Continuing on our last thought, we look at Jude’s parallel passage, 2 Peter 2
1But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction…
4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities….
Wow! What a passage! I didn’t post the entire chapter, but recommend its reading. So much meat herein, but for our purposes we’re just concentrating on the angels who fell and those who follow after their ways.
First thing I notice is how often the Bible intertwines the days of Noah and the Days of Lot. We of course see it in this passage and in Jude, and we see in Luke 17 where Jesus says
26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
At first this passage doesn’t seem to say anything more than life will continue as it was then Jesus will come. But, we know from the context of Scripture, that this interpretation is not true. Life will not continue as it has but will become worse and worse. When you go to the days of Noah, they drank – and they got drunk. They married wives and the fallen angels took wives. It also appears that wives were given to them, the fallen ones. And this continued until the flood came and God destroyed them all. It may seem I’m taking a little liberty with the interpretation here – but the angels are the only ones that Genesis talks about in terms of marrying in that portion of Scripture, so I think it has biblical basis.
During the days of Lot, humanity was once again corrupting itself with the very sins the watchers or fallen angels plagued them with. They ate (given the violence of Sodom and Gomorrah I wonder if there is more to this than just eating. Certainly eating things sacrificed to idols would have to be a part of the sin, for eating in itself would not be a sin much less worthy of being called out for a reason for judgment). They drank (likely to excess). They bought and sold. They planted . They built.
Don’t Be A Nimrod
What sort of things did they build? Cities. Great cities. Nimrod was a great city builder.
Genesis 10
9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.
10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
He was also the rebel. The name Nimrod means “rebellion”and in his days there was a great rebellion. It started with him. The passage in Hebrew says that Nimrod began to be a mighty one or a גִּבֹּר Gibbowr on the earth.
That word Gibowr is very interesting. The first time we see it is in Genesis 6.
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.
The word for “mighty men”is gibborim – the very same word used for Nimrod! Nimrod, great grandson of Noah – who was still alive at this time – is being associated with the Nephilim of just prior to the flood. Was Nimrod a Nephilim? Scripture doesn’t say so, so I can’t presume he was; but, the memory of the Nephilim and what they did was still very close in everyone’s memory. I think it is possible that he was attempting to do what they had done – that is, trying to become a god-man in the sight of the descendants of Noah. History tells us, to some degree, he succeeded since the empire which he is credited with building (Sumerian into Assyrian) was bustling in both development and demon-god worship.
Could this be Nimrod?
Nimrod has also been identified as the Sumerian king Gilgamesh , who was a giant, by multiple authors and there are certain similarities. Both were certainly tyrants.
Of Nimrod Josephus states:
2. Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers !
Further, the name Nimrod may have been a nickname – as if the tyrant who caused the people to rebel against God wasn’t worthy of being called by his given name but by the name he acquired through his character. Regardless, that was his likely character and all of this with an association with post-flood Nephilim.
As in the Days of Lot
Then there is the association with Lot. Peter talks about this and about how righteous Lot was vexed by their very conversation. A just man in an unjust world watching as men blasphemed and railed against and condemned the righteous. Was this the speaking evil of dignities that Scripture speaks of? It is certainly a rebellious spirit that will not be ruled by God or man. Their bully-like tactics the evening that the angels visited was probably only one small aspect of what Lot had to deal with. He knew how wholly evil they had become and would rather give them his own virgin daughters than to watch the order of God be defiled by their desired rape of the angels. How horrible. This is no doubt the reprobate mind that God gives men over to – a kind of insanity that breeds only evil thoughts continually. Everything they did was for their own glory and to satisfy their own lusts. In short, they too wanted to be as gods.
It started at the beginning –
Flipping back to Genesis 3,
1b And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And Eve took the bait. And, Adam followed Eve. And humanity fell. Eating a piece of fruit was far more than an act of disobedience. It was a willing act of defiance which said “I will partake of this which is forbidden – though it be a poison – because I will be like the Most High by doing it. I will be a god. I will master my own world. Thanks God for the gifts – I know better and I want more. ” It wasn’t that they were tricked. They were told what would happen. They, in pride like Lucifer, stepped out on their own, in defiance of God and ruined their perfect souls. In so doing, they brought spiritual death to humanity and signed us up for the just condemnation that Lucifer will receive – except for God’s grace upon His elect – all will be justly damned for this choice to defy God and to embrace sin. Praise God for His grace and for His justice! The breach can be repaired – but only by the penal substitutionary death of His Son. Will you accept Him? Or will you, like Lucifer, seek another path?
God is not a capricious God. When He acts it is with purpose and with a measured response. The judgments that came upon the earth due to Adam and Eve’s sin, due to the Nephilim’s sin and due to the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah may seem extreme in our day – particularly in a land where ISIS reigns in terror and there is evil at every hand. But don’t think it isn’t coming to us as well. God is not to be trifled with and wherever you see His holy order disturbed, judgment will commence.