GENESIS, CHAPTER SIX

A.Four entire Chapters (6-9) are now devoted to The Flood; so it must be important for us to study!

B.Also it is referred to many times by other Bible writers.

C.Satan has always tried to discount The Flood.

  1. If we insist on believing there was a Flood, then he wants to minimize the size of it -- reduce it to a local storm.
  2. Wants it just to have injured a few people, not destroyed all the ungodly population of the entire earth.
  3. Wants it thus to appear as just a small disaster.

D.We need to get some grasp of the vastness of it, with its awfulness, and draw the lessons God intended us to learn.

6:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN MEN BEGAN TO MULTIPLY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, AND DAUGHTERS WERE BORN UNTO THEM,

6:2 THAT THE SONS OF GOD SAW THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN THAT THEY [WERE] FAIR; AND THEY TOOK THEM WIVES OF ALL WHICH THEY CHOSE.

A.MEN BEGAN TO MULTIPLY: We are so far removed that we may not realize how many people there were. This is 1600-plus years from creation. If everyone lived several hundred years on a clean earth, ordinary birth and death rates would indicate a population now of one to two billion. Actually, this is not startling -- compare Israel going into Egypt with a popula-tion count of 70, and coming out 400 years later with 600,000 able-bodied men (so the total count, including women and children must have been well over a million).

B.THE SONS OF GOD: People who were in fellowship with Him, who were obedient, whose hearts were set to serve Him; This would suggest they were the descendants of Seth.

C.THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN: The opposite kind of people from the above; So it is suggested they were the descendants of Cain.

D.Some see here marriages of angels and human beings; But they are not the same KIND, and God decreed that everything pro-duce after its KIND - Chapter One. Also, angels are not given in marriage, they do not procreate - Mt 22:30.

E.OF ALL WHICH THEY CHOSE: The BEGINNING of problem marriages.

  1. It sounds as though their thinking was, "These girls are pretty (FAIR is BEAUTIFUL in NKJ), so marry them."
  2. That is not a good basis for successful marriage; J. D. Tant said, "If you marry a child of the devil, you will have trouble with your father-in-law."
  3. So, young people: Make up your mind NOW, and stay with it.

6:3 AND THE LORD SAID, MY SPIRIT SHALL NOT ALWAYS STRIVE WITH MAN, FOR THAT HE ALSO [IS] FLESH: YET HIS DAYS SHALL BE AN HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS.

A.One view: "God was going to give humanity the space of 120 years to repent, while Noah built the ark and preached to them." There seems to be a problem with this view in that figures indicate that it took less than 100 years to build the ark - See Gen 5:32; 6:18; 7:6-7.

B.Another view: "God was now decreasing the average life-span from several hundred years to 120 years." There seems to be a problem with this view in that Psa 90:10 sounds like it is God's recognition that the average life-span is 70-80 years, and we know that very few live beyond 100, much less 120.

C.So, what does this Verse teach? Compare Deu 29:29.

6:4 THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH IN THOSE DAYS; AND ALSO AFTER THAT, WHEN THE SONS OF GOD CAME IN UNTO THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN, AND THEY BARE [CHILDREN] TO THEM, THE SAME [BECAME] MIGHTY MEN WHICH [WERE] OF OLD, MEN OF RENOWN.

A.GIANTS: Heb. NEPHILIM, literally, those who have backslidden, who have fallen away from God. The only other occurrence of the word is Num 13:33, where the sons of Anak in Canaan were viewed by the Israelite spies as being so large that the Israelites were just "grasshoppers" before them.

B.MIGHTY MEN: Rough, sinful, coarse; Apparently large (compare today's "Macho Man").

C.SONS OF GOD...DAUGHTERS OF MEN: See Verse 2. The definitions are not revealed to us. "SON" is often used to indicate mem-bership in a class, and also to indicate some characteristic of the person being described. A suggestion: SONS OF GOD were descendants of Seth (the spiritual segment of humanity at the time), and DAUGHTERS OF MEN were descendants of Cain (the worldly segment of humanity at the time). Whatever the meaning of these terms, it seems the unholy unions produced bad offspring who brought about the ungodliness of Verse 5.

6:5 AND GOD SAW THAT THE WICKEDNESS OF MAN [WAS] GREAT IN THE EARTH, AND [THAT] EVERY IMAGINATION OF THE THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART [WAS] ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY.

A.This is a detailed description of the evil of the time; It was so bad that it required the wiping out of the millions (billions?) of the earth.

B.EVERY IMAGINATION (INTENT, NKJ)...EVIL CONTINUALLY: Total corruption of heart and life. It was so bad that obviously there is no way for us to fathom the full extent of the immorality and violence, all of it the result of forgetting God, and the bad...

C.Intermarriages: If we take any element and mix part bad with part good, what result do we expect?

  1. Will one bad apple turn the others bad? Will one good apple turn the others good? We can't compare "apples to oranges," nor "apples to people," but the suggestion is an interesting one.
  2. We are thankful for the cases which turn out good.
  3. But the general tendency seems to be for "mixed marriages" to result in the turning of the Christian to weakness, or maybe even to the unbelief of the spouse (they do not have the same goals, the same love, the same values; There is a different view as to what real treasure is; For the Christian, this can lead to discouragement, weak/spasmodic attendance, indifference, lukewarmness, even desertion of the Lord) - cf 1Co 15:33.

6:6 AND IT REPENTED THE LORD (THE LORD WAS SORRY, NKJ) THAT HE HAD MADE MAN ON THE EARTH, AND IT GRIEVED HIM AT HIS HEART.

6:7 AND THE LORD SAID, I WILL DESTROY MAN WHOM I HAVE CREATED FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH; BOTH MAN, AND BEAST, AND THE CREEPING THING, AND THE FOWLS OF THE AIR; FOR IT REPENTETH ME (I AM SORRY, NKJ) THAT I HAVE MADE THEM.

A.IT REPENTED THE LORD: This cannot be a change of mind in re-gard to personal sin, for of course He is sinless - 1Jn 1:5.

B.The word can be used in the sense of sorrow (note the NKJ on Verse 7), grief, disappointment, disgust.

6:8 BUT NOAH FOUND GRACE IN THE EYES OF THE LORD.

6:9 THESE [ARE] THE GENERATIONS OF NOAH: NOAH WAS A JUST MAN [AND] PERFECT IN HIS GENERATIONS, [AND] NOAH WALKED WITH GOD.

6:10 AND NOAH BEGAT THREE SONS, SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH.

A.Noah was like Enoch -- No rebellion; But he was JUST, PERFECT, and WALKED WITH GOD - Cf 2Pe 2:5.

B.NOAH FOUND GRACE: Everyone who walks as did Noah will also find favor with God.

6:11 THE EARTH ALSO WAS CORRUPT BEFORE GOD, AND THE EARTH WAS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE.

6:12 AND GOD LOOKED UPON THE EARTH, AND, BEHOLD, IT WAS CORRUPT; FOR ALL FLESH HAD CORRUPTED HIS WAY UPON THE EARTH.

6:13 AND GOD SAID UNTO NOAH, THE END OF ALL FLESH IS COME BEFORE ME; FOR THE EARTH IS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE THROUGH THEM; AND, BEHOLD, I WILL DESTROY THEM WITH THE EARTH.

A.Again we see a description which is beyond our comprehension.

B.At the rate morals are deteriorating, there may finally be a similar situation again.

6:14 MAKE THEE AN ARK OF GOPHER WOOD; ROOMS SHALT THOU MAKE IN THE ARK, AND SHALT PITCH IT WITHIN AND WITHOUT WITH PITCH (COVER IT INSIDE AND OUTSIDE WITH PITCH, NKJ) .

6:15 AND THIS [IS THE FASHION] WHICH THOU SHALT MAKE IT [OF]: THE LENGTH OF THE ARK [SHALL BE] THREE HUNDRED CUBITS, THE BREADTH OF IT FIFTY CUBITS, AND THE HEIGHT OF IT THIRTY CUBITS.

6:16 A WINDOW SHALT THOU MAKE TO THE ARK, AND IN A CUBIT SHALT THOU FINISH IT ABOVE (FINISH IT TO A CUBIT FROM ABOVE), NKJ) ; AND THE DOOR OF THE ARK SHALT THOU SET IN THE SIDE THEREOF; [WITH] LOWER, SECOND, AND THIRD [STORIES] SHALT THOU MAKE IT.

6:17 AND, BEHOLD, I, EVEN I, DO BRING A FLOOD OF WATERS UPON THE EARTH, TO DESTROY ALL FLESH, WHEREIN [IS] THE BREATH OF LIFE, FROM UNDER HEAVEN; [AND] EVERY THING THAT [IS] IN THE EARTH SHALL DIE.

6:18 BUT WITH THEE WILL I ESTABLISH MY COVENANT; AND THOU SHALT COME INTO THE ARK, THOU, AND THY SONS, AND THY WIFE, AND THY SONS' WIVES WITH THEE.

6:19 AND OF EVERY LIVING THING OF ALL FLESH, TWO OF EVERY [SORT] SHALT THOU BRING INTO THE ARK, TO KEEP [THEM] ALIVE WITH THEE; THEY SHALL BE MALE AND FEMALE.

6:20 OF FOWLS AFTER THEIR KIND, AND OF CATTLE (ANIMALS, NKJ) AFTER THEIR KIND, OF EVERY CREEPING THING OF THE EARTH AFTER HIS KIND, TWO OF EVERY [SORT] (KIND, NKJ) SHALL COME UNTO THEE, TO KEEP [THEM] ALIVE.

6:21 AND TAKE THOU UNTO THEE OF ALL FOOD THAT IS EATEN, AND THOU SHALT GATHER [IT] TO THEE; AND IT SHALL BE FOR FOOD FOR THEE, AND FOR THEM.

A.This is how Noah could escape the destruction to come.

B.GOPHER WOOD: No one knows the exact meaning of the Hebrew.

C.Consider the size of the FLOOD:

  1. The specific reason for it was to destroy all people - v17.
  2. Archaeology has found clues indicating that people had by this time migrated around the world -- Anything less than a universal flood would not have accomplished the primary purpose of God.
  3. Most of the face of the earth shows signs of violent upheavals -- A catastrophe, a cataclysm.

D.Consider the size of the ARK:

  1. When critics visualize the ark as a small vessel, they think it would be difficult (even impossible) to get so many animals in it and care for them for a year.
  2. Believers see it as planned and designed by God Himself; He knew exactly how to do it, and how big it needed to be.
  3. CUBIT: Scholars say this measurement ranged from 17 inches to 22 inches, but is conservatively estimated at 18 inches (the distance from an average man's elbow to the end of his longest finger).

a.Using the conservative estimate, the ark was about 450' X 75' X 45' (see more about this later).

b.This ratio is that which gives the greatest stability; It is approximately the same ratio as modern ships, except as they are lengthened and streamlined for speed.

c.The ark was not intended to go fast, or even to go, so it did not need to be streamlined.

d.The word ARK means BOX, or CHEST, so it may have been built more or less on square lines.

4.Figures and pictures which help us grasp its enormity:

a.It contained about one and one/half million cubic feet.

b.Its water displacement would be about 43,000 tons (about the same as the Titanic which sank April 15, 1912).

c.Its three floors or decks had a total area about the size of 25 basketball courts.

d.One of its decks would be about like nine Norhill (in Houston) auditoriums joined sideways.

e.One of its decks would be about as wide as the Norhill parking lot, and about twice as long.

f.Now try to imagine a structure that length and width, and about as high as the Norhill building, with three floors.

g.It would have the carrying capacity of 500 railroad boxcars (10 trains of 50 cars each).

h.Not until the Twentieth Century was a ship of that size again built.

5.Tremendous! Would it be enough for "all those animals"?

a.Remember there needed to be room only for all the KINDS, not all the VARIETIES - Gen 1:25; 6:20; 7:14-15.

b.God put within each KIND a fantastic genetic capability.

1)From the first human couple there are now something like 190 different racial types.

2)The same principle is true with the animals (aboard the ark there did not need to be two Collies, two Poodles, two Huskies, two Chihuahuas, etc. -- just two canines).

3)The necessary KINDS to fill the earth with the vari-eties of today would have taken up less room than 200 boxcars.

4)That would leave the room of 300 boxcars for the human beings, the food supply, and plenty of extra room in which to move around -- Where is any problem?

6.And there is no problem with Noah's having to go on an "Af-rican Safari" for the animals - Gen 6:20; 7:8-9. We do not know if this was miraculous, or if it was natural instinct making the animals aware of a coming need for shelter.

6:22 THUS DID NOAH; ACCORDING TO ALL THAT GOD COMMANDED HIM, SO DID HE.

A.This is a classic statement of obedience to God - cf Lk 6:46; Jn 14:15; Rev 22:14.

B.Noah stands before us as a hero of faith - Heb 11:7.