Genesis 6:1-8 - The Bible Isn't Always Easy
- Chad Werkhoven
- 17 hours ago
- 4 min read
It would be easier to skip this passage. But don't make that mistake.
Genesis 6:1-8
CONTEXT: We left off at the end of chapter 3, with man having fallen into sin. Chapters 4–5 traces the spread of sin and death after the fall - from Cain’s murder of Abel to a world marked by violence, exile, and broken relationships - yet it also highlights God’s preserving grace through the faithful line of Adam's son Seth, that calls upon the name of the LORD. Even as death reigns through Adam’s descendants, the genealogy underscores that God is still advancing His redemptive purposes, setting the stage for both judgment and mercy in what follows.
6 When man began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of man and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
5 The LORD saw how great the wickedness of man had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the man I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Q & A 8
Q. But are we so corrupt
that we are totally unable to do any good
and inclined toward all evil?
A. Yes, unless we are born again
by the Spirit of God.
Summary
Today's passage is short, but it packs all sorts of difficulties into its eight verses. We read about the sons of God who become attracted to the daughters of man (ʾā·ḏām), an other worldly sounding race of creatures called the Nephilim, and a divine curse limiting the length of men's lives which doesn't seem to consistently take hold for the generations that follow. On top of it all, one of the first characteristics the Bible presents about God is that He regrets decisions and actions He has taken.
This passage has produced all sorts of conspiracies about half human, half angelic creatures along with doubters who hold this passage up as proof that God's not really immutable (unchangeable) like our theology claims. These same doubters will also quickly point out that God's decision to wipe man from the face of the earth makes Him look petty and vindictive. Quite frankly, it would be way easier to just skip this passage and move on to something easier to interpret.
That's a mistake that far too many people have made throughout history and continue to make today: to just hang on to the passages they really like and set the rest of the Bible aside. But that's not how the Bible is designed.
It's true that not every passage of the Bible is of equal importance. You can, for example, latch on to any one of a number of different understandings of what the Nephilim were and still be a solid Christian. But God gave us His Word in the form of an unfolding story, inspired directly by His Spirit, but written over thousands of years by men from massively different backgrounds, cultures and personalities. Every passage - even these difficult ones - is there for a good reason that helps bring definition to the rest.
Dig Deeper
We have two primary lessons to learn from these eight difficult to interpret verses which will be immensely helpful as we read through the Bible together this year - for this won't be the last difficult passage we face! First of all, we don't read any one passage on its own. All of scripture is interconnected, therefore we let Scripture interpret Scripture.
So we don't just read phrases like sons of God and daughters of man in isolation, accepting any and every fantastic interpretation that might loosely fit. Rather we see that over the whole of scripture, two distinct types of people are consistently portrayed: those who are in Christ, and those who are not. In that light, we understand here that even the sons of godly men were succumbing to purely sensual attraction as they chose wives for themselves rather than pursuing godly women.
Scripture nowhere describes angels as having physical bodies, or a desire to reproduce - quite the opposite, in fact (Matthew 22:30). So we can confidently set aside all of the other worldly claims about the Nephilim as being a race of angel-men.
And we don't pit passages against each other, as if only one can be true while the others are something less than. So you don't have to choose between a God who regrets versus a God who does not change like the shifting shadows (James 1:17). Rather, we seek to harmonize all of the Bible's teaching regarding God's attributes. We look for conclusions that maintain the integrity of each and every passage. Interpreted this way, the hundred and twenty years which God prescribes, isn't necessarily a cap on age at this point, but a countdown until the flood.
Secondly, and most importantly, we don't lose sight of the Bible's primary gospel message. Today's passage is a perfect example of this. It's so easy to get caught up in difficulties and theories that you miss the main point: that every inclination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil all the time... BUT Noah found grace eyes of the LORD.
This is the Bible's continuing narrative from start to finish: Man's sin is strong, but God's grace is stronger.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, our unchanging God who is far greater than we could ever understand;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for wisdom to properly interpret the Bible as you read through it this year;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
