Hi all,
Last week we talked about how, if there was a 2nd angelic rebellion in Noah's day, God would have had to be involved with and helped with a 2nd angelic rebellion. Today....who were the 'sons of God'?
Even if that 2nd rebellion happened
They all died in Noah's flood. Think about that. For those who believe angels conceived with human women; they all died in the flood. Only 8 survived, Noah and his wife, their 3 sons and 3 daughters in law.
But to hold to their theory of that 2nd angelic rebellion and for there being hybrid beings today that survive, one must reject the Bible claim that only Noah's family survived. Are you ready to go against Jesus and the rest of scripture and all of Judaism's Word and history?
The counter argument is that their DNA survived through Noah - but then you have to make it that Noah and his family were taking part in the angel-women children. For their DNA to survive the flood you'd have to make Noah's family a product of an angel/woman conception. And that isn't anywhere in the Bible. So even if you explain all the above away, they still all died in the flood. (Later in this series I'll share about 'giants' in the days of David and such.)
So who are the sons of God?
Moses and Joshua wrote Genesis through Joshua, and had a uniquely 'Jewish' writing style. Their style was to share both a heavenly perspective and an earthly perspective in the same passage.
Joshua wrote in the natural/spiritual way in Joshua 5:13-15 when Israel was camped at Jericho wondering how they were going to take the city. He writes that he saw a man with a sword standing near him, and he asked if he was for them or against them. The man responded, "No ('neither', for that's not the point), but I am here as Captain of the army of the Lord." It says Joshua fell to his face and worshipped, and the man told him to remove his shoes for he was on holy ground.
That was the natural view.
The man was clearly the Lord, the Captain of the Father's armies. Only the Lord receives worship and commands man to remove his shoes in His presence. (Shoes are man-made and no man can come to God or stand before Him based on any effort of his own- thus OT people commanded to be barefoot in God's presence)
The very next verses confirm that Joshua was talking to the Lord, not a man only, for He told him how to take the city in Joshua 6:2-5, calling Him 'the Lord'. So we see the writing style of listing both the natural view and the spiritual view.
Moses did this in Genesis 18
In 18:1 it says the Lord appeared to Abraham. It then says as Abraham sat in the tent door he saw 3 men walking towards him, whom he greeted and prepared a meal. It isn't until v9 we see the spiritual side of things, as the Lord tells Sarah that about that time the next year she will have a son. Immediately after that conversation, the Lord says within Himself:"Shall I hide from Abraham that which I'm about to do, seeing that he will become a great and mighty nation...and train up his household and children in the ways of the Lord?"
The Lord then reveals He has come to destroy Sodom and the other cities, and the 2 other 'men' are seen for who they really are, angels sent to rescue Lot. This is seen in chapter 19. Again, we see both the natural in that the 3 appeared to be mere men who allowed Abraham to kill and cook a calf and prepare a meal for them, and then it switches to the spiritual to who the 'men' really were - the Lord and 2 angels.
Paul used this same style
I think this is seen most clearly in I Corinthians 3:2 when addressing the Corinthians caught up in strife and divisions, saying:"For you are still carnal. For where there is envy and strife and divisions among you, aren't you carnal and living like (natural) unborn-again people?"
Here he addresses them as being in Christ, but then tells them they are living as if they aren't even born again - the natural man. Throughout his letters however, he regularly compared their former lives with now, mentioned both natural perspective and spiritual - like Ephesians 4:17-31.
Back to Moses and Genesis
In Genesis 4:16-24 we have a list of Cain's descendants. It tells us Cain moved east of Eden to the land of Nod, and raised his family. This passage includes some of his children and descendants. They included a man named Lamech who admitted to murdering a man, just like Cain did. It also tells us Jubal was Cain's descendant, who was the father of string and wind instruments. It mentions Tubal-cain who was skilled in forging brass and iron.
At the end of chapter 4, verse 25-26 state this:"And Adam knew his wife again and she had a son they named Seth (replacement). For she said, God has given me a replacement for Abel who Cain murdered. And to Seth was born a son he named Enos. Then men began to call themselves 'the sons of God.'
The KJV margin translates this 'then men called themselves by the name of God' (the sons of God). Benson's commentary states there became a growing difference between those who walked with God and those who did not. "The worshippers of God began to distinguish themselves" by the worship of God and making a stand for Him.
He states:"Cain and those who deserted religion and built a city, began to declare for irreligion, calling themselves the sons of men. Those who adhered to God began to declare for Him and His worship, and called themselves the sons of God."
Some Jewish sources include that as men multiplied the knowledge of God was decreasing, and men started worshipping stars and natural things. Before that time no one needed to talk of God for all knew because the population was so small.
As mankind multiplied there arose a need for those who knew God to take a stand, and they were the first to pray in His name and to Him, calling themselves the sons of God.
Don't we today identify ourselves as the sons of God?
Remember I John 3:1-3:"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, but it is not yet revealed what she shall be, for then we will see Him as He is, and will be like Him. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself..." See also Romans 8:14, 19; Galatians 3:26, 4:6; Philippians 2:15
We call ourselves the sons of God, the children of God, so it shouldn't be hard to understand in those days when the difference between those who did not walk with God and those who did walk with God became very clear, they did the same thing. Isn't that what is happening in our day, as it was in the days of Noah?
2 families in the earth, and they kept making babies
Genesis 5 details the descendants of Seth, including Mahalaleel whose name means 'praiser of God'. Also of note are Enoch who didn't see death but was 'taken', Methusaleh whose name means 'At his death the waters will come', and Noah. If you do the math you will find the flood came in the same year Methuselah died, just as prophesied by his name.
After listing the godly line of the sons of God, the text goes on to say in 6:1:"It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God (Seth's descendants) saw the daughters of men (Cain's descendants) were beautiful..."
Cain had moved east of Eden
As the populations of each family grew, it was inevitable they would one day encounter one another. This is why Genesis 6:1 says, '...when men began to multiply on the face of the earth...' That sets the context. That multiplication of population to the point the two families met, sets the scene.
Today there are also only two families in the earth. You've either been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Father's Son, or you haven't. "You were before time darkness, now you are light." Colossians 1:13, Ephesians 5:8-9
That was the same in the days of Noah, and as the sons of God began marrying the daughters of men - Cain's ungodly family - the knowledge of God began disappearing from the lives of mankind. God was about to be on the outside looking in to His creation.
Next week - what about the nephilim, those mighty men of old? Until then, Blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
Last week we talked about how, if there was a 2nd angelic rebellion in Noah's day, God would have had to be involved with and helped with a 2nd angelic rebellion. Today....who were the 'sons of God'?
Even if that 2nd rebellion happened
They all died in Noah's flood. Think about that. For those who believe angels conceived with human women; they all died in the flood. Only 8 survived, Noah and his wife, their 3 sons and 3 daughters in law.
But to hold to their theory of that 2nd angelic rebellion and for there being hybrid beings today that survive, one must reject the Bible claim that only Noah's family survived. Are you ready to go against Jesus and the rest of scripture and all of Judaism's Word and history?
The counter argument is that their DNA survived through Noah - but then you have to make it that Noah and his family were taking part in the angel-women children. For their DNA to survive the flood you'd have to make Noah's family a product of an angel/woman conception. And that isn't anywhere in the Bible. So even if you explain all the above away, they still all died in the flood. (Later in this series I'll share about 'giants' in the days of David and such.)
So who are the sons of God?
Moses and Joshua wrote Genesis through Joshua, and had a uniquely 'Jewish' writing style. Their style was to share both a heavenly perspective and an earthly perspective in the same passage.
Joshua wrote in the natural/spiritual way in Joshua 5:13-15 when Israel was camped at Jericho wondering how they were going to take the city. He writes that he saw a man with a sword standing near him, and he asked if he was for them or against them. The man responded, "No ('neither', for that's not the point), but I am here as Captain of the army of the Lord." It says Joshua fell to his face and worshipped, and the man told him to remove his shoes for he was on holy ground.
That was the natural view.
The man was clearly the Lord, the Captain of the Father's armies. Only the Lord receives worship and commands man to remove his shoes in His presence. (Shoes are man-made and no man can come to God or stand before Him based on any effort of his own- thus OT people commanded to be barefoot in God's presence)
The very next verses confirm that Joshua was talking to the Lord, not a man only, for He told him how to take the city in Joshua 6:2-5, calling Him 'the Lord'. So we see the writing style of listing both the natural view and the spiritual view.
Moses did this in Genesis 18
In 18:1 it says the Lord appeared to Abraham. It then says as Abraham sat in the tent door he saw 3 men walking towards him, whom he greeted and prepared a meal. It isn't until v9 we see the spiritual side of things, as the Lord tells Sarah that about that time the next year she will have a son. Immediately after that conversation, the Lord says within Himself:"Shall I hide from Abraham that which I'm about to do, seeing that he will become a great and mighty nation...and train up his household and children in the ways of the Lord?"
The Lord then reveals He has come to destroy Sodom and the other cities, and the 2 other 'men' are seen for who they really are, angels sent to rescue Lot. This is seen in chapter 19. Again, we see both the natural in that the 3 appeared to be mere men who allowed Abraham to kill and cook a calf and prepare a meal for them, and then it switches to the spiritual to who the 'men' really were - the Lord and 2 angels.
Paul used this same style
I think this is seen most clearly in I Corinthians 3:2 when addressing the Corinthians caught up in strife and divisions, saying:"For you are still carnal. For where there is envy and strife and divisions among you, aren't you carnal and living like (natural) unborn-again people?"
Here he addresses them as being in Christ, but then tells them they are living as if they aren't even born again - the natural man. Throughout his letters however, he regularly compared their former lives with now, mentioned both natural perspective and spiritual - like Ephesians 4:17-31.
Back to Moses and Genesis
In Genesis 4:16-24 we have a list of Cain's descendants. It tells us Cain moved east of Eden to the land of Nod, and raised his family. This passage includes some of his children and descendants. They included a man named Lamech who admitted to murdering a man, just like Cain did. It also tells us Jubal was Cain's descendant, who was the father of string and wind instruments. It mentions Tubal-cain who was skilled in forging brass and iron.
At the end of chapter 4, verse 25-26 state this:"And Adam knew his wife again and she had a son they named Seth (replacement). For she said, God has given me a replacement for Abel who Cain murdered. And to Seth was born a son he named Enos. Then men began to call themselves 'the sons of God.'
The KJV margin translates this 'then men called themselves by the name of God' (the sons of God). Benson's commentary states there became a growing difference between those who walked with God and those who did not. "The worshippers of God began to distinguish themselves" by the worship of God and making a stand for Him.
He states:"Cain and those who deserted religion and built a city, began to declare for irreligion, calling themselves the sons of men. Those who adhered to God began to declare for Him and His worship, and called themselves the sons of God."
Some Jewish sources include that as men multiplied the knowledge of God was decreasing, and men started worshipping stars and natural things. Before that time no one needed to talk of God for all knew because the population was so small.
As mankind multiplied there arose a need for those who knew God to take a stand, and they were the first to pray in His name and to Him, calling themselves the sons of God.
Don't we today identify ourselves as the sons of God?
Remember I John 3:1-3:"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, but it is not yet revealed what she shall be, for then we will see Him as He is, and will be like Him. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself..." See also Romans 8:14, 19; Galatians 3:26, 4:6; Philippians 2:15
We call ourselves the sons of God, the children of God, so it shouldn't be hard to understand in those days when the difference between those who did not walk with God and those who did walk with God became very clear, they did the same thing. Isn't that what is happening in our day, as it was in the days of Noah?
2 families in the earth, and they kept making babies
Genesis 5 details the descendants of Seth, including Mahalaleel whose name means 'praiser of God'. Also of note are Enoch who didn't see death but was 'taken', Methusaleh whose name means 'At his death the waters will come', and Noah. If you do the math you will find the flood came in the same year Methuselah died, just as prophesied by his name.
After listing the godly line of the sons of God, the text goes on to say in 6:1:"It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God (Seth's descendants) saw the daughters of men (Cain's descendants) were beautiful..."
Cain had moved east of Eden
As the populations of each family grew, it was inevitable they would one day encounter one another. This is why Genesis 6:1 says, '...when men began to multiply on the face of the earth...' That sets the context. That multiplication of population to the point the two families met, sets the scene.
Today there are also only two families in the earth. You've either been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Father's Son, or you haven't. "You were before time darkness, now you are light." Colossians 1:13, Ephesians 5:8-9
That was the same in the days of Noah, and as the sons of God began marrying the daughters of men - Cain's ungodly family - the knowledge of God began disappearing from the lives of mankind. God was about to be on the outside looking in to His creation.
Next week - what about the nephilim, those mighty men of old? Until then, Blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
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