Genesis 06: Chaos Explodes

Genesis 6 has a reputation for the wild stuff: “sons of God,” Nephilim, and a flood big enough to erase a violent world. We go there. But we also refuse to miss the sentence that changes the whole chapter: God looks at what humanity has become and “it broke his heart.” That’s not trivia. That’s the emotional and spiritual center of the story.

We walk through the text step by step, including why Genesis first mattered so much to a newly liberated Israel surrounded by pagan creation myths. Then we tackle the Ark account with practical questions people still ask today: How big was it really? What does the Bible mean by “every kind” of animal? Why do so many ancient cultures carry their own flood narrative? If you’ve ever wondered whether the flood story is pure legend or something grounded in history, you’ll get clear categories to think with.

Then we address the most controversial lines in the chapter: who are the “sons of God,” what are the Nephilim, and why does the Book of Enoch keep showing up in conversations online? We lay out the major interpretations, explain why some details stay mysterious, and talk about how to avoid turning speculation into a faith-dividing obsession. The takeaway lands where Genesis 6 lands: evil grieves God, grace is real, and Noah finds favor because he walks in close fellowship with the Lord.

If this helped you see Genesis 6 with fresh eyes, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a five-star review so more people can find the show.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Why Genesis Reframes Creation

Reading Genesis 6 And The Flood

Ark Logistics And “Kinds” Of Animals

Flood Stories Across Ancient Religions

Sons Of God And Nephilim Debate

Book Of Enoch And Healthy Boundaries

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Genesis chapter 6. And today's title is Chaos Explodes. Chaos Explodes. If you have not already gotten enough of chaos, such as Cain and Abel and the two families going different directions, and folks be living for hundreds of years, it is about to get a little bit crazier. And thank goodness for the grace of Jesus. And so we're going to jump right into it. Probably one of the most controversial, slash, interesting, slash confusing chapters in the entire Bible that people have tried to reinterpret over and over and over again. We're about to get into this mess right here, right now. So if you got your Bibles and your popcorn, go ahead and get all of that ready. Genesis chapter six. But as always, just before we do, make sure you like, share, subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure to leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. That's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job. And as always, the more we dig, the more we find. Well, this is one of those chapters where we have to make sure that we remember that this is all about restarting the conversation about creation. Remember, we had talked about this idea of primarily, and I know that there are so many chapters in the Bible, books in the Bible, where people are getting these deeper meanings and all this stuff. And I'm here for all of that. We can never fully exhaust the depth of meaning of God's word because it was written by God, right? And by using the pen of men, they are inspired by the Holy Spirit. However, we are going to lose the ultimate meaning if we forget who it was written to, because the Bible was written to a certain people at a certain time. Now it was written for all of us, but it was written to them. And primarily the first five books of the Bible, called the books of Moses, the Pentateuch, these books were written to a recently liberated slave nation. The Israelites had been slaves for 400, 430 years. And even though they had maintained their belief in God, Yahweh, they just didn't know his name, but they had their belief in God, they they had this problem of now being for 400 years in a polytheistic pagan society. And so what God is doing is he is saying, okay, all of that stuff you had learned about the God of Ra and all these other gods, they are not they're not true. This is what it is. And that is, instead of there being a group of different gods, one person was over the sun, one was over the moon, and all this stuff, he said, No, no, no, I made all of it. And he sets in order what he did. But then in chapter three, he talks about how then we as people, we messed it up. As humankind, men and women, we sinned, and then because of that, it started the the domino effect of now needing a savior. And what we started to see in chapter four and five, and now in six, things are going down, down, down, down. You have the the side of Seth, and his side is worshiping the Lord, but then on the other side, you have the side of Cain, and they're not worshiping the Lord. It's getting worse and worse and worse as sin is continuing to go. Now, here's another question that had to be dealt with. Well, what about all of the stories in the past that the Egyptians, or excuse me, the Israelites may have been asking, what about all the stories of the past of all of these other beings that were around and all these different things? And so God says, okay, well, as things were going down, down, down, something else happened that made things get exponentially worse. And that's where we get to when we are now looking at the book of Genesis, but now Genesis chapter six. Genesis chapter six is one of the most interesting chapters because it talks about something that many people have tried to reinterpret, make something more than it is. There's even an extra book of the Bible called the Book of Enoch, which is not an inspired book of the Bible, but there is something to that that he goes in and tries to explain what happens here. So we're going to get into all of that. And whereas in the Bible breakdown, especially this version, this podcast, we are trying not to get too far into the weeds, just trying to give you an overall idea, but we have to get into them a little bit in order to give some context to what's going on. So let's read this. And I know that this is going to create about a thousand questions for all of us. We're not intending to answer all of them, but we do want to give some perspective at the end. So without further ado, let's read this and then we'll break it down a little bit. Here we go. Genesis chapter 6, verse 1 says this. Then the people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them. The sons of God, remember that phrase, saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives. Then the Lord said, My spirit will not always put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than a hundred and twenty years. Now that is to say that after the time of the flood, you see that the age of people started going way, way, way, way, way down. All right, verse four. In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth. For whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children, who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times. The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth, and it broke his heart. And the Lord said, I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, I will destroy every living thing, all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them. But Noah found favor with the Lord. Now, that section right there is where all the questions come from. So let's finish this, and then we want to make sure that we we kind of zoom in on the most important part of that when we get done. But let's finish the story first. Verse 9. This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on the earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God. Noah was the father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt. So God said to Noah, I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them out along with all the earth. Build a large boat of cypress wood and waterproof it with tar inside and out. Then construct the decks and stalls throughout its interior. Make the boat four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet high, and forty five or excuse me, seventy-five feet wide and forty-five feet wide. Leave an 18-inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat. Put a door on the side and build three decks inside the boat, lower, middle, and upper. Look, I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring a pair of every kind of animal, male and female, into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. Pairs of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, of every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, it will come to you to be kept alive. And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and all the animals. So Noah did everything that God had commanded him. Wow. So many questions, right? So let's do this in backwards order. First of all, let's talk about Noah and the Ark. There's an amazing thing that if you're ever in the state of Kentucky and you're interested in going to it, a guy named Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis actually constructed an ark that was the dimensions of the Bible. And I've had a chance to go and see this, and it really is quite spectacular because it's massive. When you look at that thing, you go, Oh, well, I can see how you could fit a whole lot of stuff there. The next kind of thing that's interesting about this is I know that I've had some atheists that would say, Brandon, are you telling me that two of every kind of animal, like two of every kind of animal was on there? You realize how many kind of animals there are? And I'll be like, absolutely, sure. But do you also understand that you wouldn't have to have, you know, two of every kind of, you know, of Doberman pinchers and labradors and labradoodles and all this kind of stuff. But what you would need is you would need, look at what it says, every kind of animal, every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground. So, and also every kind of bird, kind. That that kind right there is not, it means a type of animal. So, in other words, instead of two of every kind of breed of dog, you would need two dogs. The the kind, probably more like wolves. And then what you have from that is you have different kinds, breed with different kinds, and you end up getting the different, you know, different ones. And so you don't actually have to have two of every particular type of breed, you just have two of every kind that will go. And when you do that, you start to realize you need a whole lot less animals in order to get what you need. Also, you get babies. You get babies, number one, because you want them to be able to live as long as possible once they get off of the arc so they can reproduce as many times, but also it's smaller, so you don't have to deal with as much. And so there's a lot of different ways that even even atheistic scientists who look at this and they go, you know, when you think about kinds as opposed to individual breeds, and you think about babies, you think about this kind of stuff, yeah, yeah, I think you kind of could, you know, you know, that kind of thing. So it's very interesting to realize that this is nowhere near as far-fetched as you might think, that there's actually a very good case to be made that it is possible. How about this also? In several of your ancient religions, there is a flood narrative. So if you want to look and go, where else does this show up in ancient history? The answer is all over the place. All over the place with ancient religions, there is a flood narrative. And so it is amazing to realize that this absolutely happened. And the reason why it happened is because the Bible said God had to do something because his heart had been broken due to the fact that there was evil consistently on the earth. And one of the main reasons was because, according to this, it says the sons of God saw beautiful women and they took what they wanted as their wives. That is the Bible's really nice way of saying. Apparently, there were something called the sons of God who shacked up with some women, and they had these like hybrids that we called the Nephilites. What in the world is that? Okay, so we're gonna have to do some conversating here for just a minute. So let me let me change the screen if you're looking. Here's here's the thing: there are two major ways to look at this text. There are some who really try to discount the supernatural as much as possible, and they say, no, no, no, this was not angels. Sons of God represent the lineage of Seth. And the lineage of Seth, they saw these women and they started having kids, and that created these Nephilites, these ancient heroes that went, you know, here they are doing this kind of stuff. That's what happened. The problem is that doesn't fit the text. The text says the sons of God, which in another place is actually that phrase is used to speak of angels, the sons of God saw beautiful women they wanted as their wives. Does that mean that everybody else was marrying ugly women? Because it was just people, right? If that's what you think, or does it mean that angels did this? So here is what, according to the most uh accurate reading of the text I can do that at some point fallen angels actually went and did this. And that these fallen angels went and took these women, and that they had sexual intercourse with these women, and that actually messed things up to the point that the offspring of these fallen angels and women, uh cohabitation put that way, created some weird hybrid. That when God saw that perversion, it broke his heart. That this creation that he had made, man and wife, got married and were supposed to create a family, it had been so perverted that it broke God's heart. And he said, We can't have this. Now, this has been a mystery on exactly what happened, how it happened, why it happened, for so long that even to this day, you're always going to see these random videos about it. And this is what I want to encourage you to do. If the Bible doesn't tell us specifically, then you do not need to be obsessed with it. Because the Bible is not intended to speak to everything, but it is intending to speak to the most important things. So you never need to break fellowship with someone who has an opinion that you can't find in the Bible. Remember, there are three hills. There's hills I'm willing to die for, there's or die on, there's hills I'm willing to debate over, there's hills I'm willing to not care about. If you can't find it, excuse me, if you can't find it directly in the Bible, it does not need to be a hill you need to die on. But that doesn't stop people from asking questions. As a matter of fact, have you ever heard of the book called the Book of Enoch? It's been been all over the place, like people, you know, very interested in it. Well, the the people who wrote the book of Enoch, they most likely wrote it after the time, most likely after the time of Malachi and before the time of Matthew, right during that time. When even though there was no prophetic voice, there still was a lot of people thinking a lot about the Old Testament, trying to put two and two together, and they are not actually proclaiming, they're not actually saying they think that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, wrote this. Back then, what they would do is they would put a famous name on a book to help it get attention. And what they did was is they took some things, some ideas from the Bible, took something called the Midrash and the Talmud. Those are commentaries about the Old Testament, and they they kind of put together what they think probably happened. And that's why the book of Enoch is so popular with people, is it tries to fill in the gaps of what happened in Genesis chapter six. And what they like to think happened is that you know Enoch goes to hell and he has this conversation with these fallen angels, and they're wanting Enoch to go to God and kind of plead their case before God, and God tells Enoch, tell them, No, no, no, no, you you messed up my creation. There is no second chance for you. I mean, it's very interesting reading, it's not the Bible, it's not the Bible. So, and and what's unfortunate that happens is in all of this interesting talk, and some of you are going, oh, that's very interesting. I'm gonna go get the book of Enoch. Okay, but but listen, what's missed in all of this is the verse, verse six. I'm gonna pull it back up on the screen for looking at it. Verse six, it says that the Lord was sorry that he had made men and women and put them on the earth. And look at this, it says, It broke his heart. It broke his heart. And then it says in verse, uh, the end of verse seven, it's God was so brokenhearted. Because remember back in Genesis 1 and 2, when God would make things, he would say, Oh man, that is so good. Oh, that is so very good. He was excited about what he had made. But by chapter 6, it says, God says, I am sorry that I ever even made them. We miss that. We miss that in all the exciting things when we look and we say, you know, look at look at this. This is so interesting, look at that, that is so interesting. We we walk right past the fact that our God looked at fallen creation and it broke his heart. It broke his heart. But you know what's amazing? It says, but Noah found favor with the Lord. That everywhere God looked, he was like, This is what I made, and look at how far they have fallen, and it broke his heart. But Noah found favor with the Lord. And so therefore, that what caused him to find favor? It wasn't because Noah was sitting there and he's turning everybody around, it wasn't because of this, it wasn't because of that, it said because God he woke walked, he walked in close fellowship with God. You know what brings you favor before God is not that you fix all the ills of the world, and that would be great, but it said that he was righteous, he was blameless as he could be in the of the people living on the earth, and he walked in close fellowship with God. Do you want to impress God? Walk in close fellowship with him. God is not going to judge you based on the environments around you, he's gonna look at you based on your relationship with him. So, what I would love for us to take away from Genesis chapter 6 is that not that they were possibly angels having sex with women and then they ended up they were fallen and they get put into a place called Tartarus, and that's so very interesting. We'll get to that one day. It's not that God told Noah to make an ark and how to do it and take, you know, two of every kind of animal. Those are all very interesting. I want to make sure we don't miss that it said that when God looked at his creation, it broke his heart. But Noah. That's my question for you. Is I I look around at our world today and I wonder, how can it not break God's heart? You see people who are boarding little babies, and they they see it as their right. You see people who are who are doing terrible things to one another. There's other countries where people are just slaughtering one another, and then you look at all these different things, it God's heart has got to be breaking all over the place. Can what what would happen if if someone were to write a narrative of our generation where they say there was all these different things and it broke God's heart? But God found favor with you. If we use my name, maybe it would say, God would have said, I am sorry I ever made them. But Brandon found favor with the Lord. When God looks at the earth, does he look at you and go, but that's my that's my son, that's my daughter. That's what he wants to do, that's what he can do. That doesn't mean we get it right all the time. It just means we're constantly falling forward into him. That's my question for you today. When God looks at you, does he go, but I'm still so proud of my son, my daughter. If not, then don't get let the enemy try to, if you can't pull you, he'll push you instead of you know one way or the other, instead of going, God, is there anything in my life that would help me to know you more? That would help me to see you more clearly? And what if that was the main takeaway from Genesis chapter six? Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that even though you saw humans at this time and it broke your heart, you still had hope. You were still trying to work it out. You were still working it out. And I'm thankful, God, that even in our world sometimes I can look around and I can I can be disappointed but never discouraged because I remember that you are still looking for those who will find favor with you. I pray that will be us, that we will say, God, you can look on me. I will bring you favor. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, God's Word says in Genesis 1, verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I will see you tomorrow for Genesis chapter seven.