FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 8, number 46, November 12, 2009
. . . the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, Genesis 6:4.
The recent murders of Annie Le, the Yale University graduate student, and Jasper Howard, the UConn football player, are the latest acts of virulent evil in our day. What brings a young man, in an outburst of anger, to strangle a small, defenseless young woman with his hands? And what causes someone (at the time of this writing a suspect from nearby Bloomfield and not a UConn student has been charged with the murder) to kill someone else with a knife?
Why do these random acts of violence occur and what is the remedy for them? Genesis 6:1-4 is a transition passage, moving the narrative from the antediluvian (before the flood) world to the destruction of the world by the great flood. It is within this context that Scripture records a passage that has stumped scholars, pastors, and theologians for four millennia. The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and took them for their wives, the offspring being the Nephilim. What does this mean? Expositors such as John Calvin, Martin Luther, Matthew Henry, and Augustine all believed that the bene Elohim, the sons of God, were the godly line of Seth who intermarried with the ungodly line of Cain, the daughters of men. No doubt Augustine, who used the contrast of the lines of Cain and Seth as the foundation for his City of God , has greatly influenced many expositors that have followed in his wake. Certainly the immediate context suggests this interpretation. Moses has just written on the lines of Seth and Cain. However there seems to be nothing in the text that ties sons of God with the Sethites. James Boice[1] makes a case for something else, which at first glance, seems bizarre and impossible, sounding more like Greek mythology that Biblical Christianity. The term, bene elohim is used three times in the Old Testament (Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7) and each use clearly refers to demons, fallen angels which serve their wicked ruler Satan. Then the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) translates bene elohim with angelos (angels). So clearly the translators of the Septuagint were biased toward this interpretation. And one of the so called pseudepigrapha (non inspired books written by authors who did not use their real names), 1 Enoch, (written around 200 B.C.) goes into great detail speaking of “children of heaven who saw and lusted after beautiful and comely daughters . . . and begat children, two hundred of them.” While 1 Enoch is not inspired and thus not authoritative, it is significant to note that Jude 14-15 is actually drawn from this writing. Therefore, it also stands to reason that Jude 6-7 is looking to the same text, “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” Note how Jude says that these angels suffered the same fate as the men of Sodom and Gomorrah for their gross immorality, their going after strange flesh. Genesis 19 records how the two angels who came to warn Lot of the impending judgment on the cities were attacked by men wanting to have sexual relations with them. Jude is saying that the angels that did what the men of Sodom and Gomorrah sought to do also suffered the same fate.
So Boice is saying, and I tend to agree with him, that fallen angels were having sexual relations with young women, bringing forth an offspring called the Nephilim (most English translations simply transliterate the Hebrew word, being unwilling to interpret it for us) which clearly in Numbers 13:33 refers to giants. So this verse is telling us that demonically possessed men, given over to virulent evil, were hell bent on destroying all the seed of the woman, the line of Seth. Genesis 7:1, 1 Peter 3:20, and 2 Peter 2:5 all tell us that only eight godly people were left on the face of the earth, that the seed of the serpent had almost annihilated the godly line of Seth which would bring the Messiah. The purpose of this text is to set the stage for what follows, the fact that Yahweh looked on the earth and saw only evil and wickedness continually.
Can we not admit, therefore, that virulent evil, inspired by the devil and his minions, is at the heart of genocide, sexual perversion, and hatred that fills our world! Surely the pervasive and perverse evil in our world is fueled by the hierarchy of demons which still seek to destroy the work of Christ in the world (Ephesians 6:10ff).
What, then, is the remedy? By virtue of His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus will utterly and completely destroy all demonically inspired evil and evil doers. What does this mean? Well consider the Apostle John’s glorious vision—“And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he called out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in mid heaven, ‘Come, assemble for the great supper of God in order that you may eat the flesh of kings . . . and the beast was seized and with him the false prophet . . . these were thrown into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone,” (Revelation 19:17-21). A myriad of interpretations exist concerning the identity of the beast and false prophet,[2] many of which are viable, and my intention here is not to spend time discussing them; but surely we can agree that on that great day, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, He will judge all evil and evil doers. There is the then, now, and not yet of the kingdom. Peter tells us that Jesus, between His death and resurrection, went to hell and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah for the construction of the ark (1 Peter 3:19ff). Peter is not saying that Jesus preached the gospel to convert these wicked, condemned spirits, for salvation does not come to angels. Instead He was telling them of the power, efficacy, and authority of His death, that He came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), that they were doomed to the lake of fire, that He would one day utterly destroy and judge all evil and evildoers.
Sweet Jesus, at Calvary said, “My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me . . . Father, forgive them for
they know not what they are doing . . . Father, into Thy hands I commit My
Spirit . . . Truly I say to you, this day you will be with me in paradise . . .
Woman, behold your Son, and Son, behold your Mother . . . I am thirsty . . . It
is finished . . . “ Indeed, the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of
our Lord and His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever (Revelation 11:15).
And on that great day, at His second coming, He will cast the devil, demons,
and all wicked people into the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second
death (Revelation 20:13-15). Their doom is sure. In the meantime, however, we
are to live in the midst of perversion, not unlike what our blessed Christ did
in the humiliation of His incarnation, waiting for the day when He will make
all things new (Revelation 21:5).
[1] Genesis: Volume One, Creation and Fall, pages 306-311
[2] See O.T. Allis, Prophecy and the Church, page 202, Keith Mathison, Postmillenialism: An Eschatology of Hope, page 154, and Kenneth Gentry, The Beast of Revelation, pages, 57, 168 for what I consider the most Biblically defensible identification of the beast and false prophet.
FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.
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