- Scripture
Genesis 6:1-4
[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.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
This is Genesis Lecture [98].
In the last lecture, I explained Genesis 6:1 that says, “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them.”
The time ‘when men began to multiply on the face of the land’ refers to the time when many people began to multiply on this earth.
It also refers to the time when people were stained by sin and evil. They distanced themselves far from God.
The people of this time period lost faith in God, and became so stained by evil that moral values had become lost among them.
Genesis 6:1 ends with saying, “…and daughters were born to them,” and it is because these daughters (who were born when people began to be greatly stained by sin and evil) had something to do with the next verse.
Genesis 6:2 says, “that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.”
Let’s take a look at Genesis 6:4 together.
It says, “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.”
As you find in these 2 verses that ‘the Nephilim’ already existed back then.
Then, ‘afterward,’ ‘the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.’
And these sons of God bore children to the daughters of men, and those children were the mighty men of old, men of renown.
Then, who were the Nephilim and who were the sons of God?
Let me tell you about the ‘sons of God’ first.
Some people say they were ‘angels.’
But Hebrews 1:5 says they were not so.
It says, “For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME”?”
As said, God doesn’t call angels ‘sons.’
In addition, Jesus said in Matthew 22:30, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”
As per what the Lord said, it is clear that angels neither marry nor are given in marriage.
Therefore, ‘the sons of God’ in the scripture can never be angels.
Some others insist that ‘the sons of God’ were ‘the descendants of Seth’ who continued the legitimate genealogy of Adam.
However, this idea is not persuasive, either. . .
…because there is no evidence in the Bible that Seth’s descendants were the sons of God.
But then, who were those ‘sons of God?’
The sons of God here refer to the male descendants of Adam who lived in the Garden of Eden.
After Adam was driven out to the earth, they continued to live in the Garden.
Some of them could travel between the Garden and the earth.
Before Adam committed sin, he ruled the 2nd heaven that the Garden belongs to and the 1st heaven that the earth belongs to.
And thus he could freely travel between the Garden and the earth.
Among the descendants of Adam, many of them accompanied Adam to visit the earth.
After Adam committed sin, however, a restriction was placed on traveling to the earth.
Not just anyone could visit the earth, and they had to get the permission of cherubim that guard the gate of the spiritual realm.
As a result, those who could visit the earth became very limited in number.
The expression of the ‘sons of God’ itself shows that there was a restriction back then.
This limited number of those who could travel between the Garden and the earth falls into two groups.
The first group was the sons of God who followed Adam to settle down on this earth when Adam was driven out to this earth.
As they watched Adam manage his life on earth, they came to have longing hearts.
When compared, the Garden where they lived was a much better environment than the earth.
They were short of nothing, and they could live forever there.
However, Adam’s life on this earth, the fleshly world, looked good.
Even some people of today prefer a rural life to an urban life that is full of conveniences.
As they pursue their own life values, they choose the rural life even though it means they would have to give up the benefits of social development.
What this first group of the sons of God considered important was that they wanted to live together with their beloved Adam and Eve.
It was especially more so with those whom Adam and Eve themselves gave birth to.
And so, they left the Garden to choose this earth and settle down by themselves.
While they were coming down, they didn’t imagine that it would be impossible to live forever just they did in the Garden.
Since the average life span of the flesh was about 900 years back then, they thought they could live together forever as in the Garden.
That’s why they chose the life on the earth.
However, the number of those who made this choice was not so big.
After they settled down on the earth, they took the daughters of men as their wives.
Just like in the Garden of Eden, they married and gave birth to children following the order that God had set.
Their children were the ‘Nephilim.’
Now, the second group of those sons of God who traveled between the Garden and the earth were the people who ‘saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.’
And their children were the ‘mighty men who were of old, men of renown.’
Let me tell you in greater detail how the men from the Garden of Eden took the women of the earth.
After Adam was driven out to this earth, there were people who were curious about the situation of the earth.
They wanted to see how their forefather Adam lived his life.
Some of them settled down on the earth like Adam, and some others kept coming and going.
Those who settled on the earth were the first group that I mentioned earlier, and they didn’t bring about any problems.
On the other hand, those who kept coming and going brought the trouble.
That is, they were stained by the ‘flesh.’
As the people began rapidly multiplying on the earth, sin and evil also spread rapidly
As the men of the Garden came down to this earth and saw the fleshly people, they were also stained by the flesh.
The scripture says, “the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful” and this explains how they came to have the lust of the eyes.
Since those in the Garden of Eden are not ‘perfect spirits’ but ‘living spirits,’ if they take the flesh, the flesh can sneak into them.
They also have free will.
If they themselves take the flesh according to this free will, they can be stained by the flesh.
Since they were always protected in the Light while they were in the Garden, they didn’t take in the flesh by themselves even if they had the free will to do it.
However, as they traveled to this earth and frequently met the fleshly people, they accepted the lust of the eyes by their free will.
Then, those living spirits also came to have the lust of the flesh.
Eventually, they followed the lust to take the daughters of men as wives.
Not just one, but they took wives, whomever they chose.
You may say, “The women in the Garden must be much more beautiful than the daughters of men. Why did they take the daughters of men as their wives?”
Depending on whether the heart is spirit or flesh, the standard of beauty may differ.
The people of spirit appreciate the beauty of the scene that reminds them of the clean and pure Heaven.
On the other hand, those who pursue the fleshly beauty usually consider the thing that feels passionate and secular as beautiful.
For example, some women put a dark and smoky color of makeup on their eyes or lips.
A woman puts makeup on to look more beautiful.
If she put such a dark color of makeup on, doesn’t it mean she feels that such a color is beautiful?
Likewise, the standard of beauty between flesh and spirit is different.
The ‘sons of God’ in tonight’s scripture considered the women in the Garden more beautiful before they were stained by the flesh.
It is because the women in the Garden maintain the beauty that God originally gave them.
However, the women of this earth turned secular and lustful, and their clothes and ornaments were also attractive in a fleshly sense.
When the sons of God saw the women of this earth for the first time, they felt the sense of difference.
As they became stained by the flesh, however, those fleshly women of this earth looked beautiful.
They eventually followed their lust to take wives, whomever they chose.
What they did caused repercussions both in spirit and in flesh, and brought about great chaos.
As they took the women of this earth, they still traveled between the earth and the Garden.
As the beings that were stained by the flesh resided in the Garden that is the spiritual realm, they corrupted the order of spirit.
At the same time, they also mess up the order of the flesh.
Their disorderly life soon spread to the people of this earth.
To the eyes of the people on the earth, those from the Garden were almost like gods.
They were good looking, and they were far superior in knowledge and wisdom to the people of this earth.
Such people came down to this earth and took wives whomever they chose, and the people of this earth could quickly imitate them.
Consequently, the deeds of following the lust became rampant on this earth.
Are you wondering, “If God had completely sealed off the passageway between the Garden and this earth, it wouldn’t have happened. But why didn’t He do that?”
Our God left the process of human cultivation to the free will of man.
God neither interferes with it as He pleases, nor does He control it by force.
The reason God opened the gateway of the spiritual realm was also for Adam and his descendants.
It was God’s consideration for Adam who might miss the Garden and for Adam’s descendants in the Garden who would miss their forefather.
A part of them took the flesh by their free will, however, it resulted in messing up the orders both in spirit and in flesh.
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