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Genesis 6:1-7:24
The Flood: Two Lifestyles and their Result

Chapter 6 opens with a vivid description of increasing human wickedness. We discussed last week one interpretation of 6:3: that as a result of this sinfulness, in some divine fashion God changed man’s expected lifetime from around 900 years to 120. The point is that man’s natural inclination to sin – which we call “original sin” – allowed people to become really sinful over 900 years, and 120 years provided 7.5 times less opportunity!

The other interpretation of 6:3 is that because of man’s depravity, God pronounces judgment in 120 years.

Nevertheless, 1000 years or so after God made man – the situation has deteriorated from “God saw all that He had made . . . was very good” (1:31) to “the LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination . . . was only evil” (Gen 6:5). We might use the term “total depravity.” Corruption and lawlessness among man is a logical extension of the stories of Cain and Lamech . . . but now it’s so bad “the LORD was grieved that he had made man” (Gen 6:6). According to the Jewish Bible, “the LORD said: ‘My spirit shall not abide in man for ever’” (Gen 6:3 JPS) – presumably meaning God will take away the breath of God’s spirit which created man . . . hence destroying him. Clearly, these first verses in chapter 6 are an introduction to the flood, making the point that the flood was sent because of man’s chronic and pervasive evil.

Yet although we discern the main point of 6:1-5, the details elude us. Who are the “sons of God”? Who are the “Nephilim”?

The “Nephilim” appear only here and in Numbers 13, when 10 of the Israelite spies sent to explore the promised land of Canaan reported the inhabitants were giants, too powerful to defeat. The comment in 6:4 about the Nephilim may be only for the benefit of the people of the Exodus, for whom Genesis was first written, because the Hebrew is not clear about whether the Nephilim were the offspring of the “sons of God,” or were just their contemporaries. But then we have the issue of how the Nephilim survived the flood . . . so maybe this is just a Hebrew term for giants.

Identifying the “sons of God” is equally difficult. One commentator has said ancient readers surely knew who these guys were – but modern readers are left to speculate. Were they fallen angels? There’s substantial Old Testament justification for that, and the offspring of these unions are described as “the heroes of old” (Gen 6:4). However, Jesus says angels can’t marry (cf Matt 22:30, Mark 12:25, Luke 20:34-35), so presumably they can’t have offspring! But can angels “fall” and marry . . . like in the Meg Ryan/Nicholas Cage movie, City of Angels? The bible doesn’t say.

A 2nd interpretation is that the “sons of God” were kings from the line of Cain, who gathered large harems. It’s been about 1000 years since the close of Genesis 4 – lots of time to populate the earth and create kingdoms. This would fit the description of the sin: that “the sons of God . . . married any(one) they chose” (Gen 6:2) – taking multiple wives, rather than one wife according to God’s marriage prescription. Furthermore, their offspring – described as “heroes of old, men of renown” (Gen 6:4) – could be military leaders or men known for martial arts, as would be typical of kings’ sons in this culture.

A 3rd interpretation is that “the sons of God” are the sons of Seth, and the “daughters of men” were the daughters of Cain . . . and if that is the case, there is the additional sin of the godly intermarrying with the ungodly – a sin often condemned in the Pentateuch.

We’ll never know the exact meaning in our lifetimes – which leaves a certain feeling of incompleteness – but we’ll just suppress it and move on to the “big picture.”

Into this morass of depravity, the hero enters like the cavalry in a western movie: “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” because he was “righteous” and “walked with God” (Gen 6:8-9 JPS). This is the first mention of “grace” in scripture. In the midst of colossal human failure comes the expression of unmerited divine favor. In over 1000 years since Adam, only Enoch and Noah are said to have “walked with God” (5:24, 6:9); so somehow Noah followed God despite total wickedness among his neighbors. Noah was what we call “holy”: separated from the crowd. And his story provides a warning to all who rebel against God – even if “everyone does it” – and a lesson in God’s grace, because one righteous man makes God decide not to destroy humanity completely.

God brings His grace to Noah thus: “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence. . . . So make yourself an ark of gopher wood.” (Gen 6:13-14). What’s “gopher wood”? We don’t know; the term appears only here in the Old Testament . . . but it’s probably cedar of cypress. What’s an “ark”? The word seems to come from the Egyptian word for large, seaworthy vessels, no doubt familiar to the Israelites of the Exodus, even though they aren’t seafaring peoples. God’s detailed instructions to Noah lead some commentators to suggest Noah knows nothing about ships. Yet as God dictates the dimensions, it’s the size of an ocean liner, large enough to can hold 45,000 animals by one estimate! But it’s not maneuverable like a sailing ship; it’s essentially an enclosed barge with a low center of gravity, so it won’t capsize in the roughest seas. The ark is not designed sailing, but for survival!

God continues his monologue to Noah: “I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life; . . . everything that is on the earth shall perish” (Gen 6:17 NAS). It’s important to understand exactly what God says here – especially because our mental image is usually something like the rising floodwaters of the Licking and Ohio Rivers in 1997 – just worse. But the Hebrew usually translated “flood of waters” literally means “destructions of waters,” which gives a lot more latitude to the source of the disaster.

Here’s where I do find an unresolved problem between the bible and science. There’s no evidence for a worldwide flood – but lots of evidence for localized disasters – so modern bible scholars often point to the fact that the Hebrew word translated “earth” also means a large but localized area; the bible can mean only the world around Noah and his neighbors. Yet God is pretty clear that the target for destruction is “all flesh in which is the breath of life” (Gen 6:17 NAS) – a strong implication for a worldwide disaster (unless wildlife had not migrated beyond a limited area in the Middle East . . . which is, one of the implicit hypotheses in the Ryan-Pitman theory, illustrated on the website.)

God nevertheless assures Noah’s protection: “I will establish my covenant with you” (Gen 6:18). This shows God doesn’t decide to wipe out mankind in a pique, as a mythological pagan “god” might do. God has a plan all along; He has carefully chosen the one righteous man through whom the human race will survive. And if God may not have made His expectations clear when he created man . . . He won’t make that mistake again. God will make specific agreements with Noah – a covenant – after the wicked are all dead. Again God combines grace and indignation: the deluge to judge mankind will be accompanied by a covenant with Noah.

God concludes with his plan of salvation: “You (and your immediate family) will enter the ark” (Gen 6:18). Furthermore, “You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you . . . (and) every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them” (Gen 6:19-21)

In summary, God tells Noah He’s going to being an end to mankind through a water disaster, and tells him to build an enclosed barge of staggeringly large dimensions so he and his family – and pairs of “all living creatures” – will be saved . . . and afterward God will establish a contract. This is the most outlandish dictate God gives to anyone in the bible. How does Noah respond? No argument – not even questions! “Noah did everything just as God commanded him” (Gen 6:22). God directs, Noah follows. When we think about the magnitude of God’s request, you’d think Noah would say something . . . like “This project is too big to handle” . . . or “Give me a sign, God” . . . something! But maybe the Bible doesn’t record the complete dialog.

How long did it take Noah and his sons to build an ocean liner with crude bronze age tools. This enormous task should take a very long time – especially since they can’t work on it full time! We only know that Noah’s 3 sons were born by the time Noah was 500 (5:32), and that the flood came when Noah was 600 (7:6). One thing not in the biblical record is any mention that Noah’s neighbors ridicule him for building the ark – a feature of every popular story of Noah I remember.

Nevertheless, the ark is build when chapter 7 opens. And God says: “Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made” (Gen 7:4). The Hebrew describes ordinary rain – but with a duration of 40 days and nights! This is the Mother of all Rainstorms. Noah must gather one or more pairs of every breathing creature – and no doubt stock the ark with food – in just one week! This short fuse means two things:

1. The animals were supernaturally led to the ark; Noah and his sons didn’t have time to hunt and catch them – and stock the ark with food. God sent the animals to the ark – perhaps in somewhat the way (I’m told) animals sensed the big Asian tsunami last December, and ran for the hills before it hit.

2. If it took only a week for all the animals to be gathered into the ark. I can’t imagine an armadillo moving very far in a week; perhaps all the wildlife is in Noah’s neighborhood – giving justification to a local flood theory.

Alternately, the “seven days” may be a figurative seven days; we’ll say more about this next week.

After the ark is loaded, the deluge hits. According to 7:11, it’s much more than just heavy rain for 40 days and nights. Yet the different ways the Hebrew is translated illustrate just how hard it is to put this one-time-in-history event into unambiguously clear English words. Here are three versions:

“The fountains of the great deep (were) broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Gen 7:11 JPS)
“The fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened” (Gen 7:11 NAS)
“The springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened” (Gen 7:11 NIV)

What’s realty happening here? The “floodgates of the sky” has been interpreted as a vapor canopy or a vast reservoir of water in the sky, opened to drench the earth . . . yet “the windows of heaven” could just mean a heavy rainstorm. “The springs of the great deep” have been interpreted as subterranean rivers suddenly spewing forth water on the surface in massive quantities – which frankly doesn’t make a lot of sense to me from a physics – but “the fountains of the great deep” are usually interpreted as a vast ocean tidal wave – such as put forth in the Ryan-Pitman theory.

For those who haven’t seen the web site, the Ryan-Pitman theory was developed by two Columbia University geologists who believe Noah’s flood was a local deluge. They cite archaeological evidence that a mini ice age, which came to an end around 5600 BC, caused a worldwide drought, forcing man – and presumably wildlife – to cluster around a prehistoric fresh water lake below present sea level in the region of the Black Sea. As the ice cap melted and the sea level rose, the Mediterranean overflowed at what is now the Bosporous Strait, violently and rapidly filling and overflowing the freshwater lake and flooding a vast area to a level that matched the Mediterranean. It’s reasonable that this breakover of “the fountains of the great deep” was precipitated by an intense rainfall – and once it occurred, the deluge would be both self-sustaining and of increasing intensity, as the deep channel (which is now the Bosporous) rapidly eroded. I’m not advocating the Ryan-Pitman Theory, but it is interesting – especially since they calculate it would take about 150 days to complete the breakover from the Mediterranean into the Black Sea: the exact biblical time frame for the duration of the flood (7:24).

The flood is so extensive that it covers the mountains to a depth of 20 feet. (The Hebrew can mean all the world’s mountains or the high hills in the vicinity of the flood; one’s interpretation usually depends upon whether one believes in a local or universal flood.)

In closing . . . perhaps I’ve spent too much time trying to squeeze minute details out of the story of Noah, and not enough time on the theology. I think the theology is obvious with a well-informed group like this . . . but at risk of restating the obvious, the story of Noah teaches several things, among them:

1. Original sin. Left to his own devices, man will sin – and the sin will get worse and worse. Man must make an effort to get close to God.

2. The right thing to do is to follow God – even if nobody else does, and even if we are persecuted for it.

3. God is patient, forgiving, and filled with grace. But God is not a pushover. God’s plan will be carried out – the only question is whether we help it or hinder it.

4. Sin has consequences; sin is punished. Evildoers alive at the time of the flood received a direct and obvious punishment, and I’m confident God punished 1000 years of evildoers who died before the flood. Yet Noah’s righteousness is rewarded.

5. Don’t mess with God. When He tells you to do something, do it; it’s easier that way!

Next week the flood recedes, and God makes his covenant with Noah – an important covenant we often overlook in studying Genesis because the focus shifts to God’s covenant with Abraham in chapter 12. But Noah’s Covenant is especially important because it’s God’s only covenant with all mankind.