“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.” (v1,2)
There has been much discussion as to who these ‘sons of God’ and ‘daughters of men’ were. Obviously, it caused a problem as God was not pleased (v3,4). It was clearly intermarriage which was not acceptable to God. Early translators thought the ‘sons’ were rebellious (satanic) angelic creatures. I’m not going to venture an opinion save to say that it led to problems. Many believe that it was Satan who tried to pollute the human race and corrupt the seed of the woman.
God’s response to this is contained in verses 3,4 “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.”
God was not prepared to allow the human race to remain in rebellion and He would not always strive with man, so He reduced their life span to 120 years which seems to coincide with the number of years in which Noah was building the ark. The majority of humans would not live after Noah entered the ark as only Noah and his family, eight persons were saved.
Strange phenomena had taken place from these marriages referred to in v1,2 as giants and mighty men were born and they gave birth to similar offspring.
The next words of the LORD God make very sad reading – “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.” (v5-8)
Sin had passed on all and it was getting worse. In the context of these verses this degeneration must also be connected to those Godless marriages. What an indictment – ‘every intent of man’s thoughts were continually evil.’ The LORD was sorry and grieved that He had made man. Seems a strange statement about God. There is no question that God had made a mistake, He knew exactly what would happen, it was all planned, but it shows God’s sadness and His feelings for wayward mankind. Jesus said that He wept over Jerusalem who would not come to Him. (Matthew 23:37)
Enter Noah, despite the degeneration of the human race, there was one who was different, ‘Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.’ The days of Noah are likened to the days before the second coming of The Lord Jesus – Matthew 24:37, Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” In this chapter verses 1-11 describe the conditions that will exist before The Lord returns.
God’s plan unfolds and He instructed Noah to build an ark (v9-10). Just like Enoch, Noah walked with God, and he was a just man and perfect in his generation. This doesn’t mean he was sinless or perfect, but God considered him as a righteous man. He had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.
“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. 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.” (v11-13)
The LORD God told Noah that He would judge the earth and mankind because of their wickedness. Noah was privileged to have God speaking to him and Noah was given a monumental task to do. He was told to build an ark (v14-16). One wonders if he had seen anything like this before, and maybe he had no idea what it would be like. However, God gave him the instructions, the measurements, and dimensions. This was, indeed, a large project. Nothing so big had ever been done or seen before. He was told what materials to use – gopher wood and pitch to line it and make it waterproof as it was going to have to withstand the sea. So far as I know, Noah hadn’t seen rain, no doubt he had seen rivers as four flowed out of the Garden of Eden, and maybe he had seen the sea. He had to make rooms in the ark and three floors and decks. The length was three hundred cubits, width fifty cubits and height thirty cubits. This would be about 150 meters long, 25 metres wide and 15 metres high. It was to have a window and he was told exactly where to put it and a door in the side of the ark. I believe it was about the size of the Titanic, but one thing is certain, unlike the Titanic, it didn’t sink!
This was huge! It was not until 1858 that a bigger boat was built. Notice that God had not told Noah why he was to build it. All he had been told was that God was to judge the earth and mankind. However, in verses 17-21 God proceeds to tell Noah why – “And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.” This was catastrophic! God’s amazing creation to be destroyed. This indicates four things to me – the gross wickedness on the earth and just how much it grieved God, but also the grace of God and His absolute power to do something about it. God, in creation, showed His power, but it is also displayed in the way He did something about it and could destroy it and even recreate it.
God went on to promise Noah of His faithfulness and even made a covenant with him to keep him and his family safe. Noah was chosen as a righteous man before God. We are not told that all his family were righteous, in fact after the flood two of his sons were anything but righteous, but God preserved them because of the righteousness of their father. “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.”
Noah was told that everything was going to die, and he was to preserve life by taking two of every animal and bird, note that it was a male and a female to keep them alive. Two males or two females wouldn’t have kept them alive. Also, he had to take their food with them. What a responsibility was placed on Noah, it must have filled him with some trepidation that God was going to destroy creation because of sin and use him to bring about a type of salvation.
Despite this huge responsibility, verse 22 simply says that Noah, “…. did according to all that God commanded him.”
He obeyed to the letter and in 2 Peter 2:1-6 we have a summary of the situation back in Genesis – “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;”
There we have a summary of the preceding times and also note that Noah is described a preacher of righteousness, and in Hebrews 11:7 “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.”
Noah was building the ark and preaching as he did so for 120 years. No doubt he was ridiculed for what he was doing but he was not deterred for he was obeying God whom he served. I’m sure that many of us receive ridicule for our beliefs, would we have carried on for so long regardless? We need Noah’s faith and trust to carry on, for it is God we’re serving just as he was. He persevered despite it all and was honoured by God in what we call, the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. It seemed that no-one believed Noah during all that time.
Down through history there have been mentions of Noah’s ark. Stories of a great flood are common to most parts of the world. Amongst them the historian Josephus around 75AD said that all historians knew of Noah’s ark. Theophilus of Antioch 180 AD said that the remains of the ark can be seen in the mountains. In 1876 Viscount James Bryce said he found a foot piece of hand-tooled timber at 13,000 feet up Mount Ararat. Similarly, 1936, Hardwick Knight a British archaeologist found a hand-tooled timbers on Ararat at 14,000 feet. Interestingly, John D Rockefeller found oil in the Middle East on the basis of pitch (a petroleum product) being available to Noah.
