Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19990711.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part II - The Source Of Calamity In Our Origins
E. The Great Spiritual Effects Of Whom We Choose To Marry
(Genesis 6:1-7)
  1. Introduction
    1. Most young people seek to find a right partner to marry, have some children and live happily ever after.
    2. However, the adjective "right" describing marital partner is an incredibly loaded adjective, and Genesis 6:1-7 reveals the enormous long-term effects on happiness of just who a given party selects for a spouse.
  2. The Great Spiritual Effects Of Whom We Choose To Marry, Genesis 6:1-7.
    1. According to Jesus, just before God's judgment of the flood fell on Noah's wicked generation, the world was hedonistic in its preoccupation with marrying, being given in marriage and partying, Matt. 24:37-39.
    2. Similarly, Genesis 6:1-7 reveals that errant spousal selection by the godly led to such artificial lifestyles:
      1. When man began to live on earth after the Fall, their long life spans coupled with reproductions led to a huge growth in the world's population, Genesis 6:1 with the long life spans of Genesis 5:3-32.
      2. This population growth brought godly and ungodly people into close contact with one another!
      3. In time, the godly line of Seth began to interact so as to marry into Cain's line for lustful reasons, 6:2.
        1. Some Bible scholars think that because the term, "sons of God" is used predominantly of angels in the Old Testament that Genesis 6:2 states demons cohabited with women to produce offspring, cf. Bible Knowledge Com., O.T., p. 36. However, this violates Jesus' instruction that angels are asexual, neither marrying as men nor being given in marriage as women, Matthew 22:30.
        2. Another view is to take "sons of God" to mean demon-possessed men , Ibid. However, there is nothing in the context to suggest that the term "sons of God" refers to men in this state.
        3. A better view is to see the term "sons of God" reflecting conceit, "the proud overstepping of bounds" where men full of lust in selecting women only on outward appearance (Gen. 6:2a) did so in an arrogant disr egard for divine interests, Ibid.
        4. In the context, this seems to fit better as follows: (a) the chapter before Genesis 6:1-2 records the line of Seth, the godly third predominant son of Adam and Eve. Thus, "sons of God" would fit at least the context of the "godly line " through Adam. (b) The Hebrew term for "took wives" in Gen. 6:2 is the one usually referred to human marriage as opposed to adulterous unions, H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis, v. i, p. 253. Thus, it would fit the idea of human men and women being joined in marriage. (c) Jesus' reference to the people marrying and being given in marriage along with much partying in Matthew 24:37-39 pictures humans, not angels and humans being united!
        5. Thus, there was a break-down in the selection of spouses where godly and ungodly people were being united as the godly were selecting partners based on looks as opposed to godliness! (Gn. 6:2)
      4. The offspring of these marriages turned out to pick up the apostasy of Cain's line more readily than going with the life of faith of Seth's line, causing for deterioration in home life, Genesis 6:3:
        1. God had up until then worked to restrain sin's influence in men, Genesis 6:3 implied.
        2. However, the tendency of the godly to intermarry with the godless to produce a whole race of wicked men (6:4) led the race to be "plain, ordinary, weak and sinful stock," Ibid., Leupold, p. 255.
        3. Thus, God decided to give up on working with man in 120 years, Genesis 6:3. We know from the comment in 1 Peter 3:20 that this was how long Noah took to build the ark before the Flood.
        4. God was grieved that He had even made man because his wickedness was only continually evil, 6:5.
        5. Thus, errant spousal selection eventually led to God's decision to destroy the earth with the Flood and start over with Noah and his kin and the animals that came with him on the ark, Genesis 6:7-8.
Lesson: The godly line of Seth departed from fellowship with God to intermingle with Cain's line, and that produced a humanity so debased that it led to the divine destruction of the whole world!

Application: (1) We must fellowship with God (2) to stay separate from the godless and (3) avoid lust versus Gen. 6:2 to (3) choose an UPRIGHT spouse for the RIGHT reasons! (4) Then we can raise our children in a home conducive to godliness (5) to offer them (6) and someday their kin a FUTURE!