Genesis 6.1-8-Satan's Attempt to Prevent the Birth of the Promised Seed
Thursday September 8, 2005
Genesis: Genesis 6:1-8-Satan’s Attempt to Prevent the Birth of the Promised Seed
Lesson # 24
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 6:1.
Genesis 6:1-8 gives us the record of Satan and the fallen angels attempt to prevent the incarnation of the Son of God by having sex with woman.
The term “incarnation” is a technical theological term, which means that the Son of God became a human being and the result of this is called the “hypostatic union,” which means that Jesus Christ is undiminished deity and true humanity in one Person forever, or in other words, He is 100% deity and 100% humanity.
By attempting to prevent God the Son becoming a human being, Satan and the fallen angels who in effect be preventing God from fulfilling His promise to Eve after the fall to give her a “Seed” who would destroy the works of the devil.
The society in the antediluvian period had deteriorated so much that now the fallen angels made a bold attempt to prevent the Son of God becoming a human being.
But, God in grace and love and in judgment thwarted their attempt by destroying every human being on the earth that was not a believer in order to ensure that His promise to Adam and Eve would be fulfilled.
Genesis 6:1, “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them.”
Genesis 6:2, “that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.”
The phrase “the sons of God” has often been interpreted as referring to the “Sethite” line, (believers) and the “daughters of men” as being the Cainite line (unbelievers), thus, they interpret this passage as being the breakdown of the separation between believers and unbelievers but this is not the case.
In the New Testament, the phrase “the sons of God” is a technical term for those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and as a result are members of the royal family of God (John 1:12; Rom. 8:14; Gal. 3:26-28) but the phrase in the Old Testament is always used of angels (Gen. 6:2, 4, Job
However, in the Old Testament, the phrase “the sons of God” (Hebrew: beneha’elohim) is a technical term that is always used for the angels, both elect and non-elect (Gen. 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7).
Job 1:6, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.”
Job 2:1, “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.”
Job 38:7, “When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
Neither the descendants of Seth nor believers of any sort have been previously referred to in Genesis as sons of God in any kind of spiritual sense and except for Adam himself, they could not have been the sons of God in a physical sense.
Now, if the phrase “the sons of God” referred to human beings who were believers, we should expect it to be applied to Noah and his sons and their wives, who were all believers who survived the flood and yet, it is not.
The “sons of God” are clearly distinct from the human race who are called “men.”
It is significant that the Septuagint (LXX) renders the phrase “sons of God” as “angels of God.”
Now, one of the objections that bible expositors have towards this interpretation that the sons of God of Genesis 6:2 and 4 are the fallen angels is the Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching concerning the angels in Matthew 22:30.
Matthew 22:30, “For in the resurrection they (human beings: male and female) neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”
The Lord is teaching that when we receive our resurrection bodies, there will be no more marriages and sexual unions but that we will be like the angels, thus indicating that angels do not have sex.
But the Lord did “not” say that the angels have never had the capacity to procreate with members of the human race and He simply taught His audience that this was clearly the case now and forever.
We can infer that after the sexual invasion of Genesis 6 by the fallen angels, God removed the ability of all the demons to appear as human beings and procreate.
Demons can manifest themselves now through demon possession meaning they can enter an unbeliever’s body but cannot possess a believer since the body of a believer is indwelt by all three members of the Trinity (Father: Eph. 4:6; Son: Col. 1:27; Spirit: Rom. 8:11).
Therefore, Genesis 6:2 teaches us that at one time during the antediluvian period the fallen angels did have the capacity to be made visible and have sex with human beings but afterwards God judged them for this sexual invasion and took away this capacity for the angels to have sex with woman.
These fallen angels were not only having sex with women but they also were possessing the bodies of the offspring of this union, who Genesis 6:4 calls “the Nephilim.”
Because of the function of human volition, a demon cannot posses a human being unless a human being chooses to let that demon do so.
Genesis 6:2 says that the fallen angels “chose” (bachar) women to be their wives who were open to demon possession and the Hebrew word for “chose” contains the idea a careful choice arising out of particular need.
Therefore, the fallen angels carefully chose those women who were unbelievers and were opened to demon possession to take part in this attempt to prevent God the Son from becoming a human being.
The fallen angels of Genesis 6 are mentioned in the New Testament.
Jude 5, “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.”
Jude 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.”
Jude 6 clearly teaches that God judged the fallen angels of Genesis 6:1-2 for abandoning their own domain.
1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”
1 Peter 3:19, “in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.”
1 Peter 3:20, “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.”
The phrase “the spirits now in prison” refers to the fallen angels of Genesis 6:2 and 4 and this is clearly indicated by the fact that this rebellion is associated with the flood judgment in the days of Noah!
2 Peter 2:4, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment.”
2 Peter 2:5, “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.”
“Cast them into hell” is the nominative masculine singular aorist active participle form of the verb tartaroo (tartarovw), which means, “to hold captive in Tartarus.”
Tartarus is one of the four compartments of Hades, which is located underneath the earth: (1) Paradise: the place of the departed souls of believers before the resurrection of Christ (Lk. 23:39-43; Eph. 4:8-9) who were transferred to heaven after the resurrection of Christ (Eph. 4:10). (2) Torments: the temporary fire for the souls of unbelievers from all dispensations (Lk. 16:19-31). (3) Tartarus: the abode of the fallen angels of Genesis 6 who had sex with woman in order to corrupt the human race and prevent the incarnation of the Son of God (1 Peter 3:18-22; 2 Peter 4; Jude 6). (4) The Abyss: the place of imprisonment for the demons who violated certain rules for angelic creation and will be released during the Tribulation (Lk. 8:30-31; Rom. 10:7; Rev. 20:1-3).
Jude 5-6, 1 Peter 3:19-20 and 2 Peter 2:4-5 all make mention of fallen angels and their activities prior to the flood of Noah, thus clearly indicating that the sons of God in Genesis 6:2 and 4 are fallen angels who were imprisoned and will remain imprisoned in Tartarus until their sentence to the Lake of Fire is executed at the end of human history (Rev. 20:10).
Genesis 6:3, “Then the LORD said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’”
Genesis 6:3 is a reference to God the Holy Spirit in common grace (grace given to every member of the human race) convicts the unbeliever that he is a sinner and needs a Savior who is Jesus Christ (John 16:7-11).
The sentence “his days shall be one hundred twenty years” does “not” refer to the lifespan of humanity but rather is a reference to a prophecy that was proclaimed one hundred twenty years before the Great Flood in the days of Noah, which was probably proclaimed by Methuselah and Noah.
The Holy Spirit through Methuselah and Noah proclaimed the Gospel of salvation to unbelieving human beings prior to the judgment of the Great Flood, thus teaching the principle that God’s grace precedes His judgment.
2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
Genesis 6:4, “The Nephilim were 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.”
The “Nephilim” were the offspring of the sexual union between “the sons of God” who were fallen angels and the “daughters of men” and were half-men and half-angel.
In the Hebrew the noun “Nephilim” means “fallen ones,” which further indicates that these individuals were half-fallen humanity and half-fallen angels.
The pantheons of Greek mythology have distorted the record of the Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6:3 replete with accounts of gods descending to earth to cohabit with beautiful women.
The half-human offspring of these unions were the demigods and heroes like the Greek Orpheus, Minos, Hercules and Perseus.
It is interesting that the Lord taught in Matthew 24:37-39 that the days preceding His Second Advent will be like the days of Noah.
Matthew 24:37, “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.”
Matthew 24:38, “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark.”
Matthew 24:39, “and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
The proliferation of unexplained occult phenomena (UFO’s, UFO kidnappings, channeling) in our day and age is an attempt by Satan to gain direct control over the souls and bodies of human beings to prevent the Second Advent of Christ just as he attempted to prevent His First Advent?
It is also interesting that genetic manipulation is taking place in our day and age where geneticists believe they will one day be able to produce a race of carbon copies of Einstein or Michael Jordan.
No doubt the fallen angels have much greater knowledge of genetics than humans and could easily produce these great giants who would be half-men and half-angel and under their control.
Genesis 6:5, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Satan and the fallen angels first captured the thinking processes of the antediluvian’s, which is indicated by the phrase “every intent of the thoughts of his (man’s) heart was only evil continually” and then, they were able to dominate their conduct, which is indicated by the phrase “the wickedness of man was great on the earth.”
Genesis 6:6, “The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
Genesis 6:6 is an “anthropopathism” meaning that the human emotions of feeling sorry and grieving are ascribed to the Lord even though He doesn’t possess these emotions and this is done by the writer in order to convey the Lord’s attitude towards the antediluvians in terms that the reader can understand.
Genesis 6:7, “The LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.’”
Genesis 6:7 is a prophecy of the coming flood that would take place in the days of Noah, which would destroy Satan’s attempt to prevent the incarnation of the Son of God, the promised “Seed” by having the fallen angels have sex with women.
Genesis 6:8, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”
Genesis 6:8 teaches that Noah was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who would be the one that the Messianic line would run through and produce the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.