INTRODUCTION
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21) I remember several years ago as I started and ran my own business for awhile, the plan God laid out for me. It was clear in my mind from the very beginning. I was to work it part-time and then on a certain date make it full-time. I do not know why God had chosen that particular date, He just had. I know that as that day approached I began to question if God knew what He was doing. The business was moving along fairly well. There were several deals on the table that were about to close that would make me substantial money. However, the day arrived and all the deals were still pending. So, I did not go full-time with the business. That day the telephones fell silent. That day the deals began to unravel. That day hundreds of thousands of dollars began to slip from my fingers. It was “A Good Plan Gone Awry”
BODY
It is not much different in the text we will look at today. There are possibly no other passages more challenging in all of the Old Testament than the one we are about to read. Riddled with mythical ideas and seemingly pagan influence it is one of the most highly misunderstood and controversial texts of the Bible. Genesis 6:1-4 serves several purposes. It serves as an epilogue to the preceding genealogies of the lines of Seth and of Cain. It proves to be an introduction to the narrative of Noah. It, also, has a great deal to say on its own. (Read Genesis 6:1-4)
I believe that the author has some very critical points to make in these few short verses. The first phrase of verse 1 summarizes what the genealogies that precede it illustrate. Man had begun to multiply and to fill the earth. Notice this is the “Fulfilling of God’s Command.” It was the plan established by God. In Genesis 1:28, we read that after God created man (male and female), “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.” This innocuous statement in Genesis 6, then shows that man was in fact doing what God had commanded. He had commanded them to procreate.
The intention this morning is not to delve into the different aspects of sex and sexuality. The issues surrounding sex and sexuality are certainly inherent to the command to be fruitful and multiply. What Moses shows us is man was fulfilling the overriding intent of the command: multiply and fill the earth. God provided in creation that His creatures procreate. They were made to do so “each according to its kind.” It is in this phrase that the problem lies. Man was procreating, creation was reproducing. The verse hints at what is going on. Daughters were being born.
This leads to the next stage that we should see. Even though the command was being fulfilled, it was not according to the plan of God. Man had gone awry of the plan of God. Verse 2 says, “the sons of God saw the daughters of men were beautiful and they married from any of them they chose.” Here is where the interpretive “fun” begins. Scholars have for centuries debated who are “the sons of God” and “the daughters of men.” Interesting in this debate is the fact that Moses does not go into detail as to who the sons of God and the daughters of men were. We must assume that his readers knew exactly to whom who he was referring. Let me briefly give you a few of the views scholars have taken.
The first is the most ancient in any of the existing materials. It is believed that the sons of God are angelic or heavenly beings. These heavenly beings or angels have forsaken their heavenly abode to marry these mortal, beautiful women. If this is true what you have is a mixture of the divine intermarrying with human. In effect, you have the instruments of creation co-mingling with the created. It is a mixture of oil and water. While you can put the two together, they do not mix. Once you do try to mix them, they produce something different from either of them. It is not a natural union. It is an unnatural one.
Early Christians rejected this idea because it had a pagan feeling. Many of the polytheistic religions had stories of the gods coming down from their abodes and taking mortal women or men. You would only have to look as far as classical mythology. Zeus seduces Io Greek mythology. Helen of Troy was supposedly the daughter of the mortal Leda and Zeus. In fact, there are at least nine instances of Zeus and mortal women.
The second perspective deals with the genealogies that proceed these verses. The sons of God are representative of the godly lineage of Seth while the daughters of men represent the unholy line of Cain. When God punished Cain, in effect, He separated Cain and his descendents from the line of Seth. The separation would secure the godly line of Seth by not introducing the ungodliness of Cain’s blood. However, if these godly men were to marry the daughter of Cain, then the bloodline of Seth would be contaminated by the sins of Cain. Here again, you see would be an unholy alliance. The co-mingling of that which is considered holy to that which is not.
The third view is also the latest view to develop. Rabbinical literature in the mid- to late- 2nd century began to argue that the use of the term “sons of God” should actually be interpreted to be “son of rulers (or judges).” In this instance, you would have the separation of the upper or noble ruling class, the sons of god, with the commoners, the daughters of men. They based this on the influence of pagan religions that often times would declare their nobles or lords to be gods. For example, any Caesar of Rome was considered to be a divine person. Pharaohs were hailed as the sons of the gods and as gods. There are rulers of many different countries and realms throughout history who have held divine stature among their followers. So, the title “sons of god’ could very aptly be used to refer to rulers or lords.
The key is not the differences in these interpretations, but the similarity in these interpretations. In all three of these perspectives there is a clear crossing of the established boundaries. The divine with mortal, the righteous with the unrighteous, or the ruling class and the servant class. In any of these situations, they are clearly going against the norm set up by God. This is where the plan of God is taken awry by His creations. They seek to set their own boundaries and thereby weaken the bloodline. It is an unequally yoked marriage.
It is no different than the way many Christians and churches have done things in the past. Consider the Crusades. The command of Christ was to “make disciples” in Matthew 28:20. The Crusaders took the good plan of taking the good news and did it their own way. Because of the deadly force used in the Crusades, the gospel of Jesus Christ suffered. It was God’s plan gone awry.
Need more evidence. Look at America today. We have a very strongly defined sense of independence. We have a very strong determination to live in liberty and freedom. We take the plan God has ordained and seek to accomplish it under own terms. Matthew 7:1 reads, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” So, we take this command and apply it most liberally. We do not judge others, we do not judge sin, we simply tolerate everything. God’s plan was that we should not determine salvation from sin, but we cross the line of divinity and humanity and reinterpret it to not point out sin, lest we be guilty of judging. In order to not judge, we have become tolerant in regards to and feeble in confronting sin. C. S. Lewis wrote “Certain things, if not seen as lovely or detestable, are not being correctly seen at all.” This is certainly true as we no longer see our sins as detestable to God. Or at the least, not as detestable as the other guy’s sin.
Sin is sin. It is something that we do well to avoid in our spiritual walk. Rather than doing away with sin, as God gives us opportunity to do, we revel in it. It erodes us spiritually. C. Neil Strait said “Sin does not serve well as a gardener of the soul. It landscapes the contour of the soul until all that is beautiful has been made ugly; until all that is high has been made low; until all that is promising is wasted. Then life is like the desert – parched and barren. It is drained of purpose. It is bleached of happiness. Sin, then, is not wise, but wasteful. It is not a gate, but only a grave.”
This leads to the next stage of the punishment for straying from the plan of God. Verse 3 records the response of God to this situation. God says His Spirit will not contend with man forever and gives 120 years as a reprieve. It is this verse that seems to suggest a tie to the Noahic narrative. We have assumed that this is the pronouncement of 120 years before the flood. There seems to be a dual purpose in God allowing such a time of reprieve. The first of course would be to give Noah time to build the ark. It would take more than a few days to build.
The second and often overlooked possibility is that it was 120 years for man to repent. It was a time of God’s generous grace, the continued opportunity to return to Him. We have yet to comprehend the true majesty and extent of God’s grace. Here in the text we see that even while man was at his most vile and degenerate point, God was gracious in withholding judgment. He had been gracious up to then and then there was more grace.
C. H. Spurgeon used to illustrate the graciousness of God always comes with the prospect of more to follow. He said: “When God forgives our sins, there’s more forgiveness to follow. He justifies us in the righteousness of Christ, but there’s more to follow. He adopts us into His family, but there’s more to follow. He prepares us for heaven, but there’s more to follow. He gives us grace, but there’s more to follow. He helps us to old age, but there’s still more to follow.” Spurgeon concluded, “Even when we arrive in the world to come, there will still be more to follow.” Such is the grace of our God. Even while we are the most corrupt and wicked we can be, He extends His grace to us that we might come back to Him.
While God’s grace is generous, His judgment is still coming. He gives 120 years, but only 120. Then He exercises His judgment, His wrath, upon the ungodliness of the world. That story is not where we are going today, however. Remember, time is only a reprieve for man to repent and return to God. It was then and it is now!
The fourth stage Moses presents for us is the consequence of breaking the command of God. Verse 4 says, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward- when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” Again we have some very hotly debated ideas in this verse. Who are the Nephilim? Are the same Nephilim that show up in Numbers 13 in Canaan? Are they the children of the sons of God and the daughters of men? Are they the heroes of old, the men of renown? Let me briefly address the issue as I see it. Very likely some of you will disagree. There are as many problems with my view as there are with your view. Here it is anyway: Nephilim is not exactly a title, but more a descriptive word. It is believed by most scholars to be derived from the Hebrew word meaning “to fall.” This word also means “to fall upon” as in attack or assault. Probably what we have here are men whose fierce reputation has led them make a name for themselves, they have become “the men of renown,” the so-called “heroes of old.” They are intimidating and abusive and ferocious. The prey upon everyone and everything. They are so tenacious and fierce that when you encounter them your countenance will surely fall. It could be they did have a physical stature that surpassed all others. It could be that they were the half-breed children of divine-human blood.
The critical issue regarding them is their reputation as heroes of old and men of renown show they were making or had made a name for themselves. This would be an insult to the Creator who made them. It is the same motivation that brought trouble when the Tower at Babel was being built. The reason they were building it was to “make a name” for themselves. (Gen. 11:4) Remember the promise that would later come to Abraham? God tells him in Genesis 12:2, “I will make your name great.”
You see the plan of God gone awry by man’s own volition brought about the consequence of continued ungodly degeneration. The presence of sin created an atmosphere of more sin. The problem is that sin deceives, then defiles, then deadens. I think most people grieve over their sins. They commit a sin and then pray to God sometime thereafter. The problem is that grieving over sin is not the same as repenting of it. When we do not repent of sin then we continue in it. This was the consequence of Genesis 6. There was no repentance. There was not even grieving. C. S. Lewis gives a good example of how continuing in sin looks. In his book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a character comes across a treasure kept by a dragon. Rather than avoid the layer of the dragon, the character sleeps on the treasure and dreams of what he will do with it. Then Lewis writes this, “He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep. Sleeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart he had become a dragon himself.” The longer we refrain from truly repenting of our sins, the more dragonish we become. This is how it appears man had become in those days. So, it appears we have become in our day.
CONCLUSION
The story that Moses included between the genealogies of Seth and Cain and the account of Noah is a very important one. It is not because of the controversy or debate regarding every word or phrase, but for its revelation that sin had so corrupted the world that even God’s grace came to an end. Or so it appeared. Even in the midst of God grieving that He created man, He still provided a way of escape. For if we read on we find that “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Time ran out for everyone else. Only the one righteous family was saved.
The story Moses gives us a look into the potency of continued sin. It gives us insight into the corruptive nature that sin has on what is intended for godliness. It reveals that there is grace even in ungodly times. It shows us the truth of the path leading to destruction. It reveals that the unrighteous can try to fulfill God plan according to their own wishes. A righteous life is one that is obedient to God’s plan in accordance with God’s will. We must obey God’s plan by obeying His commands
INVITATION
We live in a day and age where the good plan of God has been taken awry by the wickedness of man. We must seek to obey God’s commands on the terms God sets, not on our own. There are many who seek to come to God on their own terms. There is however, only one good plan
God has set for men to come to Him. It is through grace by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You must accept Him by faith for there are no works or deeds that are good enough. Works are taking God’s good plan of salvation awry. It is taking His plan on your own terms. That way may seem right, but it leads to death. If you have never come to God on His terms, in just a moment when we stand and sing, I want you to step into the aisle and walk down to the front. There will be someone here to meet you who is eager to explain in further detail how you come to God on God’s terms.
There are many of us who have come to God on those terms. But now we do not take the plan of God as God planned it. We see something that God seeks us to do, but we do it our way instead of His. We do not wait for God to do it. We try to “hurry God along” or to “help God.” My friends, that is taking God’s good plan awry. He is calling you to repent of it today. We will leave the altar open for you as you lay it there for Him to take. You come as well as we stand and as we sing.
