Far Gone

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GENESIS 5
Genealogies in the Bible – People in ancient Israel placed great importance on who their family’s ancestors were.  The family lists show where certain families came from and why they were important.  Genesis 5 lists the male head of each family from Adam to Noach.  Women are rarely mentioned unless they are very significant.

**Discuss why genealogies are important in Scripture.  Remember in Genesis 3:15 we get a peek of God’s plan to restore humanity to Himself.  Who is the “seed” of Havah?  Messiah Yeshua!  The story throughout the Scriptures is the story of the line of Yeshua.

GENESIS 6
 v. 1-4 N’filim Who are the “sons of God”?  Many Bible scholars have taken this to mean fallen angels. It’s easy to see how that conclusion could be arrived at when “fallen” or “cast down” in one sense of the word describing their offspring, N’filim. 

Others have come to the conclusion that the “sons of God” was simply a designation that referred to the line of Shet—faithful, godly men.  The “daughters of men” were representatives of the line of Kayin, those who fell away from God. [conisder James 1:14-15]

Whether the N’filim were the result of mixing two lines of humans or the mixing of humans with fallen spiritual beings, the result of all this was that a race of people tormented their culture and were able to dominate at will.  Apparently they were bigger, stronger, and smarter, and they were subjects of many ancient pagan myths. 
No matter whether their existence came from fallen sons of God (Benei Elohim) or from fallen man, the true source of their power was evil.

N’filim were literal and real.  They eventually came to represent a “type.”  Before the Flood they were likely a real race of people, but after the Flood, when they no longer existed, N’filim was a name for other peoples with similar attributes.  **Take a moment to reflect on people in history that fit this description: Goliath / Hitler

The Ruach HaKodesh…God’s Spirit
God said in verse 3 how “His Spirit would not strive with man forever. ..their lifespan will be 120 years.” God’s Spirit was striving to call man to repentance and righteousness through the preaching of Hanokh & Noach.

**God is spirit, and so He is essentially speaking of Himself when He speaks of the “Holy Spirit”—attribute of God that we call Spirit.  In Hebrew ruach (spirit) is the means that God uses to deal between Himself and man.

 This 120 years was the span of time until the Flood, in which man was given the opportunity to respond to the warning that God’s Spirit would not always be patient.

  1. 5-7 yetzer harah “…the people on earth were very wicked, that all the imaginings (yetzer) of their hearts were always of evil (rah) only. ADONAI regretted (nacham) that he had made humankind on earth; it grieved (atsab) his heart.” God promised total destruction when His patience ran out.
  2. 8-10 righteous man “Noach found grace in the sight of ADONAI…Noach was a man righteous (tzaddik) and wholehearted (tammim); Noach walked with God.” **Noach was not righteous because of His own merit and good works, God viewed him as righteous because he believed in God as Creator, Sovereign, and the only Saviour from sin. He found grace for himself because he humbled himself and sought it.  God says who’s righteous.
  3. 11-13 corrupt..filled with violence The earth was shachath and filled with chamas because of all living beings (basar)…so God was going to shachath them along with the earth. The seed of the fallen rejectors of God, deceitful and destructive, had dominated the world.  “Destroy” did not mean annihilation, but it referred to the flood judgment.  God brings judgement to injustice.

Who causes evil?  Where does evil come from?
“I form the light (owr), and create darkness (choshek);
            I make peace (shalom), and create evil (rah);
            I am HaShem, that doeth all these things.”
                                                —Isaiah 45:7

  1. 14-16 instructions God provides Noach precise instructions to follow. God protects the godly from His own wrath and divine judgment.
  2. 17-22 covenant In contrast with the rest of the created order which God was to destroy, Noach and his family were not only to be preserved, but they were to enjoy the provision and protection of a covenant relationship with God. This is the first mention of “covenant” in Scripture. **8 is the number of redemption.