Having dealt with Enoch (we will make reference later), lets move back to Scripture and park here a while.  What exactly was going on in the Days of Noah that was so bad that God had to destroy the entire world for it?  There are a lot of clues in Scripture.  Let’s review them by starting in Genesis 6.

Rebels with a Very Evil Cause

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

² That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

³ And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

⁴ There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

⁵ And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

⁶ And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

⁷ And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Here in this first part of chapter 6 and also in the book of Jude, we see the sons of God, who we saw in earlier posts were angels, saw the daughters of men, that they were fair –in like manner [as to Sodom & Gomorrah]  gave themselves over to fornication, and went after “strange flesh” (Jude 7) – married them, went in to them, and had children who were as the KJV translates – Giants.

הַנְּפִלִים

The word for giants here is the word nephilim which is found throughout the Old Testament and is of uncertain etymology; however, Gesenius indicates an underlying designation of this word also means fallers, or fallen ones – so that the passage could also be interpreted “There were fallen ones in the earth in those days…” or “there were Nephilim in the earth in those days, using the Hebrew directly.”  The Nephilim, or fallen angels, fathered children whom the text says “became mighty men which were of old.”  The word for mighty men is gibbohrim or

הַגִּבֹּרִים

These Gibbohr were mighty men, impetuous, military men, and tyrants; and, many note that later in the book of Genesis when it speaks of Nimrod being a mighty hunter before the Lord, it uses this very phrase Gibbohr to describe him.  The implicit thought there being that Nimrod, in his rebellion, had the same spirit as and was perhaps trying to accomplish some of the same things as these characters in Genesis 6.

Full of Violence and Corruption

So, the angels were evil and their progeny were evil and God declared He was going to destroy them.  But why?

¹¹ The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

¹² And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

¹³ And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Interesting looking at this passage in a day when ISIS is beheading children and there are threats of terror all around the word.  Also, it is interesting at looking at it through the lens of history.  Has there ever been a time where the world was not full of evil and violence?  Back in the middle ages, they would impale people and send their body parts around the realm just to show they meant business.  Was Noah’s day more violent than that?  I think you have to take the passage in its totality to see what was really going on .

First, Scripture says “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  How so?  Verse 7 says “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”  One could understand man, if he was that wicked, getting his judgment – but the animals too?  Why them?  The Bible doesn’t explicitly say; but, here is where Enoch may provide some answers.  Again, Enoch is not Scripture and shouldn’t be treated as such; however, where it speaks to the truth it is true and was respected enough to be quoted by both Jude and Peter, and maybe even Jesus Himself – so lets indulge a little.

Enoch Chapter 7 says

1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms 2 and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they 3 became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed 4 all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against 5 them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and 6 fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood.

So, it sounds like the Giants have corrupted both the human imagination as well as its genome; and the giants then turn against men to destroy them and start going after the animals and sinning against them (perhaps through bestiality, perhaps through genetic manipulation).  At this point, it has been speculated upon that perhaps some of the old legends may be true?  If they could mix with human genes, what about animals?  Were images such as these recollections of days gone by?  Pretty wild to speculate about; but certainly something very very bad was going on – beyond the norm of what we see today – for God to destroy all of humanity.

Pretty much beyond comprehension or belief until you see pictures like this:

But, I digress…  Back to the Bible

We have God looking upon His creation and He sees also, in addition to its violence and evil thoughts – it is corrupt.  The word here is shachath which can mean destroyed, perverted and spoiled.  This goes beyond what we think of sinful corruption (i.e., that corrupt politician); but denotes a total destruction of God’s natural order for mankind.  They have been spoiled and they have spoiled themselves.

The Perfect Man

Noah, however, was not one of these.  The Bible says that he found grace (or acceptance) in God’s eyes and that he was just and perfect in his generations.  Here, the word for perfect doesn’t mean without sin, rather he was complete, whole, entire or sound, wholesome, unimpaired, innocent, having integrity. This could refer to his moral character; but the Bible already said he was just. Or, it could mean that he, among his generation, was not one of THEM.  He and his immediate family were not corrupted.  God would save His remnant.  Satan’s plan would not prevail – but that doesn’t keep him from trying.

More on this story in our next post…