Before the Flood
Before the flood we find problems with:
The sons of God, Gen 6:1-3
Who are these sons of God?
- They were here when the earth was created, Job 38: 4-8. So, they were here before Adam.
- They are connected with Satan, Job 1:6; 2:1. Satan was among them when they presented themselves before the Lord.
- They were formerly angels, Jude 6. All angels are men when they appear. See Gen 19:1, 5; Jud 13:3, 6, for example.
- They lost their “first estate” when they left heaven and joined themselves to women, Jude 6. Their celestial bodies became terrestrial, 1 Cor 15:40.
- They are gods but they die like men, Ps 82:6-8.
- After their sin, they were put in everlasting chains of darkness, Jude 6, 2 Pet 2:4.
- They were cast down to hell, 2 Pet 2:4.
- There will be more of them here in the Tribulation, Rev 17:12 w/ Dan 2:42-44.
- They will be judged, Jude 6, 2 Pet 2:4.
- Church Age saints will judge them, 1 Cor 6:3.
Interesting note: “yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years”. The life span of men after the flood began to decline rapidly. People today don’t live past 120 years. The documented record is 122 years and 164 days by Jeanne Calment.
Giants, Gen 6:4
The offspring of the sons of God were giants, Gen 6:4; Deut 2:10-21. There were giants “in those days; and also after that”. Og, Deut 3:11 and Goliath, 2 Sam 21:19, 22 are a couple of the well-known giants who were here after the flood.
The wickedness of man, Gen 6:5-7
His wickedness was great. It had to be very great for God to wipe out everybody but Noah and his family. “Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. Obviously, there was no remedy for such wickedness. Destruction was the only remaining option.
God was grieved and repented (changed his mind) that he had made man on the earth. God made men for his pleasure, Rev 4:11, and to have dominion over his creation, Gen 1:26-28. But men followed their wicked imagination rather than the Lord.
Evidently, their wickedness involved the beasts, creeping things, and fowl that were also created. See Rom 1:21-23, Lev 18:23, for how men involve other created living creatures in their sin. See Gal 5:19-21 and Rom 1:29-32 for the sins that men create when they become vain in their imagination.
The Lord said that right before His return, the world would be like it was in the days of Noah (Luke17:26). So, you have a pretty good idea what was going on around the time of the flood because you can see it going on today. And of course, no one today seems to think that they are doing anything so bad that God should be inclined to destroy them. They are deceived just like Noah’s generation was.
Before the flood we also find that:
Noah found grace
Noah was spared because he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. We will study more about Noah in the next lesson to see why he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
You can find grace in God’s eyes, too. Simply trust the Lord to save you by grace through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary, Eph 2:8-9.