In the Beginning: A Study in Genesis 1-14Sýnishorn

Why Did God Flood the Earth but Save Noah?

God’s call to Noah to build the Ark begins with the lengthy genealogy of Adam’s descendants until the birth of Noah. The primary theological point of the genealogy is to simply show that every generation and person descended from Adam were sinners who lived and died without exception in rather monotonous and unspectacular fashion. The genealogy opens with the first man, Adam, who was made and blessed by God who named the race “man” as Adam was made first as the head of the human race. Subsequently this genealogy, as well as the others in the Bible, are all patriarchal, meaning they trace the family line through the men in each generation.

Genesis 6 raises four of the most difficult questions in all of Genesis: What is the marriage of the sons of God and daughters of men, the meaning of 120 years, the Nephilim, and why did God choose Noah to build the Ark?

The first question is what does Genesis 6:1-2 mean by saying that the sons of God married the daughters of men? One of the most common interpretations is that the sons of God were angels who came down to marry and have sex with earthly women. Another is based on the teachings of Moses and Jesus. In Genesis 5 we are given the genealogy of the sons of God as that is the line of the covenant people and they simply married the daughters of men who were the unbelieving families in that day. Therefore, among the great sins in the days of Noah which grieved God was the prevalent intermarriage between God’s men (the sons of God) who took unbelieving wives (the daughters of men).

Genesis 6:3 raises the second question by saying that God would not allow human sin to continue and therefore He would limit their days to 120 years. Two possible explanations exist for the meaning of this verse. One, God promised to no longer allow people to live as long as they had previously (as listed in Genesis 5) and instead determined that no human being would live beyond the age of 120. Two, 1 Peter 3:20 NIV says, “…because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.” And, if Peter is referring to the 120 years, then God promised His judgment through the flood and then waited patiently for 120 years to provide people an opportunity to repent of their sin, and time for Noah to prepare for the flood and build the Ark.

The third question arises from Genesis 6:4...who were the Nephilim? In Numbers 13:33 the word “Nephilim” is again used to refer to an apparently giant race of people which have caused many to speculate that the Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6:4 somehow survived the flood. There are four possible answers regarding who the Nephilim were. One, divine beings came to the earth and impregnated human women which lead to offspring called the Nephilim. Two, divine beings came in the form of human beings in a way that is similar to how God and other divine beings appeared to Abraham in physical bodies and ate a meal together (Genesis 18-19). Three, demons possessed the physical bodies of human beings to create a people group called the Nephilim. Four, the language is considered more general in reference to an ungodly family line that is opposed to the family line of Abraham and Sarah by God supernaturally allowing the barren elderly couple to have a son that leads to the nation of Israel. In this sense, God and Satan each “fathered” a family line through natural means of human offspring.

In Genesis 6:5-8 the fourth question of why God chose Noah to build the Ark is given. The story of Noah is commonly told that in the days of Noah all the men were wicked except for Noah who was a righteous man that God saved from His judgment in the flood. The application of this telling of Noah is that there are good people and bad people, and that God loves and saves the good guys but kills the bad guys so we should be good guys so that God will love and save us. This false teaching about Noah is antithetical to the rest of Scripture which teaches that we are saved by God’s grace and not because of our good works.

Genesis 6:5-7 states the total depravity of everyone on the earth which does include Noah who was simply one of the sinfully wicked men on the earth who grieved God. Genesis 6:8 then explains the process by which God chose to save and bless Noah. It says, “But Noah found favor [grace] in the eyes of the LORD.” Noah did not begin as a righteous man, but rather he began as a sinner as bad as anyone else on the earth in his day. The only difference between Noah and the other sinners who died in the flood of judgment was that God gave grace to Noah.

Noah obeyed God’s commands and built the Ark, likely with only the help of his sons. Hebrews 11:7 says that Noah did so in holy fear as a man of faith who believed that God would bring the flood even while others continued in sin without repentance. And, upon completing the construction of the Ark, Noah placed his family on the Ark with the animals God had commanded him to and waited for God to fulfill His promise of judgment.

Question:

What does it mean for you and your family very practically to “walk with God” like Noah? Are there any next steps God is calling you to take in faith?