GOD'S PLAN
The Age of Conscience
Background
As of the end of Chapter 3 of Genesis, humanity had fallen and been removed from the Garden of Eden. No more do Adam and Eve have access to the Tree of Life and are now doomed to suffer a physical death, which is the price of sin. In our lesson on the Fall of Man, we covered how God gave us the first sign of His plan of redemption. He indicated mankind would be redeemed by the seed of the woman. God also showed us that the proper covering for their nakedness (infer sin) was the skin of an animal, which only comes by the shedding of innocent blood.
Cain and Abel
In Chapter 4, Eve gives birth to her first-born son, Cain. She then gives birth to Abel. We are told Cain is a tiller of the ground and Abel is a keeper of the sheep. Let us investigate the next few verses. “In Genesis 4:3-7 (KJV) it says, “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”
In the passages, we see they have grown up enough to have work they both do. In verse 3 Cain and Able both brought an offering to the Lord. There is not a lot of text in these first 3 verses of Chapter 4, but a lot can be inferred from them, verse 3 in particular. Back in Chapter 3, God has said they would have to work hard to produce a living. Now we see the boys doing that AND they are making an offering to God. Something has happened between chapter 3 and 4 in that God is now expecting an offering, or at least they believe it is to their benefit to give one.
As we read on, we see that the Lord did not respect Cain’s offering but did respect Abel’s! Nowhere in the earlier verses does it clearly explain why God would say such a thing! But it does, if you read between the lines. God had rejected Adam and Eve’s covering of fig leaves and gave them a coat of skin instead. Now God is rejecting that which is produced of Cain’s own hands and labor and accepts the offering of a lamb instead. With the Plan of Redemption in mind, we can see how this is starting to paint the picture of the need for the shedding of innocent blood and not the work of your own hands to cover the price of your sins!
In verse 5 Cain became “wroth”, which is old English for wrathful, indignant or angry. God goes on to explain that if Cain does the right things, he too will be accepted. God expects them to know what He wants and to do that. God says if he does not do the right thing, he is letting sin in the “door” and it will rule over him.
Instead of choosing to do the right thing, Cain goes on to kill his brother, probably out of a rage of jealousy and envy. God then curses Cain for his behavior but prevents others from killing him. The rest of Chapter 4 goes through Cain’s descendants and ends with Lamech, who also kills a man and knows his punishment will be even worse than Cain’s.
At the very end of Chapter 4, Adam and Eve have a third son, Seth who had a son Enos. After that people called upon the name of the Lord. From the text we can tell that Cain’s line did not follow God at all.
Seth to Noah
Chapter 5 of Genesis deals with the lineage of Seth down to Noah. It details how old each person was when the next in line was born and how long they lived after that. God provides a lot of detail here that makes a lot of people glaze over when reading all the numbers. Although the text doesn’t seem very stimulating at first glance, it gives us a lot of historical background and understanding.
The numbers of years people lived seem ridiculous to us now. They all lived many hundreds of years. In fact, the oldest person recorded in the Bible is Noah’s grandfather Methuselah, who lived to be 969 years old!
Chapter 5 outlines 10 generations from Adam to Noah that total 1,656 years between Creation and the Flood. Noah was 600 years old at the time of the flood. When we read this chapter in English, we lose a valuable bit of insight that is much more evident in the original Hebrew. That is the meaning of the names listed.
One of the interesting characteristics of Hebrew is that the letters themselves have meaning. There are 22 characters in the Hebrew alphabet and each has its own meaning and when the characters are combined, you can usually tell the meaning of the word from the meanings of the individual characters. Below is a table of the 10 names with their ages at the birth of the 1st born son and at death, along with the Hebrew characters and the meaning of the names.
Let’s put together the lineage from Adam to Noah, in order by the meaning of their names.
“Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow, (but) the blessed God shall come down teaching His death shall bring the despairing comfort and rest.” Wow! The first 10 names in the lineage of life show God’s plan of redemption!
There is another interesting tidbit about this line and the associated numbers. Take a look at Methuselah. He was 187 when he had Lamech. Lamech was 182 when he had Noah and Noah was 500 when he had Shem, Ham and Japheth (triplets?). We know from Genesis 7:11 Noah was 600 when the Flood occurred. Let’s do some math and calculate how long after Methuselah had Lamech the flood happened. 182+500+100=782 years later. Methuselah was 187 when he had Lamech, which means the flood happened when Methuselah was 969 years old, the year he died! Did he die in the flood, or was it his death the brought forth the flood? Good question. We will come back to this later.
Enoch Walked With God
Enoch is the 7th generation in this line and is deserving of some special attention. After reading the entire canon, we come to learn that it is Enoch that gives the very first prophecy that is recorded in the bible. This is recorded in Jude 1:14 (KJV) as, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,”. Also, it is recorded in Hebrews 11:5 (KJV), “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
Enoch is the first person who lived and did not experience death, but was “translated”. In Genesis 5:24 (KJV) it says, “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Clearly, Enoch pleased God. Jude was referencing the book of Enoch. Although this book is not part of the official canon, and cannot be confirmed to be spiritually inspired, it is still a reference that is used in the Bible. That means it should be considered but not relied upon for doctrinal purposes. In the Book of Enoch, he writes a letter to his son Methuselah. In this letter he passes down all that he has learned to his son so that he may pass it down to future generations.
What Was the Issue?
God had a problem with humanity and passed judgement upon it that it should be cleansed from the earth except for Noah and his family. What went wrong to the point of wiping the slate clean. This doesn’t mean God failed. It means humanity failed. The text provides a few key clues to help us grasp why God wanted to do this. Genesis 6:5-6 (KJV) says, “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. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” We can see from these verses that humanity had only evil in its heart. We see God was hurt by humanity’s unwillingness to walk with Him, as Enoch did. This doesn’t mean all people, but people in general. In 2 Peter 2:5 (KJV) it says, “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;” The world was a place of darkness.
There was more to it than us just being sinful. Mankind has been sinful since the fall. We have been sinful since the flood. That alone wasn’t the driving issue. The primary driver is the genetic corruption of humanity.
Genetic Corruption of Humanity
In Genesis 6:2 (KJV), it says, “…that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.” It goes on to say in Genesis 6:4, “There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
Remember Enoch, who walked with God? He wrote his own book, or at least it is credited to him, called the Book of Enoch. It is not part of the canon and should not be considered inspired. However, it does provide insight into the details and helps us better understand the language and context used in the Old Testament times.
One of the key things Enoch speaks of is what he calls the “Watchers”. Enoch refers to the watchers as angels. He points out that some of these angels became “rebels”. In Chapter 6 of the Book of Enoch, it says, “6.1 And it came to pass, when the sons of men had increased, that in those days there were born to them fair and beautiful daughters. 6.2 And the Angels, the sons of Heaven, saw them and desired them. And they said to one another: “Come, let us choose for ourselves wives, from the children of men, and let us beget, for ourselves, children.” Again, do not assume this text is inspired. What we see in it is that the term sons of God means angels.
In Genesis, the term “sons of God” is used to describe a direct creation of God. This includes Adam and Eve and the angels. Jesus is also called the Son of God because God the Father is the literal Father of Jesus as part of the virgin birth of Mary. The term is used in Job 1:6 (KJV), “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.” Clearly, here we are dealing with angels, including the fallen angel Satan.
The Hebrew word for Sons of God is Bene HaElohim. It is only used as a direct creation of God and not of man. In the Old Testament this is also used in Job 1:6, 2:1 and again in 38:7. It is also used in the New Testament in the very precise Greek form in Luke 20:36. In addition to the very clear reference to angels mentioned in the Book of Enoch, the Greek Septuagint (LXX) translation of the Old Testament translates this word as “angels”. The Greek translation is the most specific and detailed. It was also the first known translation, at least that we have records of and comes about 300 years before Christ.
Jesus told us in 1 John 3:1-2 (KJV) “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” Jesus tells us we can become direct creations of God by accepting Him. This is a spiritual creation, not a physical creation. This is what He means by being born again, spiritually.
There are many seminaries argue that this term relates to the sons of Seth and that the issue was them intermarrying with the daughters of Cain. The term “daughters of men” in Hebrew is “benoth Adam”. “Adam” in Hebrew mean man in general. The text does not say daughters of Seth or any specific group, but of all mankind in general. There are no other references in the Bible in which the term is used for a specific subgroup of man, such as a particular genealogy. The best way to verify if something is true is to check it against the scriptures. How do you verify if you interpretation of a particular scripture is correct? Check it against other scriptures. As it is said in 1 Timothy 5:19 (KJV), “Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.” And again in Matthew 18:6 (KJV), “But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” Nowehere in scripture is there any support for these terms being used as the daughters of Cain or the sons of Seth.
What we see in chapter 6 is the corruption of human genetics. It was a great sin for the angels to breed with the humans. In 2 Peter 2:4-5 (KJV), it says, “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; 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;” Peter clearly tells us that the sons of God were indeed angels and that they sinned with the people of Noah’s time. Note that this is all in the same sentence. It is one complete thought.
Through the first 5 chapters of Genesis God has established the plan of redemption. In chapter 6 we see one of Satan’s strategies to disrupt that plan. Satan intends to pollute humanity with angelic genes. God had sanctified humanity as a special creation that would continue to propagate on its own and have the option to love God and choose to be with God. Angels cannot do that.
This is a point that seems to support the alternative positions. It is commonly held that Angels do not procreate. They are eternal beings and as such do not have a need to procreate. In Matthew 22:30 (KJV) it says “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” In Galatians 3:28 (KJV) it says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Many scholars take this to mean angels cannot reproduce. In order to fully understand the concept, we must differentiate between those angels who are in heaven, acting as angels are intended to act and those who leave their heavenly dwelling place and sin as the scriptures indicate.
Angels have the capability of choosing to sin, as we have seen in 2 Peter 2:4 (KJV) where it says, “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;” We can also see this in Jude 1:6-7 (KJV). “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Here we see the angels “kept not first estate”(remaining as intended in Heaven), “but left their own habitation” (giving up their heavenly bodies), in order to give themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh. This applies not only to the people of Sodom and Gomorrha, but also to the fallen angels that sinned against God. The people of Sodom and Gomorrha are examples of the judgement waiting for the fallen angels. If they are an example of going after strange flesh, doesn’t that fit what we are talking about?
The word habitation used here in Greek is “oikētērion”. It is only used twice in the scriptures, here and in 2 Corinthians 5:2 (KJV), which says, “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house (house is the same Greek word for habitation – Strong’s G3613) which is from heaven.” The Strong’s definition for it is “a dwelling place, habitation of the body as a dwelling place for the spirit”. It means the physical dwelling of our spirit, or our heavenly body.
When the angels sinned, they left their heavenly bodies behind. Does that mean they now have the ability to procreate as we earthly people do? We do not know. What has been established so far is that angels sinned and were condemned for their sin. We have also established this sin was in the time of Noah (2 Peter 2:4-5).
Let’s now look closer at what it means to not marry (Matthew 22:30) and to not be male or female, (Galatians 3:28) in terms of reproducing. Many argue that means the fallen angels cannot reproduce. That is not what the Bible says. It never says they can’t.
The first argument is that they cannot marry. Since when did you have to be married to get pregnant? That clearly is not a hinderance to procreating. So let’s move on. The second argument and bigger issue, is not being male or female. Some people assume angels do not have reproductive organs, which makes sense if you are not male or female. What if that did not matter? Have you ever heard of sperm donors? Or maybe infertility treatments in which an egg is taken out of a woman, inseminated, and then implanted to get pregnant? If we have the technology to get a woman pregnant without having to have intercourse, do you think that is beyond the capability of angels?
Even if they do not have sex with women or even have sperm, it doesn’t mean they can’t take their DNA and insert it into a sperm cell and impregnate any woman they wanted. It is very likely angels have highly advanced technology available to them to do this sort of thing. At the very least, it is a logically possible explanation for Nephilim having distinct genetic advantages over normal humans. For more detailed analysis of this interesting and important topic, see the lesson on the Nephilim.
The Perfection of Noah's Line
What made Noah worth of being saved, along with his family? Genesis 6:9-10 (KJV) gives us the answer. “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” The wording of this is not easy to understand, unless you are looking at it from a gene pool point of view. Not only was Noah a “just” man, he was “perfect in his generations”. That does not mean that Noah was sinless. No one outside of Jesus ever lived a sinless life. What does perfect mean in this case? Well, it goes with “in his generations”. Note that generations is plural. It is not saying that he was the best of his generation. “Perfect” in Hebrew is “tamim”, which means without physical blemish. Generations means his entire lineage. Together this means Noah’s blood line was without blemish. This fits perfectly with the understanding of Nephilim being hybrids of fallen angels polluting the gene pool. Noah had no Nephilim blood in his lineage.
Summary
After the Fall, humanity had the opportunity to see what life without God was like. Many people turned away, and although a few, like Enoch and Noah walked with God, almost everyone else did not. Adam’s first born son murders his younger brother and it keeps going downhill from there. We can see that God gives special treatment to those who choose to walk with Him. Enoch was “translated” and did not experience death. Noah and his family were saved by faith while the rest of the world died in its sin.
In these two examples, we can see God’s plan for mankind. We are saved by faith and can avoid spiritual death by choosing to walk with God. Those who choose sin will face judgement.
Related Resources
Nephilim
External Resources
Book of Enoch
