Odd Stories in the Bible
Supernatural Supermen: Gen. 6:1-6
I’ve never been a sci-fi enthusiast, too unbelievable for my analytical mind, but God’s really challenging us with this story of the Nephilim. This Hebrew word means to be thrown or cast down, or to fall, and apparently these giants became like heroes and famous warriors of ancient times … but that’s not the odd part of the story.
In order to gain some understanding we have to look at the backstory, the way-back story. Before mankind was created, angels, God’s supernatural beings, were present before the throne of heaven worshipping, guarding, and going on divine missions having a certain amount of free will. Ez. 28:12-19 explains that one anointed cherub (angel) sinned and was cast down: his name is Satan. Is.14:12-17 tells us this angel, called the Day Star, son of the Dawn, desired to be like God on his own throne. That’s simply not gonna happen; he fell or was cast from heaven by God: the same word as Nephilim.
God’s plan of creation progressed and His image bearers also ‘fell’ into sin and ‘fell’ from our position of ruling the earth. That’s a lot of falling. Consequently, evil and wickedness, violence and corruption, and finally moral decay filled the earth and here’s where it gets weird. The ‘sons of God’, a common name for angels (Job 1:6; Jude 6-7), even fallen angels, had sex with human women and gave birth to the Nephilim. I know what you’re thinking; why would God allow such a perverse thing to happen? Pollute the human bloodline? Satan could’ve seen this as an opportunity to prevent the Messiah, from the seed of a woman, from saving the world. Apparently now, the only way to save the world was to temporarily destroy all living creatures and allow it to begin again: enter Noah.
Demons and humans … that’s crazy! And yet that’s what happened and we’re forced to believe in the supernatural, but also that God’s plan remains in play. The flood in the beginning and the destruction of the end times, believers in Jesus Christ remain the victors with the promise of eternal life. Satan can’t overthrow or cast us down because we’re overcomers in Christ. We may have lost our position and authority at ‘the fall’, however, we regained it on the cross. The whole idea of free will continues to cause us to scratch our heads, theologians have wrestled with it from the beginning, but when we’re filled with His Spirit we allow His will to be ours.
There are no more Nephilim, products of the perversity of Satan in the supernatural world, because after the flood God established His covenant with Noah and his family representing all of mankind. He doesn’t want to destroy us but to restore us to our original position in the garden. Such an odd story to make His point, but it reminds us of His unfathomable nature, the supernatural, and keeps us on our toes.
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