Sean C. Capparuccia

16 August 2026

Sermon IX in the Genesis series

Genesis 6; Psalm 7; I Peter 3:18-22; Matthew 24:36-44

            If last week’s Genesis reading of chapter 6 was at all boring, I think this week’s is utterly fascinating. Here we see that the wickedness of mankind, even of those in the lineages of Seth, by the way, has become so bad that God says that He regrets making man and is going to literally wipe all life from the earth. That is pretty significant to say the least.  And this chapter brings forward some interesting concepts.

Nephilim

            In the opening verses we are introduced to the Nephilim. Who are the Nephilim? There have been several interpretations of this over the centuries and still no solid agreement.  First of all, the word Nephilim is sometimes translated as “giants,”[1] but it also means “fallen ones” or “mighty men.” In verse 4, some translations say, “men of renown” (most translations) and one even says “the heroes and legendary figures of ancient times” (ISV).  Martin Luther translates the term as “tyrants” because they oppressed the people.[2]  Of course, Luther was quite sensitive to the tyrants in his own day. Some see the Nephilim as fallen angels who decide to take on human form.  

            We should note that knowing just who the Nephilim were does not affect any of the important doctrines of the church. We know that nothing in Scripture is pointless, even if we don’t understand it, we have to assume that there is a reason for every word written.  I like what Ken Ham, from Answers in Genesis says in his book, Creation to Babel, “The context of these verses is to relay the extent to which wickedness had come to prevail on the earth.”

            I will briefly point out a few of the prevailing theories of these verses just to get an idea of what’s out there, and what’s really out there. What we are told is that the “sons of God went into the daughters of men.” So, who are these two groups of people?

First, there is the idea that “sons of God” are angels, or fallen angels in this case, and the daughters of men are just that – human women. This is probably the oldest interpretation. The Nephilim, then, are the extraordinary or even supernatural offspring who are half-man, half-divine/demon.[3]  This could very well explain the myths and legends from many ancient cultures that talk about the relationships between gods and goddesses and humans. We need to remember that everything that has happened up until now had been learned by Noah and his sons and their wives. After the Flood, all this will be taught to new generations who will remember it and pass it on in distorted ways.   

            Another theory is that the “sons of God” are powerful human rulers; they are kings and princes of the earth. In their power and greed, these tyrants took for themselves whomever they wanted, the beautiful daughters of the common man who couldn’t stand up to them. The offspring of these unions were men who were themselves worse tyrants: practicing polygamy, oppressing others, committing violence and the like.

            A third theory draws on what was just said in the previous chapters of Genesis about who the “sons of God” are and this points to the descendants of Seth; those who followed in the godly line. The “daughters of men,” then, are the descendants of Cain. Well, what’s the problem with that, you may ask? Just as Genesis 1 was all about separating: light from darkness, sea from land, waters from waters; and then man from animal; and godly from ungodly; we see that God intended those who are godly to refrain from intermarrying with those who were not. Of course, we see this same thing in the Law of the Old Testament, and in the New Testament when Paul says, “Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness?” (II Corinthians 6:14).[4]

            And yet another interpretation which has come about in more recent tines is that the “sons of God” refers to aliens from another planet.  No need to elaborate on that one, is there?

            I confess that I haven’t yet made up my mind on this. The angels interpretation seems extremely supernatural to me, but at the same time, we can’t shy away from the supernatural only when we feel like it. That God created the world in six days seems pretty supernatural, too. Whoever the “sons of God” were, the “daughters of men” were beautiful and they couldn’t be resisted.[5]

            The bottom line is, we still see the devil at work in the world. Crouching like a lion at the door of Cain’s heart, he induced Cain to murder. Now, as the population is exploding and the followers of God, those who are obedient to Him, are continuing to witness to His truth, Satan is trying to undermine them by influencing most of the world to reject God. And it would appear that he is succeeding very well.

120 Years?

            So much so that God has now put a limit on how long man will live. In verse 4 when God says, “man’s days shall be one hundred and twenty years,” some have thought that this meant man will no longer live for hundreds of years but will be capped off at 120. What he was actually saying here is that in 120 years, all humanity will be wiped out. And let me just add right here that there could potentially be just as many, if not more, people as there are today.^[6]  So, the fact that there could be billions upon billions of people is not so far-fetched; what is wildly strange, and sad, is that there were only 8 people whom God counted as righteous among the world’s population. In fact, strictly speaking, the Scriptures say that only 1 was found righteous – Noah. His wife and sons and daughter-in-law were simply very fortunate to have been related to him.

            The next verse is quite telling, isn’t it? “The wickedness of man on the earth was great, and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5). That’s pretty all-encompassing. Every thought. Only evil. All the time. Can you imagine living in that society? Some may say we’re in it now. And good Christian people have said that in every generation since 32 A.D. But, no, we are not living in such a time. And do you know why? Because God has poured out His Holy Spirit, that’s why. It has been bad, for sure, and it’s bad now, but it’s not only evil all the time.

            But this is a clear depiction of the doctrine of total depravity. Now this doctrine does not teach that everyone is 100% evil 100% of the time, but it does teach that, before coming to Christ, before coming to faith in Him, all of us are depraved in 100% of our being; there is no part of our natural selves that is not given to depravity and rejecting God. Martin Luther wrote, “Without the Holy Spirit and without grace man can do nothing but sin and so goes on endlessly from sin to sin.” Our flesh is depraved, our mind is depraved, our spirit is depraved. Which is why, when Christ came in the Incarnation, He was completely man and completely God – two natures in perfect union, inseparable. Christ saved our flesh by His manhood, and He saved our souls by His divinity. Anything that Christ took on was able to be saved by Him. Had he not been fully man, our flesh would still be completely depraved. Kind of like King Midas whose touch turned everything to gold, all that Christ touched was redeemed.  Martin Luther continues to say, “This knowledge of our sin is the beginning of our salvation [in that] we completely despair of ourselves and give to God alone the glory for our righteousness.”[7]  Salvation is a gift from God and the first symptom of salvation is the awareness of our own sin. But that is Christ, and the hope that we have today.

Was Good; Now Bad

Let me call your attention to Genesis 1:31, “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” Now just a few chapters and 1500 years later, “God saw all that He had made and regretted it.”  

You must wonder, What on earth were these primitive people doing that was so bad? Well, we know the earth was full of violence: murder, warfare, brutality, oppressing the weak, and bloodshed may have been commonplace. There was sexual immorality: sexual relationships that violated God’s created order and unrestrained lust, polygamy. Men and women were prideful, living as though there was no one at all to be accountable to and they rejected God’s authority. Marriage was corrupt, the home was corrupt, society was corrupt. And not just outward behavior but, as verse 5 states, “every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart” was evil. Sin became normalized, glorified, and continual. All of the people were indifferent toward God; God? Who’s that? What do we care about God? Is God even a real thing?

In Matthew 24, the Gospel says, “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” (Mat. 24:38-39).  No one cared. And that, beloved, is the greatest tragedy of it all.

 In verse 6 God was “sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” His heart was full of pain.  The King James says, “It repented the LORD that He had made man…” This has always struck me as strange that God did something that He repented of; He did something that he wished He had not done. How does this square with His sovereignty? Malachi 3:6 says, “For I am the LORD, I do not change…”  God is eternally happy and content within the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, how is it that God is now pained and repentant? Well, this is the Holy Sprit writing through Moses in a way that we can understand.  Because we do suffer pain, we do regret the things we’ve done.  In a sense, this is anthropomorphizing God so that we can grasp it. Man’s utter wickedness was no surprise to God.  Yet He was offended by man’s sin to the point that He was willing to renounce all of His workmanship and wipe the earth clean.

Noah

            But there was one man who found favor in the eyes of the Lord, Noah. The text says he was righteous, that he was blameless; that he walked with God. And God told Noah what He was going to do. “The earth is filled with violence because of them and so I am going to destroy all of them along with the earth. But as for you, Noah, make an ark for I am going to bring a flood and everything on this earth will perish. But I will make a covenant with you, your wife, and your sons and their wives.”

            There are some people who insist that the Flood mentioned here was just a local flood or a regional flood; it couldn’t have been a worldwide catastrophe, they say. And there are also some who say the Holocaust didn’t happen, too. There will always be people who deny the truth. But I’d like to share this with you before we close. Just about every major people group has a Flood story.[8] In James Boice’s commentary on Genesis, he goes into some detail on the etymology of “Noah” and how it was literally the root for words in many languages (go figure.) The name “Noah” passed into ancient Sanskrit as Manu. And in the ancient legends of India, the Flood hero was name Manu. The ancient word for water is ma and in Old Testament Hebrew, water is mayim; yim is actually a plural ending in Hebrew so it’s basically like saying, “waters.” In Latin, the sea is mare, Spanish is mar, and French is mer. Eventually, in Sanskrit, manu became “man” or “mankind” which is related to the Germanic language where mannus is the mythical founder of the Germanic people. In ancient Egypt, nu was the god of waters who destroyed mankind. In Europe, ma took the form of da and means water and is the root of Danube, and the word danu which means “flowing.”  In Japan maru means ship; it also means a round enclosure for defense (an ark?). In the Americas, the Sioux word for water is minne from which we get Minneapolis (city of water) and Minnesota (sky blue water). Managua (the capital of Nicaraugua) means “surrounded by ponds.” In Chinese, the symbol for boat is made up of three characters that mean, “eight,” “people,” and “vessel.”

            So, we can see how perfectly viable it is to believe that a worldwide catastrophic flood occurred and from Noah came the story of it to a new world. (which we will talk about next week!) And just like the game of “telephone” the truth has been distorted over the millennia and adapted to the various people groups around the world.

Grace

            Herein is the lesson for us: God abhors sin. Beloved, He doesn’t laugh at our sinfulness; They don’t chuckle amongst themselves in the Holy Trinity with a little wink and nod at your sin. God saw your sin – and mine – He saw every sin you and I committed from His viewpoint outside of time from all eternity. Every sin was laid before Him and He did not guffaw or chortle; He did not snicker, giggle, or cackle. He did not find my sin amusing in the least. He saw those sins and the Son said, “I am going lay aside My crown of glory and die for them.”  Again, that is the lesson for us, my friends. For us His grace would be poured out.  For them, the lesson was much harder. 

“Noah found favor in God’s eyes.” The Hebrew word is hen – “grace.” Now we have seen the grace of God already with Adam and Eve, with Seth and his descendants, but this is the first time grace is named. In the midst of complete and utter depravity, there God’s grace can still be found. Let me remind you what grace is: it is the unmerited favor of God; it is that gift of God which cannot be earned, it cannot be bought, it cannot be bartered for. It is from God, from eternity, to you right now. Noah did not find favor with God because he was righteous – he was righteous because he found favor with God. In other words, as the world was going so would Noah have gone had it not been for God’s grace. 

            No, God does not change. He is still the same God today as He ever was and that same grace is what keeps us from being as totally depraved as we would otherwise be. God promised that He would never flood the earth again. The rainbow assures us of his promise. Which is why it is so ironic that the LGBT movement adopted a rainbow as their symbol. It is almost like telling God, “Now You promised!!” But what He didn’t promise was that the earth would not be destroyed again – His Word tells us it will be, but next time it will be by fire, not flood.

            Noah lived in the midst of depravity and yet He still obeyed the Lord God and preached repentance to all whom he met. We don’t reform a culture by becoming like it, we reform it by showing it a better way to live. Are we here at Trinity willing to do that even if it means being laughed at or ridiculed or even being the object of anger? I hope so. John Bunyan wrote, “At the day of Doom men shall be judged according to their fruits. It will not be said then, Did you believe? but, Were you doers, or talkers only?”

            I’ll close today with part of the Psalm we read earlier:

O let the evil of the wicked come to an end,

but establish the righteous;

My shield is with God,

Who saves the upright in heart.

If a man does not repent, [the Lord] will sharpen His sword;

He has bent His bow and made it ready.

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[1] Numbers 13:32-33, “So they put out this false report to the Israelis about the land that they had explored: “The land that we’ve explored is one that devours its inhabitants. All the people whom we observed were giants. We also saw the Nephilim, the descendants of Anak. Compared to the Nephilim, as we see things, we’re like grasshoppers, and that’s their opinion of us!” 

[2] Kiel and Delitzsch, Genesis, 86. “Luther gives the correct meaning, ‘tyrants:’ they were called Nephilim because they fell upon the people and oppressed them.”

[3] Cf., Job 1:6; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6.

[4] Cf., Deut. 7:1-4; I Kings 11:2; II Cor. 6:14.

[5] Interesting illustration from the modern day: Not too long ago, sometime around the last election, AI was asked to identify whether certain women looked “liberal” or “conservative” based on pictures that were given to it. What they discovered was that, in general, conservative women were “prettier” than liberal women. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in general terms, AI said that liberal women looked harder, meaner, and had a resting face that just didn’t look very nice. Now what I would say is that, in general, Christian women are more conservative and liberal women are typically not evangelical Christians. I’m talking in general now. Due to the stance that the Democrat party and liberal groups take on any number of topics, genuinely Christian women who are informed by the Holy Scriptures typically do not categorize themselves as liberals. That’s just a fact. So, it seems to me that what the AI was actually interpreting was that Christian women were generally prettier than non-Christian women. And that makes sense given that a woman of truth, a disciple of Jesus Christ, will reflect that truth and beauty no matter what she looks like.

[6] If a couple had 5 children in 50 years; then of those offspring who paired off each had 5 offspring in 50 years, then after 100 years there would be 2×5=10 offspring; then 5 couples have 5 children in the next 50 years produces 25, etc., by the year 1300 there would be >35 billion offspring.  This takes into account that each generation finds a mate among themselves, thereby cutting the population in half, then producing 5 offspring.  This does not take into account the fact that some couples will have less than 5 and some will have more than 5, and some individuals will not marry at all. In the earliest days, the more children the better and child-bearing was not limited to within 50 years.  With lifespans of 600, 700, 800+ years, many more children than 5 could be produced. Tradition says that Adam and Eve had 28 sons and 18 daughters. That immediately increases the numbers considerably. 

With an estimate of each couple having 10 children in 50 years, a number of >12 billion offspring occurs by the year 700.  The Flood did not happen until 1656!  That is – potentially – a LOT of people.

[7] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works vol. 2, 40-41, quoted in James Montgomery Boice, Genesis vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: BakerBooks, 2000), 313.

[8] Here I am paraphrasing Boice’s research on the name “Noah” from his Genesis, vol. 1, pg. 323ff.