Wickedness Won't Prevail
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The Flood - Judging Wickedness
The Flood - Judging Wickedness
The flood stands as a model event when it comes to thinking about God ultimately putting right the wickedness found in the world. It is a signifcant event in the history of the world and in the story of the Bible.
Yeshua refers to the flood in Matthew 24.37 suggesting that his coming will be similar to the time when Noah was saved and the flood came and swept the unrighteous people away.
The author of Hebrews says in chapter 11 vs, 7 that by faith Noah in believing fear prepared the ark and through his actions simultatnously condemned the world and became and heir of the rightesouness that comes by faith.
Second Peter chatper 2 vs. 5 states that God did no spare the ancient world, preserving only Noah the proclaimer of righteousness when he brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly.
The message is fairly consistent that God brought the flood because of the wickedness of man. We read throughout the story of Noah that it was the wickedness of mankind on the earth that led to the flood.
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Then Adonai saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil all the time. So Adonai regretted that He made humankind on the earth, and His heart was deeply pained.
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This description is vivid. The wicked deeds of humans were very numerous upon the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil all the time. The word ‘inclination’ in hebrew is the noun יֵצֶר Yetzer and it essentially means “a thing that is made into a shape”. It’s the word you would use if you were a potter - ‘here is my Yetzer’ or my formed pot. For example Psalm 103.14 says that God knows our form, remembering that we are dust. In other words, every shaped thought in the heart of mankind was only evil all day.
And the irony is that man was the Yetzer of God. Man was the shaped vessel that God had formed. God formed man and beast from the ground. But now God was sorry and in response to the shaped thoughts in mankind’s heart, God’s own heart was deeply pained.
And so God’s response is:
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So Adonai said, “I will wipe out humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the ground, from humankind to livestock, crawling things and the flying creatures of the sky, because I regret that I made them.”
God decides on a clean slate because his pottery was ruined.
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Now the earth was ruined before God, and the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth, and behold it was ruined because all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
From God’s perspective the entire earth was corrputed, ruined, and wasted. It was filled with physical violence and injustice. So the picture we are meant to see is that as mankind filled and multiplied according to the command so did the wickedness and corruption filled and mulitply. Since mankind had already ruined themselves God was going to ruin them entirely.
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How Did It Come To This?
How Did It Come To This?
As inquistive readers of the text we should ask ourselves, how did it come to this? It’s a sad picture when you stop to think about it. What must have happened for God, who took so much pleasure in His creation, to now turn and decide to wipe all flesh from the earth?
The simple answer is disobedience. But that disobedience builds and is ampified over man’s generations and is aided by the disobedience of spiritual beings as well. The Genesis narrative is fascinating to study and it leaves breadcrumbs for us as readers to follow the themes and pictures. I followed the theme of the ground (adamah) which seems to have revealed some clues as to how we got to this point of complete ruin.
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To follow along it will be important to understand two Hebrew words.
Adam אָדָם (Adam, Mankind)
Adamah אֲדָמָה (Ground, Soil, Land)
God formed Adam from the dust of the ground (Adamah), and then God planted a Garden in an area called Eden, and placed Adam there and provided all his needs where he enjoyed a close unindered relationship with God.
Out of the ground (Adamah) the Lord caused trees to grow including the Tree of Life.
Out of the ground (adamah) the Lord formed all the beasts and birds.
So up to this point the things shaped from the adamah are good. But of course things take a turn:
The serpent, clealry a spiritual being of some kind and likely the devil assuming Revelation 12 is referring to this passage, tricked Eve, leading to Adam and Eve disobeying God’s command.
As a result, God judges the serpent, Eve, and Adam. Adam’s punishment is that the ground (adamah) is cursed and he will return to the ground (adamah) outside of the garden that God had planted.
God recognized that Adam had ‘become like one of us, knowing good and evil’. I take this to mean that in some way Adam had become like a spiritual being in heaven and now had some kind of additional knowledge.
As Adam now has no right to live forever by eating from the Tree of Life, he is banished from the orchard of delight and is sent ‘to work the ground (adamah) from which he has been taken’.
God places spiritual beings called cherubim to guard access to eternal life found in the Tree’s fruit, because Adam has no right to eat it.
Cain is a man who cultivates the ground (adamah) and brings his offering from the ground (adamah) but it is not pleasing to the Lord.
Cain becomes violent and murders Abel and his blood cries from the ground (adamah) resulting in Cain himself being cursed from even the ground (adamah) and when he cultivates the ground (adamah) it won’t even yeild, making him a nomad.
Cain is banished from the face of the ground (adamah) and hidden from God’s face.
Cain had more deecsendants and Adam had more desendants, including Seth the line where Noah comes from
Noah was born as one who ‘will give rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground (adamah) which the Lord has cursed’. Gen 5.29
And in Gen six Adam (Mankind) mulitplied on the face of the ground (adamah).
God declares he will wipe out Adam (mankind) from the face of the ground (adamah).
What we can see through this quick survey of the wordplay between Adam and Adamah is that Genesis sets forth ʾādām as the pinacle of creation and that the creation was formed around ʾādām, but unfortunately wickedness, violence and corruption had continued to increase over the generations through disobedience of both spiritual beings and mankind, to the point where God decided to destroy His Yetzer - formed work - and start all over again with a clean slate. It wasn’t enough to curse the adamah only as He did before, Adam had to be dealt with directly - so He brought the flood. In the Hebrew Scriptures there is a deep connection between man and the ground we live upon.
But the Scriptures teach that there is hope and a way around the problem - if one is found blamless and righteous and walks with God. This is of cousre how Noah is decribed in vs. 9 but Noah is a type for Yeshua HaMashiach, a prophetic picture of how redemption will utlimately come to mankind. It was because of Noah’s sacrifice we read:
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When Adonai smelled the soothing aroma, Adonai said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, even though the inclination of the heart of humankind is evil from youth. Nor will I ever again smite all living creatures, as I have done.
How much more will the sacrifice of Yeshua be a soothing aroma to Adonai? But alas it was not to be, for we are reminded not long after that Noah was a man of the adamah;
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Then Noah, a man of the soil, was first to plant a vineyard. He drank some of the wine, got drunk, and was uncovered in his tent.
We see another type, a prophetic picture of Messiah, in Abraham where the text says;
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My desire is to bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
In Abraham all the families formed from the ground will ultimately find their true Yetzer - will be truly shaped and useful for God. And of course we know that the ultimate seed of Abraham was not from Adam and but was himself directly the Son of God like Adam was, but through his deeds instead of death many have received life. Right here in the beginning of the Torah we see that the condition of Adam cannot be fixed by Adam’s efforts or his descendants, for only God can form a new Yetzer - even Noah who represents the righteous and blameless and one who walks with God will sin.
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Spiritual Wickedness
Spiritual Wickedness
We’ve talked primarily about mankind’s wickedness that increased and resulted in destruction, but is mankind the only one culpable? This is the question raised by the strange passage in Gen 6.1-4 and the enigma as to why it would be placed here just before the story of the flood.
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Now when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground and daughters were born to them, then the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good and they took for themselves wives, any they chose. Then Adonai said, “My Spirit will not remain with humankind forever, since they are flesh. So their days will be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, whenever the sons of God came to the daughters of men, and gave birth to them. Those were the mighty men of old, men of renown.
But what should we make of this passage? Who are the Sons of God?
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“sons of God” (בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים, béne-ha’elohim)
Angelic Beings (Job 1:6; 2.1; 38.7)
Seth’s Decendants
Powerful Tyrants
The Hebrew phrase translated “sons of God” (בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים, béne-ha’elohim) occurs only here (Gen 6:2, 4) and in Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. There are three major interpretations of the phrase here. (1) In the Book of Job the phrase clearly refers to angelic beings. In Gen 6 the “sons of God” are distinct from “humankind,” suggesting they were not human. This is consistent with the use of the phrase in Job. Since the passage speaks of these beings cohabiting with women, they must have taken physical form or possessed the bodies of men. An early Jewish tradition preserved in 1 En. 6–7 elaborates on this angelic revolt and even names the ringleaders. (2) Not all scholars accept the angelic interpretation of the “sons of God,” however. Some argue that the “sons of God” were members of Seth’s line, traced back to God through Adam in Gen 5, while the “daughters of humankind” were descendants of Cain. (3) Others identify the “sons of God” as powerful tyrants, perhaps demon-possessed, who viewed themselves as divine and, following the example of Lamech (see Gen 4:19), practiced polygamy.
At this point, I will say you should make up your own mind and take what I say as my opinion on a difficult passage. Having said that, I think much of the issue lies in our modern sensitivies to the supernatural realm. I find as ‘modern elightened’ creatures this simply sounds too weird to be referring to fallen angels - too mythical for our liking. So to me, the evidence is there we simply aren’t comfortable with what it is points to. So I personally take Sons of God to be diving beings but by not means do you have to follow that thinking!
It is always at the start of discussions like these I remind you - you believe that a man died, was buried and literally rose again from the dead and became king who we can’t see right now. I believe that with all my heart. It’s sounds crazy, and it is unbelievable, and yet I fully believe it. As far as I’m concernred I’m already on the crazy side of things.
It is interesting that sexual deviation preceeds the story of the flood through the story of the Sons of God, and sexual deviation follows the story of the flood, through the story of what Noah’s son Ham did. This is a warning, particularly for men, don’t deviate from God’s design through your sexual desire for it will lead you astray.
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Again the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before Adonai, and the satan also arrived among them to present himself before Adonai.
The term Sons of God here cleary refers to divine beings and so I read Gen 6 as stating that divine beings, fallen angels, came down and had sexual relations with the daughters of Adam - humans. This relationship was sinful and it seems likely to me, though not guaranteed, that Scripture is implying it was this unholy mixing that produced distorted offspring, namely, giants. This also appears to be the predominant view during the 2nd temple period. Josphues, the first century Jewish historian writes;
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(73) for many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, That these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants. (Ant 3.73)
Philo also calls these ‘angels of God’ in his writings;
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II. (6) “And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, they took unto themselves wives of all of them whom they chose.” Those beings, whom other philosophers call demons, Moses usually calls angels; and they are souls hovering in the air. [Philo (On the Giants)]
In the book of Maccabees Simon the high priest prays;
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You destroyed those who in the past committed injustice, among whom were even giants who trusted in their strength and boldness, whom you destroyed by bringing on them a boundless flood.
We can see that the idea is that the divine beings are presumed to be in view and that the giants were the offspring of an unholy union and were wicked.
Caveat on the non scriptural writings.
The book of Jubliees is a book from what is called the Pseudepigripha which essentially is a fancy term for ‘false writings’ because the writings in this category are purpoted to be written by some ancient person of importance even though it wasn’t the case. According to most scholars the book was written in the second century BC and is an account of events predating Moses that were revealed to Moses by an angel when he was on the mountain for 40 days.
It describes that the angles of Adonai took the daughters of men as wives and their offspring were the giants. Wickedness grew to such an extent that mankind began to eat one another. This forced God to pronounce judgment on man and all flesh on the earth. But it goes on to say that Adonai also judged His angels who he had sent to the earth and commanded that they be bound in the depths of the earth and isolated there. And a judgment went out from God so that the offspring of these angels, the giants, began killing each other and ultimately wiped out. And the parents of these giants were bound in earth until the day of great judgment.
Similarly, the Book of 1st Enoch, another Pseudipigraphic writing from around the 2nd BC to 1st AD, describes the events surrounding the flood. This book is said to have been written by Enoch who was given a series of visions and tours of the earth, Sheol and the heavens.
In Enoch’s telling of the story we get a much more expanded and elaborated view. There are said to be angels that make an oath together to take wives from the women on earth. In the story these chief angels know that what they are proposing is a sin and rebellion and so they bind each other with an oath. Upon taking wives, these angels teach the women all forms of magic, divination, incantations and other evils. Eventually the women give birth to the giants that were so hungry the people kept feeding them produce of the land and when they couldn’t feed them anymore the giants turned on the people and started eating them, and began to sin against the animals as well and eventually they started to devour one another and drink their blood.
So it was these fallen angels that taught how to make swords, knives, magic, astrology and other things contrary to what God desired for the people - they taught the people the secrets of heaven that they weren’t supposed to know. And the people suffered under this situation, cried out and their case was presented in heaven to the Most High which resulted in the flood. As part of that judgment, the Most High sent Raphael to bind the ringleader along with the other fallen angels and throw them into a deep dark hole in the desert and place sharp rocks overtop as a prison until they can be sent into the fire on judgment day. The angels even ask Enoch to plead their case before the Most High but the judgment reserved for them is unmovable and severe.
There is a lot going on there but the main point to be made is that the Sons of God was clearly understood to refer to fallen angels and the connection between the sins of the divine beings and the resultant flood is much more amplified.
This may all sound very strange to us, and again there are others who take a different view to all of this so feel free to disagree, but I personally think it is important to understand this line of thinking because it informs our understanding of what the writers of the Apostolic Scriptures taught.
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And the angels—who did not keep their own position of authority but deserted their proper place—He has kept in everlasting shackles under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great Day.
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In the same way as these angels, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them—having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after a different sort of flesh—are displayed as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
That passage makes much more sense to me now that I have understood Genesis 6 to be referring to a divine rebellion that resulted in wickedness and sin upon the earth, and now that I understand the background beliefs that existed during the 2nd temple period. The sexual deviancy was on display in Genesis 6 and it is also on full display in our society. It is reaching another level! The grooming of children, trans activism, normalization of pedophilla, child trafficking, adultery websites you can simply click and cheat - it is mulitplying on the earth and we had better recongize it for what it is. A serious wickedness.
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For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into Sheol. He put them in chains of gloomy darkness, to be held until the judgment. He did not spare the ancient world. He preserved only Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, along with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.
The greek actually doesn’t say Sheol but it says “casting them into Tartarus” or “holding them captive in Tartarus.” This verb, ταρταρόω (tartaroō), occurs only here in the Apostolic Scriptures, but its meaning is clearly established in both Hellenistic and Jewish literature. “Tartarus [was] thought of by the Greeks as a subterranean place lower than Hades where divine punishment was meted out, and so regarded in Israelite apocalyptic as well”.
The angels left their position, rejected the authority of God, were put into prison and this had an effect upon mankind resulting in an amplification of wickedness. That is why Genesis 6 starts off with these few verses about the Sons of God.
But what is also interesting is where the Scripture departs from the non scriptural writings - the emphasis. The emphasis is on mankind and the spiritual realm is there in Scripture but it is more of a sidenote, almost as if it had to be mentioned but should be the main focus. The Torah teaches us that our focus should be on our ways as mankind upon the adamah.
That passage in Peter is referring to flase teachers. The false teachers and false prophets are those who secretly bring in destructive heresies. With the background we have read I have a new appreication for what Scripture teaches us here regarding false teachers. It is a fascinating description of wickedness and the effect of false teachers. Their poison spreads to all who accept it just like the Sons of God infected and taught mankind wicked things. Peter is saying that just like those angels have been judged so too will these false teachers face a severe judgment.
The message is you can be like Noah! You can walk blameless in your generation despite what wickednees is multipliying around you. You can avoid the flood because God will provide everything you need to escape the coming judgment that the wicked are destined for. This is precisly how Peter concludes;
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Therefore the Lord certainly knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and how to keep the unrighteous being punished until the Day of Judgment— especially those who follow after the flesh in its unclean desires and who despise the Lord’s authority. Brazen and arrogant, these people do not tremble while slandering glorious beings;
Peter continues in his point in chapter 3;
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Loved ones, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you. In both I am trying to stir you up by way of a reminder to wholesome thinking— to remember the words previously proclaimed by the holy prophets and the commandment of our Lord and Savior through your emissaries.
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First of all, understand that in the last days, scoffers will come scoffing, following after their own desires and saying, “Where is this promise of His coming? Ever since the fathers died, everything goes on just as it has from the beginning of creation.”
We are called to have wholesome thinking. The Yetzer of our hearts should be inclined upon good. Our mind should be upon the words of the prophets and the command of Yeshua our Lord and Saviour as presented to us through the apostles.
What is a sign of the last days? That scoffers will come mocking the return of Yeshua saying that nothing has really changed since the beginning. But that is not true says Peter in the verses that follow. By the word of God the flood came and destroyed the scoffers of old, and by the same word the present heaven and earth are being reserved for fire - kept until the Day of Judgment and the destruction of ungodly people as the Scriptures state.
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Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what kind of people should you be? Live your lives in holiness and godliness,
and just like Noah
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Therefore, loved ones, while you are looking for these things, make every effort to be found in shalom, spotless and blameless before Him.
The message Peter gives is consistent whenever we read about the flood. When Yeshua spoke about the flood the main point is that we should be ready. We should be sober. We should be living like we know the flood is coming and won’t be caught off guard and swept away with the wicked and violent that surrounds us.
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For Messiah once suffered for sins also—the righteous for the unrighteous—in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Ruach. Through the Ruach He also went and preached to the spirits in prison.
Peter’s audience was suffering persecution living in a wicked environment. In such an environment Peter reminds them to repay evil with good - that reminder is for us just the same. Always be ready to present your case for someone who asks about the hope you have. The righteous Messiah Yeshua suffered for the unrighteous in order to bing us to God.
Again there is debate on what it means ‘And preached to the spirits in prison.’
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Two main choices
Messiah’s victory proclamation to the fallen angels
Messiah’s proclamation of repentance to the people through Noah
(1) Christ’s announcement of his victory over evil to the fallen angels who await judgment for their role in leading the Noahic generation into sin; this proclamation occurred sometime between Christ’s death and ascension; or (2) Christ’s preaching of repentance through Noah to the unrighteous humans, now dead and confined in hell, who lived in the days of Noah.
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Long ago they disobeyed while God kept waiting patiently, in the days of Noah as the ark was being built. In that ark a few (that is, eight souls) were brought safely through water. Corresponding to that, immersion now brings you to safety—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but a pledge to God of a good conscience—through the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua.
The point though is that just like Noah had to endure the wickedness around him, while remaining blameless in his generation, he overcame through God’s help. While spirits and people were disobeying, Noah was building the ark in order to escape the waters of judgement. We often miss that God was paitently waiting for Noah to complete the ark! This is what delayed the judgment - the preparation of the righteous. Peter speaks about this in second Peter - this is the response to the scoffers - the lord is now slow but he is purposely delying his coming so that we might be ready and spotless and blameless.
In the same way we, like Noah, see the judgment coming and our approach to salvation is to pledge our loyalty toward God which is demonstrated by being immersed into Yeshua the messiah so that when the fire comes we will escape through His resurrection. Our world is getting worse, wickedness is growing as the Western socieites built upon Judeo Christian values now cast aside the God of their fathers and all that they handed down. Mishpocha, this is the time to build the ark, to press in by clinging to Messiah Yeshua.
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He has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels and authorities and powers subjected to Him.
Because Yeshua has already defeated the wicked enemy and “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angles and authories and powers subjected to Him.”