MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Text: Genesis 6:1-8; Matthew 24:36-44
People love to speculate on the timing of Jesus’ return to earth. Here is what Jesus had to say about the timing of his Second Coming:
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36)
If we can’t know the exact timing of his return, is there anything we can know? Yep. Using his favourite term for himself, the “Son of Man”, God’s Messiah whom the prophet Daniel predicted would come to earth, Jesus said this about his Second Coming:
“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” (Matthew 24:37-42)
The day of Noah sounds like our day and age, doesn’t it? It could have fit many other ages throughout human history, as well, but to every person Jesus says this, “Keep watch!” Then,
“But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Matthew 24:43-44)
“Keep watch!” “Be ready!” We have been brainwashed in our schooling to think that our day is different, better, than all previous ages. We are nothing like the “ignorant masses” we were taught lived way back when. But guess what? We are not that different. Not in morals or ethics or in listening to God’s Word or in taking Jesus’ warnings seriously, or even in technology. Archaeology has blown up the picture we have been told about the days of Noah. I guarantee that this sermon will hurt your brain. Your thoughts will convulse. Let’s start:
Ancient civilizations were very advanced…
Consider what archaeologists have discovered: that all around the planet is evidence of advanced societies from the day of Noah. Incredible discoveries about the “ignorant masses” have been uncovered, showing that many of them were quite sophisticated, such as the
Amazing Sumerian knowledge of our solar system – https://www.instagram.com/bright_insight/p/CyBUNzwLQFM/?img_index=1
Over 6,000 years ago, the Sumerians crafted detailed clay maps which seem to be of the solar system, depicting the Sun as the central star in our solar system, around which 8 planets revolve, and accurately illustrating the orbits and positions of the planets. Sumer, an ancient civilization in Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq, the place of the later Tower of Babel, and the most likely spot of the Garden of Eden, was remarkably advanced. Not only did have some understanding of the solar system, it would seem – a thing that Europeans would not determine until just a few hundred years ago – but the Sumerians also knew about and had drainage systems that took care of wastewater and sewage. The Sumerians devised the 60 seconds to a minute and 60 seconds to an hour system of time that we still employ. Sumer was the birthplace of writing, the wheel, agriculture, the arch, the plough, irrigation, and many other innovations, and is often referred to as the “Cradle of Civilization”. The Sumerians knew about the Pythagorean Theorum concerning the three sides of a right triangle, 3,000 years before the famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras did. Sumer was an advanced civilization, indeed! But, going across the Pacific Ocean, consider the
Precise masonry at Ollantaytambo in Peru – https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=974136421418013&set=a.563681802463479&type=3&mibextid=WC7FNe&rdid=BcdtyFDbIRAndEJP&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F19UnnBGk95%2F%3Fmibextid%3DWC7FNe
How did the ancient Incas cut those gigantic stones so finely? With what tools did the do so? Those have been the questions for centuries? Those cuts are so fine that they can be replicated only by modern laser beam cuts, so how did the ancient Incas do that? Well, scholars perplexed over this until researchers from universities in Latin America realized in recent decades that the “stones” had not been cut at all because they were not real stones. They are not natural rocks, at all. In analyzing the so-called “rocks of the giants” (as they were called because only giants would be strong enough to move or carry those several-tons weighing stones 9,000 feet up mountainsides), researchers discovered that the stones are not natural rocks, at all, but synthetic rocks, or ‘geopolymers’. This means that the Inca people would not have transported stones up the mountains but sacks of ‘ingredients’ to make the synthetic rocks directly on site, something done by mixing all the ingredients into liquid form, which would then become “rocks” before their eyes as they would liquidize and then be poured into molds, forming themselves into “rocks”. No cutting was involved. Only molds. This process of making a ‘geopolymer’ is absolutely scientific, but has been done in modern times only since the 1950’s. This happened also back across the ocean in Egypt. For example,
Egypt’s Snefru’s Rhomboid Pyramid is not made of limestone, but of ‘synthetic’ rock, or geopolymers – https://www.britannica.com/place/Blunted-Pyramid
Researchers have discovered that the cladding covering Snefru’s Rhomboid Pyramid in Egypt is not made of limestone, but of ‘synthetic’ rock, or geopolymers. The same has been discovered about some blocks of the Great Pyramid of Giza: they are not limestone, they are ‘geopolymers’. This means that what we were taught – that the Israelite slaves made the pyramids – didn’t happen (the Bible never says it happened, to be precise) as the pyramids were there many centuries before the Israelites, possibly in the day of Noah. No one knows when they were built. This jaw-dropping discovery could completely upend everything we thought we knew about ancient human history and how Egypt’s ancient pyramids were made. Our understanding of ancient history is being rewritten in our day thanks to archaeology discoveries. So, what happened to those ancient civilizations? The Bible suggests that what happened was the great Flood of Noah’s day. We will talk more about that in the coming weeks but, first, today’s passage contains some of the most debated, controversial, and explosive verses in the entire Bible. We will be going slowly through them, one or two verses at a time, starting now.
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them. (Genesis 6:1)
As a boy, I was taught about the generations of Adam and Eve’s family down to the time of Noah and it was implied that there really weren’t that many people around, a few hundred or thousands. But the Bible here says that “human beings began to increase in number”. To what number, one may wonder? If we use the genealogy and the long lifespan numbers found in Genesis 5 to calculate how much time passed from the day of Adam to the day of Noah and how many people would have been on earth in that time period of 1,656 years, and if we simply use the population growth percentage of recent years (e.g., 1.13% population growth rate in 2016), that mean there were about 241 million people on earth in the day of Noah. The population did, indeed, multiply, at a much larger rate than all of us were led to believe. We read,
The sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. (Genesis 6:2)
Human women had attracted the attention of a group of men called “the sons of God” who took them as their wives, it what seems to have been a forceful manner. In the Kingdom of Swaziland (which changed its name in 2019 to Eswatini) located inside South Africa, the king annually has 3,000 unmarried young women parade topless before him, and he chooses one of them to be his next wife. It is a sinful, disturbing practice but it seems to reflect the practice of the “sons of God” who forcibly choose “beautiful” women to be their wives. But,
Who were “the sons of God”? Four proposals have been made.
- Powerful rulers controlled/indwelled by demons.
In the Ancient Near East, some rulers were identified as the “son” of a particular god, e.g. in Egypt where the king was called the “son of Re (their main god)”. That pattern was also true in other Ancient Near Eastern societies. Because they were not followers of YHWH and because their lifestyles were fully hedonistic and sinful, the proposal has been put forward that the “sons of God” were not good individuals, even demonized ones. However, this first proposal has not gained as much of a following as has the second proposed explanation as to who the “sons of God” were, which claims they were
- Fallen angels (demons) who came to earth in human bodies
According to this view, the ‘sons of God’ were fallen angels who took the form of masculine human-like creatures and married women of the human race. Their resulting offspring were a superhuman race of giants known as the “Nephilim”, this viewpoint teaches, but there are problems with this suggestion. While it is true that in the Old Testament, the phrase “sons of God” is used in referring to certain angels, it is also used in reference to humans. As well, God’s coming judgment in the Flood was not described as being towards fallen angels but against humans, which means that the “sons of God” were not angelic or demonic. A third proposed explanation is that the “sons of God” were
- Sons of Seth
This third proposed explanation of who the “sons of God” were states that they were the male descendants of the godly or righteous line of Seth, who were attracted to the beautiful daughters or descendants of the ungodly line of Cain. This is a common teaching among many theologians. But, why then, wouldn’t Moses, the writer of Genesis, have simply called them the “sons of Seth”. The “sons of God” phrase when applied to Seth’s line makes no sense and has no scriptural support. In my opinion, the most plausible of the four proposed explanations is one that is not exciting or titillating. It does not involve demons or angels or supernatural beings. So, it doesn’t tantalize anyone. It is boring, I know. The proposal is this: the “sons of God” were
- Human rulers, the sons of kings or princes who were called “sons of God”.
This has nothing to do with demons or fallen angels or sinful human men, sorry. The proposal is simply that human kings in the Ancient Near East called themselves and their sons, the princes, “sons of God”, as a way of bolstering their own authority and prestige. They had enough authority, as with the modern-day king of Swaziland, to take their pick of beautiful women, just as was also common among certain sinful Old Testament kings as well as other kings in the Ancient Near East, making those women part of their harem. In any case, this passage shows that God wasn’t about to stand back and do nothing about the sinful situation in that day of Noah. First,
Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3)
God’s Spirit, in this sense, His “breath of life” which keeps humans alive, would not stay in humans any long, when compared with the extraordinarily long lifespans found preflood. God saw that the long preflood lifespans allowed for sin to flourish, given the evil that was taking place on the earth. It is fascinating to note that the new maximum lifespan for human life, post Flood, that God decreed, at 120 years, has stayed consistent since the day of Noah. Plus, when Moses, in Psalm 90:10 later states that, ‘Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures’ we can see that the normal lifespan for a human being between 70 and 80 years has also stayed constant.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:4)
Notice that the Nephilim themselves were not called “sons of God” but
Who were the Nephilim?
They were the children of the “sons of God” and the women they married. The Nephilim were very tall humans, “giants” in the eyes of those viewing them, men with a physical prowess. Those powerful men established themselves as “heroes and famous warriors”. Today, there are certain people groups, such as the Dutch in The Netherlands and the people of South Sudan, who are extraordinarily tall when compared to the rest of us. My surname Cline (originally Klein) means “little” so my forefathers were not Nephilim, of that I am sure!
The idea that Nephilim are still roaming the earth tantalizes people, gripping their imagination. Certainly, many Hollywood tv shows and movies, as well as science fiction writings, have had Nephilim as part of their storylines.
Now, in Numbers 13:32 and 33, when the Israelite spies went into the Promised Land to gain intelligence about what they would be facing, they came back with the terrifying report: “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” That report convinced the frightened Israelites to not enter the Promised Land at that time. When they finally did enter the land, not quite 40 years later, guess what they found? There were no Nephilim there! The “giants” they had so feared were just figments of their imaginations. The Nephilim were all in their minds. Perhaps this is a lesson for us as we face our own fearsome “giants”, that they might are so big and terrifying and powerful as we have been thinking, after all! It is worth noting that the Nephilim are not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. They play no role in God’s saving of His people. That lack of focus on them should indicate to us that they are not worth zeroing in on. I personally do not believe that the phrase they appeared “in those days – and for some time afterward” was referring to the Nephilim but to the mighty men of old, the warrior kings. In any case, pressing on in Genesis 6, we read,
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. (Genesis 6:5,6)
God took a look and didn’t like the sin he saw going on with humans. Human actions and thoughts were evil and seeing how far humans had fallen since being evicted from the Garden of Eden caused God substantial grief. After all, God does feel emotion. He rejoices when things are going well with His children, and He is sad when things are going poorly. God is not a stoic clockmaker who created and then handed His creation over, never to care about it, again. It must be stated that God doesn’t get a sadistic kick out of judgment, and He only brings judgment after He has repeatedly warned and appealed to His people to turn away from continuing doing a thing that will end up hurting them. But, even in the coming Flood in the day of Noah, God’s grace and favour would also be coming. But, first, we must read,
So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:7)
This is the most devastating of all the verses in the Old Testament, showing God’s deep sorrow and regret. But, for me, it raises two questions. First, did God change His mind? The answer is, “No”. It’s entirely possible for a person to feel unhappiness over a situation, without regretting having ever engaged in that situation. This is what was happening with God. While God was sorry that humanity had come to the state it was in, and while His decision to create humans was causing Him emotional personal grief, the text is not saying that God believed He had made a mistake in creating humans. Second question: why is God committing Himself to destroying animals and birds, along with humans? This is an issue the Bible gives virtually no guidance about, but which shows God’s sad emotional response to the state of His creation, a statement that is purposeful exaggeration, to strongly make the point. Jewish people today still use hyperbole in their normal way of talking. Jews of old did, as well, and God did here. So, His expressed statement that he will wipe out all things was…
Hyperbole, for God did not wipe out all living things.
This fact will be seen in the coming Flood, where God did not wipe out all things, but rather saved all things. Today’s passage ends this way:
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:8)
After the finality of God’s statement in the previous verse, verse 8 catches us by surprise in that it states that one man, Noah, has found favour or grace in God’s eyes. That is a statement of hope! We see…
Even in the midst of terrible things, God extended hope.
In these first eight verses of Genesis 6, we have seen that the world became so bad that God decided to start over. When God saw how bad things were, He made two decisions: he decided to judge the world and to save the world. He would judge the world through a flood. He would save the world through a man, Noah. God set his favour upon a righteous man who would save the world through his obedience in building, stocking, and boarding a wooden vessel.
When sin was at its peak, we read that Noah found favour and grace in the eyes of the Lord. That’s a great encouragement to us for it mirrors the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 5:20 that “Where sin abounds, grace abounds more”. In his grace to us, Jesus warns to “Keep watch!” and to “Be ready!” Judgment came in the day of Noah, but so did God’s favour, grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness. A day of judgment is certainly coming again. We don’t know when Jesus will return, but we do know he will, and when he does, judgment will happen. But his favour, grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness will be made available to all who heed his words and turn to him. Make sure that you “keep watch” and “be ready”! When, you do, you will be saved.
