CHAPTER IV.

WHEN THE FLOOD CAME and Swept THEM

ALL AWAY.

Genesis 6.

In referring to that coming event of which all the prophets speak, Jesus said:

"But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24: 37 and 38).

I.

It behooves us, therefore, to consider the days of Noah and see what were their leading features, and compare them with those of our own days, if we would be wise in discerning the signs of the times.

Happily we have not far to go, nor much space to cover, for God has condensed the history of the days of Noah into about three chapters of Genesis, viz.: four to six, and especially six.

To be sure, there is not an abundance of detail here, but when we recall that God is giving a historic outline, not of a few decades or even centuries, but mil

lenniums of years, we must be persuaded that the features of the period He dwells upon are dominant, and that they are those He would have us carefully consider for that reason. Just what these features are we will see as we read in chapter 6, verses 1 to 8:

"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 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. And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."

SIN IN THE CITIES.

1. The first feature to which our attention is here called is the increase of population. "It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth."

Attention was called to this in the last lecture, where we saw men building cities, amassing wealth, extending commerce, multiplying the arts and sciences, and enjoying the pleasures and amusements and the comforts and conveniences of life.

Wherever men come together in large numbers there sin is not only diffused, but also intensified. There is sin in the country, but there is more in the city. As men thus get closer together they are better able to support one another in iniquity, and they grow more daring and defiant against God and His laws. As a matter of fact, all our great cities today are hotbeds of rationalism, infidelity and anarchy.

2. Another feature is the marked prominence of the female sex, since we read that "When men began to multiply on the face of the earth, daughters were born unto them."

It is not remarkable, of course, that daughters should be born, but the divine historian says nothing about sons in the same connection, which is significant, especially in the light of what was brought before us in our previous lecture. There the Holy Spirit went out of His way apparently, to mention the names of three particular women. Significant because the names of no other women are given for a period of thousands of years, and especially so considering the meaning of the names, which indicated that the physical beauty and sensual attractions of the sex were now exercising an influence in the world which theretofore had not been known.

FALLEN ANGELS.

3. The third feature is the irruption of fallen angels into the world of men, for we read (verse 3), “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."

As I have stated on other occasions, that phrase "the sons of God" wherever in the Old Testament, refers not to men, but to angels; whether good or evil angels the context must determine. In this case it determines that they were evil angels. They had already fallen from their first estate of holiness and subjection to God, following in the lead of Satan, and now they are seen entering upon a deeper apostasy still, thrusting themselves through their own habitation into this earth.

Nor are they content with influencing humankind for evil at a distance, but coming as closely as possible to men, and consorting with human flesh in what we define as the marriage relation. A great mystery is here, but were there time the declaration could be strongly buttressed by other passages in the Bible, and other historic facts. (See note on page 86). It was for this reason, and because of this crowning iniquity. on the part of man, that Jehovah said: "My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh."

The text goes on to say that "There were giants in the earth in those days." The Hebrew word for

giants" is "nephilim," which means, "the fallen ones." The fallen angels were in the earth in those days. "And also after that" the verse says. This irruption of fallen angels into the world of men was not limited to the antediluvian period, in other words, but was known also at a later time.

THE LOVES OF THE GODS.

That later time, by the way, is suggested to us in the story of the Canaanites, who were exterminated from their land among other reasons because of this very sin.

In evidence of this you may recall that when Moses sent the spies into Canaan to reconnoitre it, the unbelieving ones returned, saying: "The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants"—that is, the nephilim, the fallen ones, a declaration they subsequently qualify by saying, “The sons of Anak, which come of the giants "-i. e. the offspring of the fallen ones-"and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." (Numbers 13:33).

To return to Genesis 6 again,we read that "After that "that is, after the antediluvian period--" 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."