When human beings began to increase in number on the
earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the
daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
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.”
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.
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. 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.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:1-8, KJV)
Years ago — while volunteering at my former church’s Sunday school — I remember watching the horror come over
the faces of the five-year-olds as the teacher told them the story of Noah and the
flood. I admit, I questioned God’s actions. It didn’t make sense to me that God
would wipe out the human race because the thoughts of their hearts were evil,
only to later send His Son to die for sinners who believed in Him, no matter
what evils they had committed. But it was a time and place when I was more interested in what the latest best-selling Christian book had to say than the Bible, so I never pursued it.
Years later, a faithful
sister in Christ explained to me that the Nephilim were the giant offspring of
fallen angels who had mated with women.
It sounded like something you would see on a television program like the
X-Files. I was highly intrigued and incredibly skeptical, which led me to dive into Scripture to
determine the truth for myself. For that alone, I will always be grateful.
I found the Nephilim again
in Numbers 13:33:
There we saw the Nephilim [or giants], the
sons of Anak, who come from the giants; and we were in our own sight as
grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. (Amplified Bible).
This confirmed that the
Nephilim were not like normal human beings.
I searched several commentaries and found an explanation that the “sons
of God” were the faithful family of Seth and the “daughters of men” were the
descendants of apostate Cain (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown). But it begged the question: How did a line of
giants result from human beings intermarrying with other human beings? They are referred to in Genesis 6:4 as “the heroes of old, men of renown” and Rob Skiba offers an excellent presentation on Greek mythology and its relationship to the Nephilim, which is worth viewing.
I did a word search on
“sons of God” and it only appears two times in the NIV (Genesis 6:2 and Genesis 6:4).
In the Amplified Bible, however, I found several passages:
Again there was a day when the sons of God
[the angels] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan (the
adversary and the accuser) came also among them to present himself before the
Lord. (Job
2:1)
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and
said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird
up now your loins like a man, and I will demand of you, and you declare to Me. Where
were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Declare to Me, if you have and know understanding. Who
determined the measures of the earth, if you know? Or who stretched the measuring
line upon it? Upon what were the foundations of it fastened, or who
laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together and all
the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job:38:1-7)
Using Scripture to
interpret Scripture led me to believe that in the Old Testament, the term “sons
of God” refers to angels. In the New Testament, it appears to refer to both
angels (Luke 20:36) and believers (Matthew 5:9, Romans 8:14, and Galatians
3:26), depending upon which translation you use.
That still left another
important question: could angels have children with women? We know that angels
appeared on earth and talked to Hagar (Genesis
16:7-11, Genesis 19:21), ate with Lot (Genesis
19:1-3), pulled Lot into the house (Genesis
19:10), seized Lot, his wife and two daughters by the hand (Genesis 19:16), touched Gideon’s staff,
meat, and unleavened cakes (Judges 6:21),
touched and spoke to Jezebel (1 Kings
19:5), went into a pool and stirred up the water (John 5:4), opened prison doors (Acts 5:19), and gently struck Peter on his side (Acts 12:7). Clearly, angels are able to physically
interact with humans in this dimension.
And if you do a word search, they appear to always be men.
As I searched further, I found
author Doug Hamp and others, who opened my eyes to believe that these fallen angels had indeed mated with
women to pollute the human gene pool and
prevent the Messiah from being born!
Or in the words of Scofield, “Whichever view is held, it is obvious that
Satan attempted so to corrupt the race that the Messiah could not come to
redeem man.”
Studies into ancient (nonbiblical)
texts like the Book of Enoch suggest that these fallen angels also procreated
with animals to create new species. Now it begins to make sense why God not only
wiped out all of humankind (save for Noah and his family), but also according
to Genesis 6:7, “the animals, the birds and the creatures
that move along the ground.”
As Hollywood prepares to
launch its blockbuster Noah movie this month, I doubt that most viewers — whether
they are believers or non-believers — will truly understand why God caused the
flood.
We should also remember that
Genesis 6:4 tells us that the
Nephilim appeared before and after
the flood. That’s a huge concern for Kingdom believers who are living in what I
believe are the last days of this age and those who will be left behind during the Tribulation. But
I will have to save that for next time.
