Noah, the flood, the sons of God and why God destroyed the earth

Did you watch the highly inaccurate rendering of Noah by Hollywood recently? It’s certainly a case of fiction being stranger than fact. At least, with the rock fallen angels and all, I can’t say it’s not unimaginative. I just hope there aren’t people who came out of the cinema thinking, “Gosh! Christians really believe in all those rock monster?” And if there are those out there reading this blog now and think that Christians do, plea…zzeee! Get a bible and read Genesis chapter 6 for most of the story.

Although I can see the significance of demons or monsters in the Noah story they are certainly not rock monsters.  I thought I’d go into the story of Noah today.

I know you’re probably saying, “Wait, Noah is related to things watery—ala flood style? What do demons have to do with Noah and the story of the flood?”

In one word, everything. It’s the very reason for the flood. And I’ll bring supporting scriptures (sola scriptura) to show you this, too-if not in this blog, then next week.

Let’s plunge into Genesis 6 where the story takes off:

Before the story of the flood began this verse below preempted the event:

Genesis 6: 1

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.

Many dispute as to who these “sons of God” were. “Daughters of men” are easy enough—women…as we are today.

But sons of “Elohim”, “Bene-ha Elohim” as the Hebrew states, or, as in the Greek Septuagint of the Old Testament, “angelos.”

Let’s take a look at other usages of the term “sons of God “in the Bible. It’s best to take Scripture to interpret Scripture. What is the evidence to justify that “sons of God” really refer to fallen angels? (By the way, the word, Napha” in Nephiliim means “the fallen.” And there are archaeological findings of giant remains.)

The first incidence was when Adam was called a son of God—in that Adam was created directly by God.

In Adam’s genealogy in Luke 1:

37the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, 38the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God

Everyone has a forefather that “beget” them, so to speak, but not so for Adam. In this respect, we –walking around today—are not technically, in a physical sense, a son of God, even if we are believers, the way Adam was, since we were born of humans, and Adam was not—he was created directly by God.

Angels too were created directly by God. In Job 1 the use of the term clearly refers to angels and there’s no dispute on this.

Job 1: ⁶ Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

In Job 38, the sons of God refers to angels since they were the ones present when God created the universe:

Verse 6-7

To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
⁷ When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

If you’ve been keeping current with some of the secular fiction, especially for teens, oddly enough, there has been a fascination with Nephilim. These are portrayed in these fiction as the offspring angels uniting with women but the outcome in these stories is always, anti-biblical. These characters are always portrayed as heroes and seen as “positive” individuals.

Not so in the Bible. Any references to Nephilim, or sons of Anak, as sometimes they were called, always spoke of giants who were evil, of which Goliath of Gath was one. (Goliath had four brothers -- the prophet Samuel recorded: "These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants." (2 Samuel 21:22). And we know of at least one of Goliath’s brother’s name-- (1 Chronicles 20:5) And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver's beam.

A study of the mention of giants in the Old Testament will bring out a few references. Here’s one:

^{2 Samuel  21: 15} When the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David and his servants with him went down and fought against the Philistines; and David grew faint.¹⁶Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose bronze spear was three hundred shekels, who was bearing a new sword, thought he could kill David.

It seemed that giants abounded during the time of David and even before his era. (Moses and Joshua mentioned them, too.) Even secular history shows that primitive societies have drawings and depictions of the existence of giants. And ancient myths abound with stories of giants.

Who were these giants? Where did they come from? Are they with us today? And a a Chrsitian you are well aware that angels--fallen or otherwise--and their offspring cannot receive the Gospel and salvation. Salvation is meant for mankind alone.

Also, more importantly, did God really have the flood destroy the earth because of Nephilim? Perhaps if we could understand more about Nephilim we could see better why the flood came, and be more aware of the days to come and its significance to us living int his day and age.

After all, the Bible says in Luke 17:

 26"And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.…

And again, in Matthew 24:

36"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37"For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38"For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,…

We will look at more evidence next week and conclude (perhaps) this short study on the flood, the days of Noah and the fallen angels who beget children of women, and how it might affect us today, next week. until we meet again, my friends, the Lord of Shalom (peace) be with you and guard you.