Bible Studies In The Word of God

GENESIS 6

 

Verses 1, 2. Sons of God. See com­ments at 4:25, 26. From all consider­ations at hand the conclusion is that these sons of God are the descendants of Seth while the daughters of men are the descendants of Cain. It was not the Lord’s wish that the two classes of people should intermarry. But then, as well as now, the will of God is not always carried out by human beings. This seems to be specially true when the animal nature of the man is being entertained. So here they made wives of women who met their choice instead of the ones who met the favor of God. And when God's people marry those who are not God's people there is sure to be trouble. That is a statement of rule that has been and always will be true.

 

Verse 3. Strive. This is from DUWN and defined thus, “To rule; by impli­cation to judge (as umpire); also to strive (as at law).’’—Strong. The verse here means that God will not keep up his pleading with them indefi­nitely. He will, however, continue this for a period of 120 years. And this period of grace was the time when God was still endeavoring to bring the peo­ple to repentance through the preach­ing of Noah. It is mentioned in 1 Peter 3:18-20 and 2 Peter 2:6. God and Christ directed the Holy Spirit to in­spire Noah in those days so that he could preach to the people. In this way God was striving or pleading with them to repent. But this period of probation was to last only 120 years.

 

Verse 4. Giants. This is from NEPHIL and defined thus. “Properly a feller, i. e., a bully or tyrant.” — Strong.  Renown. This Is from shem and the same authority defines it as follows; “Shame; a primitive word — perhaps from 7760 through the idea of definite and conspicuous position; compare 8064—; an appelatlon as a mark or memorial of individuality."' With these critical explanations the verse is very clear. The offspring of these men with the women of strong personal physical character, since It says they were fair, would naturally be more athletic than otherwise. So these men were not giants In the sense of stature, but, as the definition gives, they were strong physically and also, el nee they where the offspring of parents who were more carnal than spiritual, they became tyranical and of the nature of a bully. And all this explodes the speculative theory advanced by some that the “sons of God” above meant angels from heaven. In the first place, Jesus says of such persons that they do not marry (Mark 12:25), and thus would not cohabit with human females. And if they did, their offspring would not be like the ones described in the present passage.

Verse 5. If men had given themselves over to their carnal lusts In the selection of wives It might be expected that their general life would be one of like character.

Verses 6, 7. Repented the Lord. The universal meaning of repentance is change. The scriptures clearly teach that God does not repent as man repents, yet he repents. Hence we must look for the explanation in some definition that is true of both, at least in some sense. Well, we have that common definition in the word change. Whether it is the case of God or of a man that repentance takes place, we must expect to find that a change has taken place. Hence, the definition that is true of man is that when he repents he changes his will. When God repents he wills a change. Now in the present instance, when it repented God that he had made man on the earth. It means that he willed a change In conditions. Hence he Is going to remove man from the earth and in that way would bring about the change which is the fundamental meaning of repentance.

Verse 8. We are not told anything about the personal character of the sons and families of Noah. It simply says that Noah found grace or favor with God. Now we know this was under the Patriarchal Dispensation when the father or chief father as the word patriarch means, counted for the rest of the family. And thus we always see the name of Noah as outstanding in this Instance. On this thought the reader ta requested to read 2 Peter 2:5. Here the A.V. says "Noah the eighth" while Roblnson’s Greek Lexicon renders It “Noah and seven others.” At any rate, the outstanding idea Is that Noah was the one whose signal righteousness brought favor from God for the family.

Verse 9. Generations. This is the same word as explained at v: 1, which see. Walked. This is from HALAK and defined thus. “A primitive root; to walk (In a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)" — Strong. As an indication of the general meaning of the word I shall here set down a number of the words used to translate It in the A.V. Behave, be conversant, follow, move, and many others. The meaning is that Noah’s life was pleasing to God.

Verse 10. As to the relative ages of these sons see explanation at the end of chap. 5.

Verses 11-13. Earth. As the earth literally would not be thought of as corrupt morally we should seek for some other use of the word as used In this paragraph. The word is from esbts and Strong defines it as follows. “From on unused root probably meaning to be firm; the earth (at large, or partitlvely [in part) a land)." The word has been rendered by country, field, land, nations, world. From this it would appear to be used as referring to life on the earth and especially that part of life dominated by the human beings. Flesh. This is from basab and one of the “Words used By Strong to define it is a word that means "modesty.’’ So, with these critical data the meaning of the whole paragraph Is that man had become so Immodest and immoral that his entire influence was toward the vile. This would naturally result In an abused use of everything which God had created and placed in the hands of man. And this presented a general picture of violence and perversion of the original will of God. And in deciding to clear the earth of these wicked human beings It was Just as well to remove the other living creatures alBO since their widespread existence would not serve any good purposes. Hence God’s decree to wipe it all from the face of the earth except that which was entitled to live and whatever would also be needed for the use of those persons entitled to live.

Verse 14, Gopher. This is the only place In the Bible this word is used. Strong says It Is apparently the cy-press. Rooms. From qen and defined “a nest (as fixed), sometimes Includ¬ing the nestlings; figuratively a chamber or dwelling.”—Strong. This word is rendered “nest” In following places: Num. 24:21; Deut. 22:6; Job 29:15. Pitch. This is from KOPHER and defined by Strong "properly a cover, i. e, (literally) a village (as covered in); specifically, bitumen (as used for coating)The nature of this substance Is to prevent water or other liquids from going through. The quibble might be made that since God is all-powerful he could have kept the water from saturating the walls of the ark without any such natural means. That is true. But this Is just another instance of the many where we see that God uses the cooperation of man in carrying out his great plans. Christ could have healed the blind man with¬out the use of clay and the elders with spiritual gifts might have healed the sick without oil. Likewise, the prophet could have fed the widow without the use of her small supply of meal and oil.    But it is the will of God to require man to do something for his own good.

Verse 15. Cubit. This word is used several times in the scriptures and seems to be somewhat indefinite except that it is known to be a unit of measure. Most tables describe it as being the length of the forearm below the elbow. From this the general amount of the cubit as used in the Bible is 18 inches.  (The Egyptian cubit however, is closer to 21 inches)

Verse 16. Window. This word at this place Is from TSOHAR and defined by Strong “a light (1. e., window); dual double light, i. e., noon.” But in 8:6, where the same window is meant, the word is CHALLOWN and defined “a window (as perforated)." Next let us examine above. This is from MAHAL and Strong gives us “properly the upper part, used only adverbially with prefix upward, above, overhead, from the top, etc.” Now then with this information concerning the leading words in this verse we can conclude the meaning of the verse as a whole. Since a cubit is about 18 Inches it would be unreasonable to think that the verse means to tell us the size of this window. While God could cause enough light to go through a pin puncture to serve all needs if he wished, yet it is not In keeping with his rule of propriety to do so. But since the outstanding thought of the original word for "above” is upward, from the top, etc., it now seems plain that the verse means that the window was so arranged that It was elevated above the common level of the roof of the ark to the distance of a cubit. Then, since one part of the definition of the word for "window” is that it was something perforated, and since that was the day before transparent glass, the conclusion Is that the sides of this “window” were perforated to admit light and ventilation. The length and breadth of this window are not being considered here by the writer. The word stories is not in the original, but the words lower, second and third are. And since the ark Is the princi­pal subject of the verse we should con­clude tbat the word stories is neces­sarily implied. This will also corres­pond with the three classes of living creatures to occupy the ark, which are man. clean and unclean animals.

 

Verses 17-19. Attention is invited in this paragraph to the designation of the things that were to be destroyed to he “wherein is the breath of life.” But more will be said on this matter at 7:22.

 

Verse 20. As far as this verse goes the word “two" applies to the sex pair, male and female. Additional thoughts on it will be given in chap­ter 7.

 

Verses 21, 22. Note the prescription that it was the food "that is eaten" that was to be taken in. This implies that some things that could be eaten might not have been so used. This will specially apply to the matter of animal flesh.