Biblical History of Man: From Creation to the Flood part 7

Finally, we can deal with the GOOD news in this situation.

Genesis 6:9  ⁹ These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.

There are two important words in this passage that deal with our subject. 

First, Noah is considered "blameless".  The Hebrew is tamiym and it can be translated blameless or without defect.  It is the word that is used to describe the animals that God considers acceptable for sacrifice...they must be without defect.  It also describes the perfection of God's way, knowledge and law; and the completeness of the hours of the day or year.

Second, the word "time" is dor in Hebrew.  Genesis 6:9 and 7:1 (both use the same phrase) are the ONLY times that dor is translated time.  Many other words are translated as "time" but only in these two verses is dor given that translation.  In every other instance...more than 100 other times in the Old Testament...dor is translated generations.

Now, if Noah is "without defect in his generations", what does that mean?  In our context, it is obvious that Noah and all his generations at that time have no angel genetics.  His genealogy is pure, perfect. No hybridizing.

The purpose of the flood

So, rather than being an act of cruelty, the Flood was God's way of saving the last of humanity...pure humanity...from complete destruction.

Many pastors, Bible scholars, and Bible skeptics alike view the flood as God's way of dealing with humanity after humanity just sinned too much.  However, that seems a bit simplistic.  After all, I would say that today's society is just as corrupt and depraved as it has been in any past era.  So why would such a global judgment only happen in Noah's day?  Because, as we have seen, there are a few more issues going on in this time than just sinful humans.

The flood had 3 purposes:

• to destroy the Nephilim giants
• to punish the angels who committed these illicit acts and make an example of them
• to save humanity from certain destruction

Skeptics like to paint the flood as "an over-reaction by an angry, vengeful God".  But it was God's way of preserving the human race and its bloodline before it was totally corrupted by the line of the fallen angels.  This is an important point.  Many people like to point to the flood as "proof" that God is cruel and angry with humanity all the time, and He's willing to kill millions of people on a whim. 

However, the Biblical truth is that God sent the flood to preserve humanity and to make sure we could still receive the promised Redeemer who could save our souls.  Without Jesus Christ, there is no hope.  There is no future.  There is no forgiveness.  That means every one of us would be destined for hell.  The flood was God's way to keep the hope for all people.

And you would be interested to note that nowhere in the Bible is it ever stated that angels again cohabited with human women.  But the problem didn't completely go away.  We'll look at this again, I promise.