Sermon Tone Analysis

*Degeneration, Death, and Divine Grace (Genesis 5:1-6:5) - Family Foundations Series, Pt 9*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on February 1, 2009/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

 

How many of you find genealogies to be the most exciting part of the Bible to read?

How many of you if you’re not on a Bible reading program or reading through a book chapter-by-chapter will choose to read through a genealogy if you’re looking for somewhere to read on a given morning (or whenever)?

How many of you who do read through the Bible come to a genealogy and actually read what it says?

Or do you quickly skip down to the next text where there’s an actual story or some action?

(Confession: I have sinned thus!)

This is one reason systematic reading through the Bible and expository preaching from both OT & NT is important, if we believe “all Scripture is inspired and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training.”

When Paul wrote that text, mainly only the OT was available, and he speaks of all of it and then he says “Preach the Word.”

There are vital truths we will miss if we don’t.

It’s not just Paul’s epistles or our favorite psalms, there is truth for us in all of God’s Word and even in (/especially in/) today’s text

 

Genesis 5 (*NKJV*) 1 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam.

In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind [better NASB ~/ ESV ~/ NIV “Man”; KJV “Adam”; Heb.

/adam /same word and form as proper name “Adam” in v. 1]

 

God gave both husband and wife the name of the man, which may have some relation on wives in later times taking on the husband’s name at marriage (certainly consistent with Bible).

The language at the end of v. 1 of being made in the likeness or image of God, and v. 2 “created them male and female and blessed them” comes right out of Gen 1:27-28.

This is a reminder of God’s original creation (male and female in God’s image) and God’s original mandate (be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth …), both of which are still true and take place here but sin is now in the picture in chapter 5.

 

3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot /a son/ in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

As man and wife multiply and as their descendents fill the earth, the image and likeness from God in original man is still passed on.

Genesis 9:6 & James 3:9 make clear all men are still in God’s image.

4 After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters.

5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.

6 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enosh.

7 After he begot Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters.

8 So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.

9 Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan.

10 After he begot Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters.

11 So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.

12 Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel.

13 After he begot Mahalalel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and daughters.

14 So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.

15 Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared.

16 After he begot Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters.

17 So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died.

18 Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch.

19 After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters.

20 So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.

21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.

22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.

23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.

24 And Enoch walked with God; and he /was/ not, for God took him.

25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech.

26 After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters.

27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.

28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son.

29 And he called his name Noah, saying, “This /one/ will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.”

30 After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters.

31 So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.

32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

*Genesis 6* 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.

In Gen. 5:1 your Bible may have a different word or phrase than “the book of the genealogy” – ex: “generations” or “family line.”

“This is the written account of Adam’s line” (NIV) or “the family records of the descendants of Adam” (HCSB).

We have been studying in Genesis in this series what it records about the earliest families and marriage and parents and children and what chap. 4 reveals about the first family ever and those who went the way of Cain departing from God’s design.

Genesis 6:5 we will actually cover next week, which may be the most important truth for parents to know about their children, and the most important truth to know to understand what is going on in our society, and why horrible things happen that you see on the news, and why salvation has to be all of God, and why our hearts are still the way they are even as believers at times … next Sunday we’ll round up our foundation series discussing total depravity.

Chapter 5 may not seem as immediately applicable to today’s family concerns or modern individual concerns, and some of what we discuss tonight may seem more technical than practical at first, but hang in there.

We ended last week in Genesis 4 with the family of Cain and their degeneration, but chapter 5 is also a family tree, tracing a different family through a different descendant of Adam (the one we all come from – Seth; Cain’s line all died in flood).

The context is all leading up to God’s judgment on sinful humanity in the flood, except for one family in this line that he saves and through whom we also all are descendants (Noah).

I want to work our way backwards from chapter 6 and the bad news to chapter 5 to close with good news, so I want to begin with the last section we read (6:1-4) and the title of our message will be our outline.

There are several questions in the passage that we’ll cover under the headings Degeneration, Death, and Divine Grace:

 

*Degeneration *

What is the meaning of Genesis 6:1-5?

*Death              *

Are there gaps in the genealogy of Genesis 5?

What stands out in Genesis 5 and why?

Are the long ages here to be taken literally?

*Divine Grace              *Where and how is God’s Grace shown in this passage?

*1.

What is the meaning of Genesis 6:1-5?*

This is one of the more difficult passages to interpret in Genesis, if not the whole Old Testament!

I’ve read 100-200 pages and spent dozens of hours studying and wrestling with it and want to try and condense that to a few minutes that I hope won’t confuse too much!

Just a quick note on v. 4: The KJV~/NKJV uses the word “giants” but all the other versions have the better transliteration /nephilim /(a word possibly meaning “fallen” or “mighty one,” possibly great warriors adding to the sinful violence of the day).

They are not explicitly said to be the offspring of the sons of God and daughters of men, it just says they were on the earth in those days.

These people were wiped out by the flood, but the term probably refers to a type of great men or warriors because we see it in Number 13.

The overall meaning of the beginning of chapter 6 is clear in verse 5 and following, that society reaches the climax of degeneration from God’s design, and God is grieved by the sins of His creatures and will now destroy all life on the earth.

The less clear and more controversial question is this: /who are the “sons of God” and daughters of men” in verse 2 and 4?/ Verse 1 is clear, men were multiplying on earth (which is a good thing and part of God’s design) but the rest of the text is clearly not good or God’s design.

/ESV Study Bible: /‘Various scholars have proposed that the “sons of God” are (1) fallen angels (cf.

Job 1:6 [oldest book in Bible, events at same time as early Genesis]; some, however, suggest that this contradicts Mk 12:25 [“not given in marriage, but are like angels”], though the reference … is to angels in heaven …; or (2) tyrannical human judges or kings (in the ungodly line of Lamech, possibly demon-possessed); or (3) followers of God among the male descendants of Seth (i.e., the godly line of Seth, but who married the ungodly daughters of Cain) … it is clear that the kind of relationship described here involved some form of grievous sexual perversion, wherein the “sons of God” saw and with impunity took any women (“daughters of man”) that they wanted.

The sequence here in Gen. 6:2 (“saw . . .

attractive [good] . . .

took”) parallels the sequence of the fall in 3:6 (“saw . . .

good . . .

took”).

In both cases, something good in God's creation is used in disobedience and sinful rebellion against God, with tragic consequences.’

Arguments for view 1 (“sons of God” = angels):

1.      Has the most biblical support as the Hebrew phrase for “sons of God” always elsewhere means angels and never elsewhere refers to humans.

Some NT passages seem to fit with this view

2.      Immediate context of v. 1 uses “men” to refer to mankind, so it would seem natural that the next verse would use same word same way.

To limit it in v. 2 to one line of descendants doesn’t fit the context (Cain’s not mentioned in at all in prior chapter).

3.      The other two views require the text to mean different than what it says, i.e., “the sons of some /men/” married “the daughters of /other men./” *TURN TO 2 PETER 2*

4.      Most ancient and Jewish support, some LXX (250 B.C. have “angels of God” here), some Targums, Dead Sea Scrolls, 1 Enoch (200 B.C.), Book of Jubilees (150 B.C.), some Pseudepigrapha and other ancient Jewish writings, Josephus, Philo (/Works, /811), etc., as well as early church support.[1]

5.      Angels in Genesis and other parts of Scripture frequently take on bodies for extended periods of time with physicality, eating, drinking, sleeping, wrestling, etc.

6.      Christ’s statement thousands of years later about angels /in heaven /not marrying is not particularly relevant to Gen 6, which describes /on earth /an apparently one-time act of rebellion by angels not in heaven (similarly Job 1-2 describes “sons of God” who come into His presence from elsewhere)

 

2 Peter 2:4-11 (NASB95) 4 For if God did not spare *angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell* [Grk.

/Tartarus/] and committed them to *pits of darkness* [/perhaps the Abyss that demons feared Jesus casting them into, too?/], reserved for judgment; 5 *and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah*, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly [/Gen 6 – then look at v 6-8 discussing Sodom and Gomorrah, also in chronological order of Genesis, so v. 4 would contextually naturally speak of fallen angels committed to pits of darkness before the flood/] … 9 /then /the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and *especially those who indulge the flesh in /its /corrupt desires and despise authority*.

Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile *angelic majesties*, 11whereas angels …” [he continues contrast with /human/ false teachers]

 

1 Peter 3:19-22 (NASB95) \\ 19 in which also He [Christ] went and made proclamation to *the spirits /now /in prison,** **20 **who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah*, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through /the /water …22 [Christ] who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after *angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.*

Jude 6-9 (NASB95) 6 And *angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness* for the judgment of the great day, 7 *just as Sodom and Gomorrah* and the cities around them, *since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh*, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.