Genesis 6 begins with a much debated passage:
Now it came to
Genesis 6:1-2pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
Some believe this passage is speaking of human women sleeping with evil angels or evil spirits. Some believe this passage is speaking of women becoming wives and sleeping with men of renown, kings and princes, etc. Others believe this is speaking of men from the line of Seth taking for themselves wives from the line of Cain.
I go with the latter. The latter is the least supported position amongst modern commentators and even ancient Jewish writers such as Philo and Josephus (they supported the angel and humans intercourse theory).
Why do I choose the idea of Sethites mingling with Cainites, because to me it fits in with the rest of the narrative of the Old Testament. As one will discover in later books God consistently warns God’s people not to take wives from those that are not followers of the one true God. And in multiple places in scripture when this does happen, wickedness flourishes.
I believe Genesis 6 is the first time God has chosen to teach the “unequally yoked” concept of 2nd Corinthians 6.
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
2 Corinthians 6:14, 15
Marriage to someone that does not hold the same faith as you, (this does not mean they belong to the same denomination–a committed Adventist marrying a uncommitted Adventist or a committed Baptist marrying an uncommitted Baptist, is still being unequally yoked) is a path that often leads to deterioration in ones home, ones morals, and even as we see here in Genesis 6 society.
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lordwas sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Genesis 6:5,6
There are many reasons evil spreads in the world, but in the context of Genesis 6 it is firmly rooted in the relationships ungodly marriage relationships being developed in society.
Before I begin todays blog I want to apologize to folk for confusing y’all. A few individuals said, I didn’t know if I was supposed to start on Sunday or today (Jan 1) because the plans first day is a Sunday (Romans 1 & 2) and you mentioned that we’d be in the Gospels on Sabbath (Saturday) so I thought you were following the daily plan. Well it turns out that if I didn’t start on January 1 with Romans 1 & 2 but waited ‘till Sunday, then come the end of the year I’d run out of days but I’d still have some Bible left to read. So I’m following the plan in the order of the scriptures but not the days of the week.
Now to today’s study: Genesis 1-3
Something I discovered in my study that I have taught and I realize I’ve taught it wrong is Genesis 1:31a, “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”
I’ve taught that God speaking of man and woman said, “it is very good.” The text doesn’t teach that though, it teaches God saw “ALL” that He had made and it was very good. Maybe I taught it because I like Plato want everything to revolve around us humans.
But ALL that God made was very good—nothing was just good—it was all very good.
The very good things that God gave us prior to sin that catch my attention are:
These all catch my attention because they all have been distorted by sin.
But in the midst of all that bad we see that has come out of that first sin. There is the first positive promise of the Bible…
…because there has been a negative promise is Gen. 2:17
But the first positive promise from the Bible is Gen. 3:15). I thank God for that enmity through Jesus!
Can I just say that it is sad within the church and within Christian homes one of the curses is embraced as good. All the other curses we say, “yep a result of sin” and look forward to their change back to good when God makes all things right as they were in the beginning.
But the one we treat as a positive that we must hold onto…I just don’t get…
“And he (your husband) will rule over you.” (Gen. 3:16b)
Men stop thinking being the ruler of the home is a good thing…that is one of the curses!
The saddest scriptures in all the Bible to me are also in these three chapters:
“They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden…Adam said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” Genesis 3: 8, 9
And we’ve been hiding/running from a false understanding of God ever since, thinking He is the one out to get us when really it is satan and our sin that are demanding our lives be struck down and all Jesus wants to do is find us and cover us (Gen. 3: 21) with His blood to save us. Breaks my heart! But I’m sure breaks the heart of the trinity even more!
Tomorrow: Joshua 1-5
I have been married for 11 1/2 years, I would have never even made it to the wedding day though if I had not been persistent.
In the fall of 2000 I called Christina up on the phone and asked her if she would like to go out on a date with me and a few other friends of mine. It was going to be a double or triple date, I don’t remember exactly now; Christina’s answer, I do remember this exactly, “I’m sorry I can’t. I have a big test coming-up and I’ve committed to studying tonight.” Not aware at the time of Christina’s extreme commitment to graduate Summa Cum Laude all three times she graduated (yes you read that correctly) I saw this as a classic brush off.
In the winter of 2001 some friends were having a bonfire, my college Mom Kathy said, “you should bring,” and she named a girl…I said, “no I’m not really that into her, but I know who I’ll invite,” and I ran upstairs grabbed the Joker (Southern’s student directory) looked-up Christina’s room number and gave her call, Christina’s answer, “I’m sorry I’ve already made plans to hang-out with my roommate.” Again to me a classic brush-off.
Spring of 2001 I see Christina walking on the road in front of the gymnasium as I drive by, I swing my car around (I had been going in the opposite direction) roll down my window and ask,
“Hey do you need a ride?”
Christina answers, “I’m not going far.”
“That’s okay get in I’ll take you.” So Christina got in the car and I ask, “Where are you going?”
She pointed across the street…So I drive her 100 yards across the street…and that is the beginning of it all because…
A few weeks later after a Saturday night concert on campus Christina asked me if I wanted to go hang-out with some of her friends…I was less studious and more than willing to cast aside any plans I had with friends, so I said, “Sure I’ll go.”
I am fully convinced Christina would have never asked me that night to go and hang-out with her friends, if I had not asked her out twice and flipped a U to pick her up and drive her 100 yards across the street.
Persistence.
I wish more of us Christians had persistence! I believe if we did Jesus would have a lot more names written in The Book of Life. Each one of us should be consistently, persistently inviting people to our church, to study the Bible with us, to hang-out for the purpose of witnessing and serving these individuals, to pray with us or us for them, but many of us stop at the first “No.”
And not only do we stop at the first, “No” with that individual we often times let that one “No” stop us from also engaging any other individuals ever again.
In witnessing “No” is going to be more frequent than “yes,” but persistence pays off.
It paid off in my love life and I have seen it time and time again pay off in witnessing.
In fact last week an individual I have been developing a friendship with and inviting to connect with for more than 5 months called me and left the following message on my phone, “Hi Chad this is _______ I was wondering if you would still be willing to meet and study with me and my wife?”
What do you think my answer was?
Christians be persistent! Sometimes you have to ask more than once to get to “yes.”
The following are the 10 most viewed posts on this blog for the month of April. Check out the ones you didn’t yet read.
So there you go the posts that were the most read in the month of April, 2012. Enjoy and be blessed!
On December 17, 2002 I asked this beautiful woman to be my valentine and more than 8 years later she still is my beautiful valentine. She is now also the valentine and amazing mother to our two boys. Jesus has blessed this home and we thank Him for loving us first so that we have the capacity to love one another!