Strange Things
Good Morning,
Genesis 6:2 “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
vs. 4 “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
I do not know how many times a young Christian has come to me with these two verses in Genesis and asked, “Who are these sons of God?”
A literalist regarding our Constitution is someone who truly believes it was written as intended, and nobody is supposed to change it. Accept it or reject it, but do not change it to pretend you are clarifying the writer’s original intent.
The same is true with the people who comment on and write about the Bible; they are rarely literalists. They believe what they think is reasonable, and then they explain away what seems awkward, difficult, or does not make sense to them.
For me, there are multitudes of things that do not make sense in the Bible. John 3:16 is a good start. Why would God so love the world? The Trinity is a big question. Another question might be, “Why would God want our bodies?” When I die, and my soul goes to be with the Lord, who cares what happens to my body? God cares because he will need it again. I do not understand everything, and I do not need to; but I do believe every word.
When God talks about satyrs and unicorns, I have no problem believing that those things exist or existed. (Isaiah 13:21; 34:14) Unicorns are mentioned nine times in the Scripture, and I am okay with that. He is God! He can make anything He wants. We do not need to rename it or pretend it is a more "reasonable” modern creature that we see in our present world today.
If we want to find out who these “sons of God” were in Genesis, then maybe we should read the Bible. Some reference Bibles say the sons of God were the good guys, the sons of Seth, and the sons of men were the bad guys, the sons of Cain. That hypothesis is fabricated – like Charlie Brown. Look at the Bible and read what It says; that is always safe.
Job 1:6 “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.”
Job 2:1 “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.”
These sons of God can appear in Heaven before God.
Job 38:7 “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
These sons of God can shout while the stars sing, and they did so before the world was created.
Would you like me to go on? The Bible says a great deal about stars, and we can be assured that some of those stars are angelic, not inanimate.
Some of those stars will fall to the earth, and some can fight in earthly battles. (Revelation 8:11; Judges 5:20; Daniel 8:10; Joshua 10:11)
Who are the sons of God? I know this – they are not men, and those stars are not gigantic, burning planet-like spheres drifting around space (at least not all of them).
Believing what we read is relaxing and enjoyable. Twisting the Scriptures is like lying; you must keep remembering what you said before to be sure it lines up with what you are about to say now. I understand it may be strange to our culture and our current world, but I say, “I believe the Bible!” (That decision is easy.)
Pastor