June 28, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Proverbs 7

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

A quick note to the railroaders in the study, I am in IP status because the Santa Fe turned out a signal on us and we misread the indication.  I have 30 days off and am very glad that I never cancelled my job insurance.  Pray for me during this time, I need to do some soul searching in regard to God’s ultimate call for my life.  I feel that this may be the time to do that, I have felt called to the ministry for some time, and hope to search out the possibilities. 

I did not post a study yesterday due to a lot of stuff going on that messed the day up.  My family is camping, so I packed my clothes after getting home and joined them.  I composed this study long-hand, then typed it into the computer, in order to conserve the battery.  Things have settled down today, and will return to the daily post of the study.

Genesis 6:1-8 (NASB95)
¹ Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, ² that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 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.” 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. 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. ⁶ The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 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.” ⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. ^[1]

God was frustrated with man.  IN verse 3 God  shortened the lifespan of man to 120 years from almost a thousand. 

Even though God was disappointed with man, do you think that God was taken by surprise by his wickedness?  No, rather God knew that man would turn from Him.  He was so concerned for each one of us that He was willing to allow men to make mistakes and willing to wipe out the race of man to start over.  Notice in verse 5, that the intent of the heart of man is continually evil, all the time.  That hasn’t changed, apparently it was much worse than it is today.

There is disagreement on who the “sons of God’ refers to.  Some believe that this is referring to men who are descendants of Adam, the thought on this is based on the idea that all men are sons of God, since He created all men.  The other thought is that these were fallen angels who mated with women and created children.  The problem here is that we don’t know if God created angels with the ability to procreate.  Some staunchly insist that angels are sexless and do not have sex organs.  I honestly do not know, since all the records of men of that time were wiped out, it is all speculation.

Numbers 13:33 (NASB95)
³³ “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Deuteronomy 3:11 (NASB95)
¹¹ (For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was an iron bedstead; it is in Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. Its length was nine cubits and its width four cubits by ordinary cubit.) ^[2]

Other references to the Nephilim point toward them being giants.  Apparently these giants lived on through the gene pool because they appear again in Numbers and Deuteronomy.  These men were very big, as is indicated by Deuteronomy.  God preserved the race of men through His design, probably through one of the people who were on the ark.

Genesis 6:9-22 (NASB95)
⁹ These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. ¹⁰ Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. ¹³ Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵ “This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ¹⁶ “You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷ “Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. ¹⁸ “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ “And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. ²⁰ “Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. ²¹ “As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.” ²² Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.^[3]

I am not going to go into the dimensions of the Ark, or the make up of it, except to say that it was huge.  I am trying to imagine how big it was, picture 18 travel trailers parked end to end, and the with of a 6 lane freeway.  Those are very rough terms, and very huge.  Noah was instructed to build a vessel the size of an ocean liner on dry ground where it had never rained before.  Some would have thought that they mis-understood God, yet Noah believed God and proceeded to follow His instructions.  He was also very wise and managed to store away food for the animals as well as himself.  God picked out an incredibly intelligent man who was able to adapt and plan for the future.

I am going to close here, enjoy the Word, marvel in it.

Father, give us wisdom as we ponder Your word, open our eyes so that we can understand and apply the Bible to our lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.