Genesis 6 - God’s Decision
Genesis 6 begins setting the stage for the flood. As we saw in Genesis 6 - Causing God Strife, Adam’s descendants had been causing God strife ever since The Fall. I mean, after The Fall, it wouldn’t be until Adam was 235 years old before anyone started calling on God’s name. Instead, people had to live off the cursed ground, and many likely under the thumb of Cain. Why under Cain? Well, Cain had the acid touch when it came to farming (Genesis 4:12), had no desire to be a shepherd (Genesis 4:5), and was afraid that everyone would want to kill him (Genesis 4:14). Add to his fear and inadequacy, the mark protecting him from being killed (Genesis 4:15), and it’s no wonder that he went from farming to building a city and no wonder that people would do it for him… they were afraid of him and I think and he realized it! Such fear would undoubtedly get passed on through the generations, as we see with his descendant Lamech (Genesis 4:24). Add to that his own father’s role in the entire thing, and it’s no wonder it took so long (Gensis 4:26) for man to call on God’s name.
As Genesis 6 begins, Adam’s descendants were starting to grow. I had put together a spreadsheet predicting the population growth from Adam and Eve, and it predicts a population boom during this time, so reading it in the scripture is confirmation… and with people mostly under Cain’s thumb, living on cursed land, telling the stories of Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel, not to mention the city they were building in the wake of it all, and it would seem to be a dark time with little light (what little light there was came through Enosh’s line). Genesis 6 says as much, adding fallen angels to the mix…
 1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
“Sons of God” are believed to refer to fallen angels, kicked out of Heaven with Satan, and living Earth-side in human form. Note however, that the women they married were not being kidnapped. They were not being raped.  The “sons of God” were not merely doing anything they chose; they were specifically marrying whomever they chose. Very different. With the understanding scripture gives us above, this human complacency to the desires of fallen angels should not be surprising; a God-centered society would not have participated so willingly. This caused God much strife, as the people to whom He had given a spiritual consciousness were using it to associate with fallen angels instead of with God. It was a familiar pattern that began with Eve in the Garden of Eden, when she talked with the serpent and believed him, without going to God for confirmation. But then, in the Garden of Eden, Eve was eating of the Tree of Life, which would cause her to live forever. But rather than contend with mankind forever, God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden and cursed the ground outside it as punishment. Man would no longer live forever, and they would now have to work for their food.  But as the years wore on, as they continued grieving God, God had an interesting perspective:
3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal ; …”
… even still, in His grief, God saw the need to reign man in…Â
“… his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
Now, Moses lived on earth 120 years (Deut. 34:7), and mankind today lives a bit short of 120 years per person, always looking for the combination of medical “miracles” that might help us live somewhere between 100 and 120 years. So, on the surface, that 120 year pronouncement looks accurate. However, Abraham lived 175 years (Genesis 25:7), and Sarah lived 127 years (Genesis 23:1). It would seem that God was being approximate, or perhaps there is another meaning behind God’s words.
Consider these facts…
According to Genesis 5:32, “After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.” 100 years later, “Noah was six hundred years old when the flood-waters came on the earth.” (Gen. 7:6) That is 100 years from when Noah became a father, until the flood. Now ponder this passage in Genesis 5, which occurred some time after God’s 120-year pronouncement above…
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
 9 This is the account of Noah.
      Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Stated more accurately, Noah “begot” three sons, and he did so after finding favor in God’s eyes. Could 20 years have passed between verses 3 and 9?  If so, then a total of 120 passed between God’s pronouncement and the arrival of the flood. It would make verse 3 the first recording of God’s decision to wipe out Adam’s descendants, an honor usually reserved for verse 7. So with this in mind, let us look at verses 4 to 8 in a little more detail.
 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
 5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
According to verse 4, the Nephilim were the offspring of the fallen angels and human women of verses 1 and 2, and after God’s pronouncement that spiritual humanity had only 120 years of time on this earth, things really started to get bad. According to verses 1 and 2, God was started out grieved by humanity’s intimate association with fallen spirits. But after God’s pronouncement of their limited time on earth, they really pulled out all the stops. In verse 2, God felt the contention, the strife, that comes from seeing His loved creations discarding him for other loves; in verse 5, it was more than that. Their very hearts were becoming evil… and God grieved with pain. He could not allow the cycle of hell-bound souls continue. However, He had pronounced mankind to have a total of 120 years left… and in the midst of it all, approaching 20 years into God’s pronouncement, was Noah.
 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
 9 This is the account of Noah.
      Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
20 years had passed since God’s original pronouncement of mankind’s impending doom. God however would show mercy Adam, for in another 100 years, Adam’s descendants, specifically those born of Enosh’s line, would be rescued through the obedience of Noah and his family.