The Discipline of Mankind - Genesis 4-7

Genesis 6:1-4 (ESV)

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

Genesis is written to show us the beginning of things.  That is what the word genesis means.  In the above passage God is going to tell us why the flood.  This chapter is the record of the beginning of God’s total wrath on man for his sin.  To understand these four verses we can lose sight of what God is telling in the book.  The reason to stay focus on this point is that there are many interpretations about who God is referring to in the phrase sons of God.   Who is that?  

Here is what one commentary states about the phrase:

(Understanding the Bible Commentary Series - Old Testament Set (18 vols.)) There are three leading proposals for the identification of the sons of God. 

1. The first is that they were heavenly beings. Consumed by lust, angels cohabited with human women, thereby transgressing the boundary between the divine and the human realms. The offspring from these unions possessed extraordinary abilities. Lacking moral constraints, they used their abilities to promote wickedness. 

2. A second proposal is that the sons of God were the mighty rulers of old. Flaunting their power, they built harems by marrying whomever they wished. Thus, their sin was polygamy, which led to a rapid increase in population. 

3. The third possibility is that the sons of God were the men of Seth’s line and the daughters of men were the offspring of Cain. These women from the rebellious line of Cain led the Sethites into the pleasures of sin, thereby over time squelching the worship of the one God Yahweh. The scenario of righteous men chasing or marrying beautiful, foreign women and being led into the worship of other gods is a recurring theme in the OT, as in the incident at Baal-Peor (Num. 25:1–2) and the apostasy of Solomon (1 Kgs. 11:1–13).

It is important to remember the context of this passage.  That is often to key to understand what a writer (in this case, Moses) is trying to tell us.  God, through Moses, is telling us the reason for the flood.  He is showing us the downward trend of mankind because of their depravity. 

Earlier in Genesis this was said about mankind:

Genesis 4:26 (ESV)

To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.

Men were calling on the name of the Lord.  But sin began to consume mankind.   Whatever this act in verses one and two might be, it caused this different response from God about mankind in verse three:

Genesis 6:3 (ESV)

Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

Something happened between chapter 4 and chapter 6 to cause man to go from calling on the name of the Lord to suddenly striving with the Lord.  

It should be noted that verse four might give us a clue about who these sons of God were. It simply states:

Genesis 6:4 (ESV)

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

The Nephilim were giant men. There is nothing to tell us more than that.  God seems to  be telling us that these “sons of men” were some type of giant men who were mighty and renown.   But they were renown for their sin.  This caused God to send the flood.  

We don’t have to read into the Scriptures more than what is there.  God has told us from chapter 4 to chapter 6 that mankind has gone from calling on Him to rebellion against Him.  The stronger and more mighty they have become the less they called upon the Lord and the less they thought they needed the Lord.  Hence the need for the flood.  When mankind rebels against God, God sends discipline to mankind.