God’s Love and the Worldwide Flood

In the last post, it was shown how the love of God and the judgment of God are intertwined and inseparable within God’s character. Understanding that, let’s look at the flood God sent over the Earth with this knowledge. On the surface, it may appear God is being wrathful and not caring about the harm he caused humans. But when we look deeper, another picture emerges. We can see his love and his mercy.

The flood was not just about God’s wrath. There is much more to it. The verse that many turn to so show why God caused the worldwide flood says: “The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Gn 6:5, NIV).

While this is true, it is not the whole story. There is a verse that we skipped. Let’s look back a few verses: “The sons of God [i.e., angels] saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose” (Gn 6:2, NIV)

Many want to skip this verse because it seems to imply something that doesn’t seem possible to us or makes us feel uncomfortable about something that is too foreign to our way of thinking. But this verse is the key to understanding the complete picture. How are these two verses tied together? Well, these angels were angels of Lucifer and were known as Watchers – likely because they did not sleep. Their offspring became the Nephilim – giants of great height. Why is this important? It shows us that Lucifer is the real reason for the Flood.

So, what was Lucifer’s diabolical plan that warranted the bringing of a worldwide flood? Through the Book of Enoch and other extra-Biblical sources we find the following about these particular angels:

1. The angels becoming human (Watchers) mated with humans and produced Nephilim (giants likely as tall as trees or higher)
2. These became people’s heroes and took their focus off God
3. Feeding the giants took away crops from humans and the people suffered
4. Lucifer wished to create in his own image as did Yahweh
5. By infusing angel DNA into the human genome, it destroyed the human's gift of choice because angels no longer had choice.

Now, granted, the Bible does not state any of these things explicitly. Why is that? One reason could be that the original audience already knew about this part of their history and Moses only had to mention the topic because the details were already known. The few verses that do talk about these facts are consistent with the overarching premise of these statements. These angels did marry human women (Gn 6:2), they were so tall that they become known as men of renown, i.e., heroes, to many (Gn 6:4). Those who have reported seeing angels under various circumstances often talk of them being extremely tall. Many say that Noah being “blameless among the people of his time” (Gn 6:9, NIV) is indicating that his human genome was pure and not contaminated by the Nephilim DNA. Also, the punishment that Peter mentions about these angels (2Pt 2:4) would indicate what they did was extremely egregious. Otherwise, why such a harsh treatment of these specific angels. Destroying the human genome would indeed be classified as extremely egregious. Peter indicates God placed them in Tartarus, a special place in Sheol made exclusively for these angels. Note: in the NIV and some other versions, the word “hell” is used here, but the Greek word is that for Tartarus.

So, while none of these statements can be explicitly verified, it does seem in line with Satan’s tactics. This also reveals the heart of God and how he was saving mankind from Satan’s scheme to destroy us. While not part of Scripture, these extra-Biblical texts are at least consistent with the premise of Scripture: Peter also states in his epistle: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1Pt 5:8, NIV).

Therefore, it was imperative that Noah and his family survive to keep the human race human.

So, the ark was actually an act of love: (1) it preserved the human race as God had designed it, and (2) it preserved the gift of choice for humans to be maintained. Why is this important? Obedience requires choice, or it is just a programmed act and no longer obedience. God was ensuring that our gift of choice was being maintained for us.

Next time, we’ll look at the other example of God instructing Israel to wipe out the Amorites when they took the land of Canaan. Join me and see what this was truly all about.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens