Contributor: Alex Kokobili

INTRODUCTION
This study is a continuation of the previous chapter which focused on the genealogy of humankind starting from Adam to Noah. It emphasized a drastic shift after the birth of Seth (Genesis 4:26) when man began to serve God. Also, we would realize that humankind lived for many years. For instance, in Genesis 5:5 Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. Genesis 5:6 Seth was nine hundred and twelve years old: and he died. Genesis 5:11 Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died. The emphasis today will be on what happened before the flood began, how the flood became a symbol of God’s judgment on humanity, and how God’s mercy prevailed through Noah and his generation to save humanity from extinction.

PART ONE (GENESIS 6):
CORRUPTION OF HUMANKIND AND PRELUDE TO THE FLOOD.
The corruption of humankind refers to corruption of the human nature resulting from the original sin of Adam and Eve.
A. Genesis 6: 1-4. Increase in human population and perversion of marriage:
We will observe at the beginning of this chapter, before the flood that the human population began to surge. Then the Bible brings in a narrative of the sons of God as giants (Nephilim and Anak), marrying the sons of men.

Reflection: How come humans allowed their women to marry strange beings or giants? Could this mean that the fear of God had become very unpopular on the earth at this time? This showed the level of sinfulness among men that led to the contamination of in the family pattern in the early history of humanity on earth.
Firstly, one school of thought might unpack the argument about the description of the sons of God in the Old Testament narrative that is connected to this issue of marriage differently. For instance, let us look at the genealogy of Adam the son of God. (Luke 3: 38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God).
Now we observe that from this point, Cain and Abel were sons of Adam, and Adam was referred to as a son of God. However, when Cain killed Abel, a curse was placed on him (Genesis 4:9-16), and we were not told about Abel’s family history. Abel was considered a righteous man, and his family tree ended with his death.
However, due to increased corruption on earth, the sons of Adam corrupted until the time of Seth when humanity began to serve God again (Genesis 4:26). So if we bring back Cain to the equation (Genesis 4:17-25) we might assume that though Cain could also be referred to as one of the sons of God because he was corrupted and his descendant possibly might have taken wives among the generation of Seth. So now there was a contamination in the human race apart from the initial sin of Adam and Eve.

In another instance, going by the law of first mention in the Bible and other occurrences, the sons of God can be linked to fallen angels (Job 1: 6 referred to the sons of God as spirit beings – fallen angels, and while they met, Satan was in their midst).
Going back to the earlier narrative of Genesis 6, these fallen angels married humans and produced giants or Nephilim.

(Genesis 6: 2-4 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.3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown).

The sons of God that married the daughter of men were referred to as Giants in the Old Testament. Giants were from the tribe of Nephilim or Anak. Num 13:13 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Also, we see in (Num 15: 13 In accordance with the LORD’s command to him, Joshua gave a portion of an inheritance to Caleb son of Jephunneh in Judah Kiriath Arba, that is, Hebron). (Arba was the forefather of Anak.)

Numbers 13: 32-33 (NIV) And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.
1 Samuel 17 referred to Goliath as a giant and was described in 2 Samuel 21: 20 as “where another giant from Gath is mentioned who had six fingers and toes, a distinctive and unusual mark”.

So therefore, we can conclude that the narrative of the sons of God in Genesis 6 is associated with fallen angels and their human ancestry which is different from the usage in the New Testament reference to the sons of God which we can relate to (John 1: 12) refers to righteous believers who now have an inheritance in God through Jesus Christ.

B. Genesis 6: 3 The Lord curtailed the life span of humankind to 120 years due to the level of wickedness. Before this, humankind lived for hundreds of years with Methuselah recorded as the oldest who lived up to 969 years.

C. Genesis 6: 5-8 Humanity did evil before God and they continued greatly in their evil deeds.
God regretted he had made man, and decided to destroy the entire creation (humans, plants, animals all existing infrastures that existed at that time). However, despite this great wickedness, Noah found favour (Grace in the sight of God) meaning that God decided to save Noah from the incoming destruction.

D. Genesis 6:9 Noah was described as a righteous man in his generation. Noah and his family walked with God.

E. Genesis 6: 13-22.
God tells Noah about the wickedness of humanity on the earth and His plans to destroy the earth due to the wickedness through water. This plan meant that God wanted to use Noah and his family to start a new generation of humanity. God also planned to preserve the animal and insect kingdom., and he instructed Noah to build an ark that would serve as a refugee to Noah and his household including a pair of a specie (male and female) of every animal to be preserved in the ark to avoid being killed during the flood.

PART TWO:
THE FOOD BEGINS: JUDGEMENT AND MERCY
A. Genesis 7: 1-16.
Noah preached repentance to humanity before the flood started. 2 Peter 2: 5 If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others.
Noah built the ark based on the specifications given to him by God almighty.
It rained 40 days and nights until all things on the earth were destroyed except Noah and wife, his family (his 3 sons and their wives, and the animals he took two by two that sought refuge in the ark.

Reflection: What is the significance of the year the flood started: Noah was 600 years old when the flood started.
1. This showed despite all the warnings of destruction to come, the people cared less about God.
2. The people saw Noah building the ark for about 100 years and ignored him completely (Genesis 5:32 Noah was 500 years old when he begat his sons), Genesis 6:9-11 Noah was called a righteous man when he begat his sons). (Genesis 7: 11 Noah was now 600 years old when the flood began).
3. Noah took his wife, sons and their wives, and a pair of animals into the ark. The flood lasted 40 days (Genesis 7:13-17)
4. Metushelah might have possibly died in the flood. We can check the dates from Genesis 5.
Genesis 5: 25-32 We will discover that Methuselah was 187 years old when he begot Lamech and other sons and daughters. Genesis 5: 27 Methuselah died at 969 years old.
Genesis 5:28 Lamech lived 182 years and begat Noah.
Genesis 5:31 Lamech lived 777 years and died.
Genesis 5:32 Noah lived 500 and began Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The corruption and gross wickedness on Earth became extreme during the period Noah had his sons (Genesis 6: 10-11) at this point Noah was about 500 years old.
The flood started when Noah was 600 years old (Genesis 7:6)
This means that it might be possible that Methuselah died at the beginning of the flood going by the calculation from Methuselah’s age when Lamech was born till when the flood started when Noah was 600 years old it sums up to 969 which corresponds to the years Methuselah lived.
Methuselah lived long but nothing about righteousness was accredited to his name, and it could even be that he did as a sinner in the flood.

B. Genesis 7: 17-24 It rained for 40 days and the earth was flooded for one hundred and fifty days.
Humanity was destroyed except all those that were in the Ark, Noah became the heir of a new human civilization because of God’s mercy.

CONCLUSION
God will never back down on his command of righteousness. It is left to us to align with his word and precepts to shape our lives. (Prov 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people). The testimony of Noah would forever reveal that a life of righteousness and faith attracts favour and the blessing of generational preservation from God almighty. Hebrews 11: 7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.