pride for their own glory; or 4) demon possession of these powerful men. Whatever the case, it seems a refutation is put forth against pagan notions regarding the union of the divine and human to produce superhuman men of renown. III. The Wickedness of Man A. The transgression 1. The lust of the eyes (v. 2) - [They] saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves. - The language here is reminiscent of Eve when she saw the fruit and took and ate. - There is no small irony in 6:1 8, for expanding procreation has been matched by an outbreak of worldwide immorality. 5 - The blessing of God has added to the increase of sin in the world. 2. The exaltation of humanity (v. 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. - Somehow, either through intermarriage with the demonic or through oppressive power, men sought to make a name (renown) for their selves. - This correlates with the motivation given for building the tower of Babel. 4 Ibid., Ibid.,

6 - Genesis 11:4. And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. B. The Rejection of the Conscience (v. 3) 1. My Spirit shall not strive with man forever. - Expositors struggle to get the proper sense of this verse. - There are several alternatives that are reflected in the various translations. - ESV: My Spirit shall not abide in man forever. - The Message: I m not going to breathe life into men and women endlessly - Darby: My Spirit shall not always plead with Man. - One possibility, evident in this last one, is that God would not continue the experiment of the dispensation of Conscience forever. (Rom. 1:25) - This then would indicate that the 120 years is related to the coming Flood. 2. The Wickedness of the Heart. (v. 5) a. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. - This points back to the Sons of God of saw that the daughters of men were beautiful. - There is a contrast in how they saw things and how God saw things. b. every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. - Intent: imagination, purpose, thought, or form (frame). - The moral law had been completely suppressed. - Judges 17:6. In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. c. Their corruption led to violence 6

7 - Genesis 6:11. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. IV. The Judgment of God A. The Heart of God (v. 6) 1. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth. - Sorry: comforted, repented, or most often relented. - Genesis 5:29. And [Lamech] 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. 2. and He was grieved in His heart. - One writer says, Whereas antediluvian man plots evil in his heart, God s response to their imaginations is a wounded heart filled with pain. 6 B. The Wrath of God - Genesis 6:7. 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. - The progression in this small cluster of verses is arresting: The Lord saw. The Lord grieved. The Lord said. 7 III. Conclusion A. Understand the Times 1. The days of Noah - Matthew 24: But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day 6 Ibid., Ibid.,

8 that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. - We are in similar times, where vice holds the moral high ground, where everyone does what is right in his own eyes. This has even been enshrined in ethical relativism. - Consider Peter Singer; Ira B. DeCamp professor of bioethics at the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University, touted by the New Yorker as the most influential living philosopher and by former Princeton president Harold T. Shapiro, chairman of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission under former President Cinton, as the most influential ethicist alive. Singer s theory is utilitarianism. Its pet principle is that pleasure is the only thing with moral value; seeking pleasure and avoiding pain: the only thing that matters. But animals feel pleasure too, he observes. Some animals may even have a greater capacity for pleasure than some humans. A variety of consequences follow. He says cattle should not be killed for the pleasure of diners, because it hurts the cattle. He says defective babies may be killed for the pleasure of their parents, because babies don t feel much anyway, and because defective people don t contribute much pleasure to society Judgment is coming - Isaiah 5:20. Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! - Examine yourself: Are you caught up in the things of the world? Have you bought into their morality of tolerance? Do you have a hard time judging vice to be utterly sinful? - Revelation 18:4. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. B. Seek God s Grace - Genesis 6:8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 8 J. Budziszewski,

Sunday, October 28, Lesson: Genesis 6:1-10; Time of Action: Nobody knows; Place of Action: Nobody knows

Sunday, October 28, Lesson: Genesis 6:1-10; Time of Action: Nobody knows; Place of Action: Nobody knows Sunday, October 28, 2018 Lesson: Genesis 6:1-10; Time of Action: Nobody knows; Place of Action: Nobody knows Golden Text: And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination