As each generation passed, men were moving farther and farther away from God, so that by the time of Noah and a bit more than 120 years before the Flood, Genesis 6:5 records that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuously. It was so bad that God determined to bring a judgment down on billions existing in those days where every imagination of their thoughts of men were evil continuously. With an eye to continue moving His plan forward, He gave Noah the tools he needed by His grace to build the ark as God patiently continued to move His plan forward toward the promise of the merciful redemption He had given in the Garden.
This section of Genesis 6 has been the subject of much speculation over the years. But as Jesus Christ's own words tell us, angels were not created to have sexual relationships with men, even though we can see that it certainly seems to be clear from the biblical reference to angels that we see also in Job 1:6, 2:1, and 38:7 that these probably were angels, referred to as the sons of God.
But keep this in mind, God creates kind after kind. Angels cannot cross over that line even in disobedience to God. However, as men take themselves out from under God's protection by blatantly disobeying His laws, they put themselves at risk of demonic influence, even in some cases, demonic possession as we clearly see in the Gospels.
With this in mind here is a very clear and important warning we can glean from the scripture to be cautiously applied for us living in these last days. It is from Richard Ritenbaugh's sermon, The Days of Noah. Although given back in 2008, it is a look into today and what lies immediately ahead, because God is continuing to make sure that all men will ultimately understand that everything depends on Jesus Christ.
Brethren, it was Satan's demonic attitudes and methods that were driving men who had removed themselves far from God, that they left themselves wide open to having every thought they had to be evil continuously. It was the same demonic spirit that would eventually drive those Jesus Christ spoke to as recorded in John 8:43-47, to crucify Him, because they loved not the truth, to live it. Jesus Christ said:
It is the same demonic influence that will produce the end time Nephilim and society as in the days of Noah, so driven by the spirit of Satan and his demons that every imagination from the heart of men will be evil continuously. The only exception will be those who are faithfully learning and living the Word of God through Jesus Christ.
Remember I said that as an organization gets larger and becomes more complex, government becomes more and more difficult; and it is more and more important that there be consent of the governed toward the constituted authority. And that is exactly what we begin to see here in chapter 6. As the population increased on earth, the problems became greater and greater because that population was not submitting to the constituted authority - which was God!
What is God doing here? God is showing what will result, generally, when the rejection of government occurs and, specifically, when God's government is rejected. When government is rejected it produces anarchy, which usually begins first to be seen in the home. That's why this chapter is introduced the way it is - focusing on marriage. That is where the breakdown first begins to appear. The homes begin to be places of instability, rather than places of stability because the government within the home is also being rejected.
Then it begins to appear in society - out on the street. And it keeps getting stronger and stronger (unless something is done about it) until it will lead to anarchy. But even that is not the end of it. What does this chapter show you? How does it conclude? This section concludes with the extinction of mankind. That is pretty sobering.
Again, remember that God is showing us these principles in great, broad strokes, but there are wonderfully clear principles that we can gather from it. When government begins to be rejected, it will lead to the extinction of the institution - whether family, whether organization, whether it even be life on the earth. So either mankind submits, or it becomes extinct. Either we will wipe ourselves out through the anarchy, or God will intervene and do it for us (to save us the agony of experiencing the anarchy).
In these two scriptures that we have seen, these two passages, I am going to try to take them together. God compares them, angels that is, which He calls sons of God, He compares them to us, to humans. And we can surmise again that God must have created them individually because they have different functions, different strengths, different talents. And there is nothing in the Bible that would give us an idea or where it would be conclusive that they are sexual beings at all, unlike human beings. God made us male and female, and we can reproduce ourselves. But we have no conception from the Bible that they are able to reproduce in any way. So they must have been created individually and have a fixed population now. There is only so many angels.
Now, maybe some of you are thinking about Genesis 6:2, where it talks about the sons of God finding the daughters of men beautiful and they came down and produced the Nephilim. If you go back to my sermons on the great Flood (I believe it is in the first or second sermon), I show that that can be explained without assuming that angels are sexual, or that they can have sexual liaisons with human women. I do not believe that at all, that they created a race of demigods or giants by having sexual relations with human women. That just does not fit the rest of the Bible. So, like I said, if they do not have a sexual reproductive component to them, then they do have a fixed population. They can only be created, not born.
Now, we can read all that in two or three minutes, and because it takes such a short time and it is just words on a page, we tend to ignore or dismiss the time element in all of this. God appears to call Noah to his task 120 years before the Flood. I am just assuming that. It is disputed that God told him at that time. But let us just take it as written, that God said there is 120 years, Noah has found favor in My eyes, this is what you are going to do.
And so he did it, and waited and waited and waited. Noah had to act in faith to build the ark as efficiently as possible so that it would be ready when God sent the Flood. And if God did not tell him that it was 120 years, he had to be ready at any time.
Noah was an exceptionally faithful man. It says that at the end of chapter 6, he did everything as God commanded. And actually, it said it several times throughout this story. Chapter 7, verses 5, 9, 16, I think that was the last time. But it is mentioned at least four times in Noah's story that he did everything exactly as God commanded. And one of the things that he did perfectly was wait, wait with faith and righteousness. And when the Flood came, he was ready, the ark was ready, his family was ready.
