Genesis 6-8 | I’m on a Boat

If you have a Bible, you can go and grab it and turn it to the book of Genesis. We are going to be looking at three chapters of Genesis this morning: chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8. I am not going to read the whole thing. In the beginning, I'm just going to read verses 5 through 8 of chapter 6, but we will be reading through this entire section of Scripture over the course of the sermon.

If you don't have a Bible, you can use a pew Bible in front of you. If you don't own one, we would love for you to keep that Bible so you can have a copy of God's Word. Consider that our gift to you. We would love for you to be able to read God's Word for yourself. Genesis 6:5-8 says this:

When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” Noah, however, found favor with the Lord. — Genesis 6:5-8 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, even now as we come towards your word, give us a sober-mindedness about sin, a focus on what really matters, and a view of you and your glory. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

If you've grown up in church at all, I guarantee that you've heard this story about Noah in Sunday school, right? About the different pairs of animals that go in this boat, the storm, the doves that get sent out and being able to reestablish itself, and then the rainbow at the very end of the story. It's like a perfect children's school illustration. And often when we hear this story, it tends to play exactly like that: an interesting story about what God did in the world to reset and show the different animals and kind of create a new creation.

But this story is more than just a trip to the biblical zoo. It's actually about salvation, about redemption. You see, in this story of Noah, we get to see another small picture of God's plan to redeem all of creation. We've talked about this rhythm that's throughout the book of Genesis about life, death, and hope that repeats itself over and over again throughout the book. Here in the story of Noah, we see the exact same thing: life, death, and hope again.

We're going to break this story up into two parts. But for this sermon this morning, as we look at the primary kind of chunk of narrative that happens, the Lord wants us to see that we need to trust in God's redeeming judgment. And we're going to see it in light of three things that God has in this story. First, we'll see God's regret. Second, we'll see God's judgment. And lastly, we'll see God's covenant.

God's Regret: The Widespread Evil

Let's start with point number one, God's regret. Read with me from verses 1-4 of chapter 6.

When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men. — Genesis 6:1-4 (CSB)

In chapter 5, we get to see how God expands humanity as humanity has kids through generations and multiplies throughout the earth. And along with that expansion of humanity in Genesis 5, you also see an expansion of sin. Think of these first four verses in Genesis almost like a repetition of a bird's eye view of what's going on in humanity as you approach the Noah story. In fact, this section rhymes with the very first sin that you see in Genesis 3, except now instead of one person, it's happening at a cosmic level.

What happens with Eve in the garden? She sees that the fruit was desirable and she takes it and she eats it. And now in Genesis 6, you have the sons of God, which I take to most likely mean the children of Seth, the seed of the woman. And they end up falling just like their ancestors, Adam and Eve, do. They saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any of them that they chose as wives for themselves.

Now, it's not inherently wrong for men and women to get married. This is not some advocacy for chastity going on in this verse. What's going on is less like marriage and more like patriarchal oppression. This is a nonconsensual taking. Men that are looking out and they see something that they want and they use their strength to obtain it. And the result of this sinful action, this debaucherous kind of gaining for themselves, comes these people called the Nephilim. These powerful, famous men.

Numbers 13 describes the Nephilim to be giant men of great size. The Israelites see them in the book of Numbers and they're intimidated by them. And Genesis 6 shows them to be of great strength, of great fame. Humanity has grown in number and in power and in fame. They're becoming well-known, reputable, able, capable people. And they've also grown in sin.

And that's exactly why God gives this condemnation in verse 3. He condemns their behavior and he says their days will be 120 years. There's a lot of speculation about what that might mean. I don't think that when God says that their days will be 120 years that he's setting like a cap on the age of human beings. So I'm turning 30 next month, it doesn't mean that I'm a quarter of the way there. Most likely I'm actually probably more like halfway there, if I'm being honest. Right?

He's not setting a cap on humans' ages. It's rare to find people who surpass 120 years of age, but there are exceptions to that rule. There are people today that claim to be over 120 years old. And actually, you see that in the Bible itself. So Noah lives to be 950 years old. Noah happens after this pronouncement about 120 years. In fact, long after this pronouncement about 120 years, Jacob in Genesis 47 dies. And it says in Genesis 47:28 that his lifespan was 147 years.

Now Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years, and his life span was 147 years. — Genesis 47:28 (CSB)

He was 130 years old when he moved to Egypt. So I don't think that Jacob kind of pulled a fast one on the Lord and snuck around his pronouncement of death at 120 years. So what's going on here with this idea of 120 years, that