Bible Study on: Genesis Chapter 6
by Russell J. Schmidt
The Wickedness and Judgment of Man
1) Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,
2) 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.
3) 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.”
4) 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.
5) 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.
6) And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7) 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.”
8) But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Noah Pleases God
9) This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.
10) And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11) The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12) So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
The Ark Prepared
13) 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.
14) Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.
15) And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
16) You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.
17) 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.
18) 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.
19) 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.
20) 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.
21) 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.”
22) Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
The drag and drop panel above, has the full text of Matthew chapter Two. You can use the
scroll bar to scroll down for the remainder of the text you do not see. The rest of the page
below contains the commentary associated with chapter two. As you scroll the main page down
you can drag the panel with you so you can continue to see the Scripture as you read the
commentary associated with it.
To use the drag and drop panel, just place your mouse cursor over the blue header-bar that
has the title "Matthew Chapter 2", and hold down the right click. While holding down the right click, just
drag the panel to whatever position you like. The drag and drop panel will only reset itself upon
a page refresh or a postback.
Book of Genesis, Chapter Six
The Wickedness and Judgment of Man
Verse 1-8:
Back in our study of chapter 5, we discussed the genealogy of Adam. The one thing I did not touch on was the noticeable ages of all who live during this time. For example; Adam lived one hundred and thirty years before he and Eve conceived the third recorded child, Seth. Adam went on to live a total of 930 years and then he died.
It is hard for us to fathom this long of a lifespan. I am at forty-eight years old as I write this and I am feeling the effects of my body wearing down. I can’t imagine how I would feel at eight hundred and forty-nine, with still 81 years to go before reaching Adam’s total age.
Then we have Methuselah who was the oldest recorded human in history at nine hundred and sixty-nine years old. That’s thirty-nine years older than Adam.
I’ve read some theories why people in that day lived so long, and one such theory is that life wasn’t as stressful and more healthy in regards to lifestyle. For instance, the food was all natural with no man-made by-products, disease wasn’t as common, because there was no mention of disease in the Bible during these biblical times.
But, rather than debate those issues, I will just give my interpretation of why I believe people lived so long. I believe because God started with only two people, Adam and Eve, He needed to populate the earth in the shortest time possible without interfering with His laws of creation.
If you recall back in chapter 5, many of those listed in the genealogy of Adam, had the descendants mentioned in the genealogy as wells as “other sons and daughters”, according to Scripture. We are not told how many children any of these descendants had. But, with the age of the people in that day, they may have had many, many children.
By the time we get here to chapter 6, we read in verse 1, how man was now “multiplying on the face of the earth”. It specifically mentions “daughters were born to them”. I believe that there were more daughters than sons. Why do I believe that? Well, for one, why does it specifically mention daughters? Two, women need time to recover after child birth, whereas men can impregnate multiple women at any given time; and the fact that women’s child-bearing years were shorter than man’s ability to impregnate a woman. This would result in needing more woman to produce offspring at a faster pace.
Now, this may sound immoral, but in early biblical times many of God’s chosen men had multiple wives and concubines. A concubine is a woman who lives with a man for just a sexual relationship. Many times these concubines were servants of the household and lived in separate quarters. One of the most famous biblical examples is Abraham’s relationship to his wife Sarah’ s maidservant, Hagar (Genesis 16).
There is no biblical reference to them being sexual partners other than when Sarah feared that she was not going to be able to have Abrahams promised descendant, so she told Abraham to lie with her maidservant, Hagar in hopes that she would provide him with his promised descendant.
There is no biblical reference to the sexual encounter between Abraham and Hagar as being immoral. What appeared to be immoral about this situation, was the fact that both Sarah and Abraham failed in the area of faith and believing God for the miracle of Sarah having a child well past her child-bearing years. Was the relationship immoral? Yes, but Scripture only alludes to their lack of faith as being the sin or transgression against God.
Although as time went on, God made it clear through Scripture that monogamy (one spouse) was His ultimate plan and law for man. There is no where in early Scripture where God condones multiple wives, but He also does not seem to frown upon it in early history. Again, I believe this was to allow man to populate the earth.
As we move into verse 2, we begin to see where immorality began to creep into God’s chosen peoples society. We read, “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.” Although God does not seem to frown upon multiple wives, it becomes clear in this chapter that marrying outside of their tribes or their anointed society was disturbing to God.
The result of this behavior was bringing an immorality into their godly lifestyle with foreign idol worship and worldly influence. Although at this point in history there is no formal written law as there was in the time of Moses, but it is clear that these people of God must have been aware that God did not want them to marry outside their spiritual communities or tribes. Romans 5:13 says, “sin is not taken into account when there is no law.” So, there was certainly some understanding between God and His chosen people as to what God expected of them.
In verse 3, we begin to see God’s frustration with His people, he says, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh.” This is our first indication in Scripture where man’s weakness lies; it is in his flesh, which is no surprise to us today, but was the first time we hear this directly from the creator, God.
At this point God already is shortening the lifespan of man, as we continue in verse 3, “yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” So from 900 or so years, man’s lifespan has been drastically reduced to 120 years. This still may seem unimaginable to us, but a huge difference to the people of that day. God does not give us a decisive reason for this reduction in lifespan, but it certainly alludes to the fact that man is sinful.
In verse 4 we read, “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.” The word giants here is translated from a Hebrew word, ‘Nephilim’. This Hebrew word, which is untranslatable, is used twice in Scripture; here in this verse and also in Numbers 13:33.
We get our interpretation of ‘Nephilim” as ‘giants’ based on the Scripture in Numbers 13:33, which reads following the word Nephilim, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” This is an obvious reference to the size difference between the Nephilim and the Israelites.
It is not clear if Nephilim is a name of a people or just a reference to their size. For instance Goliath was a giant of a man and was not Scripturally called a Nephilim, but could have been considered a Nephilim even though he was a Philistine.
But, the basic premise to verse 4, is that God’s people intermarried, possibly with the Nephilim. Verse 4 goes on to say, “when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.” Many scholars believe this is a reference to Seth’s descendants being the son’s of God, and Cain’s descendants being the daughters of men. They assume this because Seth was anointed by God, hence the reference to the “sons of men”, and Cain was cast out by God after he killed his brother Abel, hence the reference to “daughters of men”.
As I stated earlier, this intermarrying cause a great deal of problems for the moral condition of God’s people. By bringing in other cultures with their worldly standards and pagan religious beliefs, this corrupted the Israelites and distorted their godly understanding.
We get confirmation of this in verse 5-6, “5) 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. 6) And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” God was grieved because He knew that at this point in time there was no hope for man, if man continued to live outside God’s will for them.
It is possible that God was frustrated because He needed to fulfill His plan for redemption through man, rather than just supernaturally taking care of it Himself. This was because of the law of freedom of choice that God instituted. God was not going to force His will upon man; He needed man to choose to go in His direction. That is why we are on now on the brink of finishing 6,000 years of creation. It has taken that long for God to lead man to the point of redemption in Jesus Christ.
To date God’s chosen people have not fully recognized Jesus as their long awaited Messiah. The Jewish people, who are just one of the twelve tribes of Israel, but who are the most visible because the remaining tribes are considered lost among the worlds nations.
This tribe of Judah, whom Jesus was descended from will in time receive the revelation of their Messiah, Jesus Christ; but prophecy tells us this will not happen until the tribulation has already begun and those believers who accepted Jesus prior to the tribulation, the Christians, will have already been harvested from the earth by Jesus Himself.
As we move onto verses 7 and 8, we find that God has made up His mind to wipe out His creation and to start anew. Verse 8 mentions Noah as finding grace in God’s eyes and will be a big part of the this restoration that God has planned.
Noah Pleases God
Verse 9 –12
Here again in verse 9, we come across the term “walking with God” , because it tells us that Noah walked with God. As I said in the previous chapter, when one is said to walk with God, it is not referring to one going to Church on Sunday and maybe reading the Bible two or three nights a week.
When one is said to be walking with God, that person is consumed with God, that person is so in-tuned with God that he actually hears God talking with him. God is always talking, but are we listening? God speaks through His word, the Bible, He speaks through our environment around us, He speaks through other people. The problem comes in when we are so caught up in our everyday lives, our careers, our families, getting the kids to there extra-curricular activities, paying bills, doing the grocery shopping, that we create such a noise level around us that we cannot and do not hear God.
Scripture tells us that God speaks in a still small voice. In order to hear His voice we must pay close and careful attention. I believe God purposely presents Himself this way to us to assure our undivided attention. Our undivided attention will be the only way to hear God in our lives.
Don’t get me wrong those things in our everyday lives are all important, but we must prioritize, and make room for God, and listen closely to God. Moses did, Noah did, then so can we make time for God, and quiet ourselves before God. It shouldn’t even be a matter of, if I can or not. It is an absolute necessity! Noah understood that necessity. We don’t read anything about Noah before this account, only that he walked with God, and that he was a just man and perfect in all his generations.
Now that’s a man of God! Noah, who was surrounded by a wildly immoral society, that even God could not stomach anymore; yet, through it all Noah stayed close to God and was ready and willing to do as God asked of him.
The Ark Prepared
Verse 13 –22:
As we begin verse 13, God speaks to Noah. Somehow I get the feeling that Noah was used to hearing from God. He trusted God; God needed to build trust with Noah base on what he is about to ask him to do. After telling Noah how disgusted He is with mankind, verse 14 starts out with God telling Noah to build an ark.
Now, here is another situation where we do not get the full context of what is transpiring here with the circumstances that Noah is dealing with. When you read this story from the Bible it just sounds so matter-of-fact. But, if you try to put yourself into Noah’s shoes, you can begin to see this incredible task that God was asking of Noah and how he was going to explain this to his wife, let alone his three sons.
The Scriptures do not tell us, but we assume that Noah was the only one God was speaking to. Now Noah had to go home and tell his wife that God asked him to build an ark. Could you imagine his wife’s response to that one?
Now, we do not know in what territory this took place, we do know that Scripture tells us that the ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat. There is some question as to whether this is referring to the Mount Ararat region that we know of today, which are located in the northeast corner of Turkey. Most theologians agree that this is the area that is referred to here in Scripture.
There is a very good possibility that Noah was no where near a body of water large enough to need a boat the size that God wanted him to build it. Another point to consider if you were to try and place yourself in his shoes. Not only did he have to convince his wife he needed to build a boat, but he also had to tell her about the size of this plan boat and what he was going to put in it.
One of the first questions that one would ask Noah is, how are you going to get that boat to water? Now, try to be Noah and explain to your neighbors, assuming he convinced his wife, that I don’t have to get it to water, the rain is going to flood the earth. Ri…..ght! Boy, the neighbors must have had fun with him. And it took Noah and his sons 100 years to build this monstrosity.
As we continue reading, we learn in verse 14 that God instructed him to make the ark of gopherwood, some translations translate it cypresswood. The actual translation of the original Hebrew word is not known, and if these translations are correct, we don’t know what kind of wood they are.
From verse 14 through 16, we get the full dimensions of the ark, and in verse 17 God explains to Noah that He is going to send rains upon the earth to flood it and wipe out all that has the breath of life in it. This would go for animals as well as mankind.
In verse 18 God makes a covenant with Noah to save him, his wife , and sons, and his sons wives. That must have made Noah breath a sigh of relief, but God is not done. With verse 19, Noah’s jaw must have dropped to the ground, when God sprung on him that he will also have to take two of every kind of living thing. Not only does he have to get all these creatures onto the ark, he also has to round enough food for his family as well as all the living creatures.
If that doesn’t sound like a daunting task, I don’t what does. Yet, we end chapter 6 with Noah being obedient to God in spite of all the criticism that he must have been going through. Verse 22, ends with this, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.”
This concludes our study of chapter six.
To go to our main Bible study content page, click here!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------