Dale Partridge - Genesis 6_1–4 - Who Are the Nephilim？

00:00:00.000 Amen. Well, today we begin Genesis chapter 6, which obviously contains the narrative of the

00:00:13.780 Nephilim, but also the beginning of the discussions around the flood. Now, just to remind you a little

00:00:20.700 bit of the context of Genesis, in case you haven't been with us the entire time, Genesis chapters 1

00:00:26.880 and two were about the creation account where God made the world in goodness and order.

00:00:32.320 We move to Genesis chapter three, recorded the fall of man, the deception of the serpent,

00:00:39.040 the curse that was given to the serpent and to the ground, and the judgment upon the sexes

00:00:46.400 that God offered. In chapter four, we saw life outside of Eden. So it was kind of this 0.75

00:00:53.020 post-Eden life outside of the garden, and yet we still saw the escalation of sin.

00:01:01.740 And we saw this emergence of two spiritual lines or two seeds in which God talked about

00:01:09.400 in Genesis chapter three, the war of the seeds between the seed of the serpent and the seed

00:01:15.800 of the woman. We saw that seed of the serpent really be reflective in Cain and also the seed

00:01:23.320 of the woman being reflective in Abel. Abel was murdered and his replacement was Seth.

00:01:30.740 And in chapter four, we also saw Cain's line really demonstrate this emphasized magnification

00:01:41.440 of sin as his line built a civilization apart from God. And then we see Seth's line by contrast

00:01:50.320 showing us that these are people who were faithful and it ended with them calling upon the name

00:01:57.000 of the Lord. Now, last week, if you were here, we covered chapter five, which

00:02:01.340 demonstrated the significance of genealogies, not just for their ancestral value, but also that

00:02:09.500 it shows God's preservation of that promised seed throughout the generations.

00:02:15.520 And we looked at the extraordinary lifespans of those people

00:02:19.780 that were mentioned in that genealogy in chapter 5

00:02:22.380 and how it allowed for firsthand testimonies over long periods of time.

00:02:30.240 And we learned that it was 1,656 years between Adam and the flood.

00:02:36.220 And Enosh, for example, lived during the lifetime of both Adam and Noah

00:02:42.780 So he acts as this living bridge over this 1,656-year period

00:02:49.360 Likewise, Shem, who is Noah's son and carries on the promised seed 0.55

00:02:54.080 He lived long enough to see Isaac and Jacob

00:02:57.780 Meaning that Shem essentially carried his father's testimony of the garden

00:03:03.140 His father being Noah

00:03:04.600 Noah received that from Enosh. Enosh received firsthand testimony from Adam. And so over

00:03:11.680 2,048 years, you could span firsthand direct testimonies over only four people. It's an

00:03:20.020 incredible thing to see how God used that in these genealogies. Now, Cain's and Seth's

00:03:27.640 multiplication in chapters 4 and 5, they showed us how the moral conditions were ripening for

00:03:36.920 God's judgment to come in the flood. And so it was this escalation of sin that is leading up

00:03:44.040 to the narrative of the flood. Now, today we are in chapter 6 and verses 1 through 4 really begin

00:03:54.580 as even 1 through 8, but begin as a transition. It kind of piggybacks off of chapter 5 and chapter

00:04:04.740 4 on this great escalation of sin prior to the judgment of the flood. Now, this passage is

00:04:14.340 known for its theological complexity, its multiple interpretations. I studied it as extensive as one

00:04:23.940 could in the period of time that I had. I have also studied it in the past. And so this is one

00:04:30.300 of those passages of scripture that you might have heard a sermon on before. I've listened to

00:04:34.480 a few podcasts about it before. I've read a handful of commentaries on it. And I do feel

00:04:40.060 fairly confident in the position that I hold. And I think that most of church history holds

00:04:44.220 the position that I hold. The passage is difficult to interpret because it has three categories of

00:04:50.760 people that are difficult to identify. The first is the sons of God. Who are the sons of God?

00:04:59.720 The second is the daughters of men. Who are the daughters of men specifically? And the third is 0.78

00:05:06.220 the Nephilim. What are, who is the Nephilim? Throughout church history, several interpretations

00:05:13.780 again have been offered on this. Today I'm going to walk through most of the prominent views.

00:05:18.820 So you'll hear of really there's three views and really it comes down to about two views.

00:05:24.760 And then there's really one major view that I believe is held throughout most of church history, especially in the early church.

00:05:33.620 Ultimately, this text, it really is this final escalation of rebellion and biological disorder.

00:05:43.080 Okay, so you got to understand there's a final escalation of moral rebellion and biological disorder before the divine judgment of the flood.

00:05:54.220 And so let's read verse 1 and 2.

00:05:57.380 It says,

00:05:58.280 When man began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,

00:06:07.420 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives

00:06:13.520 any that they chose. Okay. All of this has to be interpreted with a contextual lens

00:06:23.140 and a larger framework between the conflict of the two seeds. You have the conflict of

00:06:28.800 the two seeds. And at this point in the narrative, it can almost seem as if like Satan's gaining

00:06:33.840 ground. There's the escalation of sin. There's great multiplication, but everybody continues

00:06:39.920 to die. There is evil going on, especially in Cain's descendants. And the seed is multiplying

00:06:48.780 corruption, and it's spreading across the earth. I want to just give you an example of how this

00:06:54.340 might look if you were up in heaven looking down on this. Let's just imagine for a second,

00:07:01.180 you have two sets of marbles. You have one set of marbles that are red, representing evil,

00:07:06.900 and you have another set of marbles of blue, representing righteous.

00:07:11.060 um if you could just look at these two seeds you know the the seed of the serpent and the seed of

00:07:20.640 the woman represented by those two different colors now imagine the red marbles multiplying

00:07:26.580 at a rate of one thousand to one okay growing into the millions until the blue marbles essentially 1.00

00:07:34.660 visually disappear. And in the end, you're looking at maybe a billion red marbles and

00:07:42.660 eight people that are left in the flood or that are left to make it through the flood,

00:07:48.040 eight blue marbles. And so this is kind of the scene that is being set here is that there's

00:07:53.600 this massive escalation of evil until there really is only left a few righteous people

00:08:00.560 that are allowed to escape through the flood.

00:08:04.220 Now that's basically the context.

00:08:07.700 And so today's text, what it does is it presents

00:08:10.220 this final escalation of evil

00:08:14.180 in which Satan attempts to use the dominion mandate

00:08:18.800 to be fruitful and multiply.

00:08:20.980 He takes this dominion mandate, which is from God,

00:08:23.660 and he perverts it to corrupt it

00:08:26.360 and extinguish the promised seed. 0.66

00:08:29.380 So he wants to take this desire of multiplication and he wants to extinguish the seed of Christ by entangling the demonic realm with the seed of the woman. 0.58

00:08:41.140 So that's really the big picture is that you have this desire of Satan to entangle the demonic realm with the seed of the woman, with human biology, in order to extinguish the promised seed. 0.70

00:08:56.100 And again, this is more battle over the war

00:08:59.960 between these two seeds.

00:09:01.880 And so I believe that Satan believed

00:09:04.880 that if he could just corrupt the human line itself,

00:09:09.740 if he could bring corruption to the earth

00:09:12.300 in human biology, polluting the very means

00:09:15.960 by which the Messiah would come, 0.99

00:09:18.140 he could prevent the birth of the serpent crusher 0.99

00:09:20.860 and essentially secure victory

00:09:22.700 over God's plan of redemption.

00:09:25.200 And that's really how this plays out in this text.

00:09:29.320 So the text says,

00:09:31.300 man began to multiply on the land

00:09:34.140 and daughters were born to them.

00:09:36.500 So this is just an interesting take

00:09:38.360 because you just got done after chapter five

00:09:40.560 and chapter five was all about the men.

00:09:44.540 And it was, you know, this man was born

00:09:47.060 and he had a son and he lived this long and then he died.

00:09:49.820 And here we have the emphasis,

00:09:52.320 not only are not of the men,

00:09:54.020 but the birth of daughters. In verse two, it says, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man

00:10:03.000 were attractive and they took as their wives any they chose. So we're getting into the difficult

00:10:11.500 text here. So the term sons of God, it appears seven times in the Old Testament, the Hebrew

00:10:19.640 phrase, especially. But it appears seven times in the Old Testament. Now, three of those occurrences

00:10:26.360 are found in the book of Job. And it clearly refers that the sons of God are angels. Every

00:10:33.580 time in the book of Job, they are angels. One of the verses says, now there was a day when the sons

00:10:39.280 of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came along with them. You can see

00:10:45.980 kind of a reiteration of that in Job 2.1, Job 38.7. The verse I just read was Job 1.6.

00:10:52.300 Another usage is in the book of Daniel, where King Nebuchadnezzar is staring at

00:10:59.980 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the flames, and he sees this fourth figure, and he says,

00:11:07.180 he says, there was an appearance of a son of God. That's Daniel 3.25. It's that same Hebrew word

00:11:14.380 that it's like this angelic figure in the flames with the three men being burned.

00:11:23.060 And again, Psalm 29.1 says,

00:11:25.880 Oh, heavenly beings, but it's the same Hebrew words that we have here in Genesis 6,

00:11:33.660 also in Psalm 89.6-7.

00:11:36.640 So some argue that the sons of God are referring to the sons of Seth,

00:11:43.760 Oh, because Seth is the line. He is the promised, you know, the seed will be coming through his line. So the sons of God are Seth's sons.

00:11:54.920 um now cain is being essentially not the son son of god and uh this doesn't fit

00:12:04.480 in my opinion because the extended context of these women birthing the nephilim wouldn't really

00:12:11.480 work with them being humans and humans producing extraordinary biological creatures and so i just

00:12:18.320 don't think that works that is a very common view of the last like maybe 50 or 60 years it's not

00:12:24.000 the view of the early church. And I believe it was one of these enlightenment views that you go,

00:12:28.740 you know what? It doesn't make sense that angels are going to come down and have

00:12:32.560 sexual relationships with women. Let's just figure out a way that we can exegetically

00:12:37.600 make this make more sense. But that wasn't the view all throughout church history. The view

00:12:41.940 throughout church history was that these were angels that came down to earth. And so I rejected

00:12:47.700 that view. I don't think that that is an accurate view. Others believe that this phrase refers to

00:12:52.900 particular kings or extra biblical rulers that were in this pre-antediluvian era because they've

00:13:02.080 unearthed archaeological artifacts that call these rulers sons of God. And so they'll make

00:13:07.680 a stretch there. But again, I don't believe that you have a human-human interaction at this point

00:13:12.720 because it doesn't explain the unique and extraordinary beings of the Nephilim being

00:13:17.120 created. And so, um, there's, there's essentially two possible dimensions of the one view that I

00:13:25.100 hold. Two possible dimensions of the one view that I hold. And first is the sons of God were

00:13:34.400 either fallen angels who possessed men, probably the line of Cain. So they're, they're either

00:13:42.560 fallen angels, demons, that came and possessed the fallen men and had relations with the

00:13:49.600 daughters of men.

00:13:50.360 So that's option one that is very plausible and could certainly be what this text is talking

00:13:56.180 about.

00:13:57.360 Or the sons of God were actually fallen angels who visibly embodied men and had relations

00:14:05.660 with the daughters of men.

00:14:07.700 And so when I went into the study on this, I kind of went in with the first view and

00:14:11.520 came out with the second view.

00:14:12.560 so that's kind of where i land um and so here's why so in genesis 19 5

00:14:20.480 the homosexual men and sodom said to the two angels where are the men who came with you tonight 0.56

00:14:30.400 bring them out that we might know them okay so you have two men that are called angels 0.98

00:14:38.880 that have the physical appearance of men. 1.00

00:14:42.540 So much so that these homosexual sodomites 1.00

00:14:45.480 want to have relations with them. 1.00

00:14:48.980 And so Hebrews 13, two says,

00:14:53.400 some have an entertained angels without awareness.

00:14:56.460 Again, implying that you have angelic beings

00:15:00.600 that are indistinguishable from humans.

00:15:04.220 And so you have this very real possibility

00:15:06.680 that there are men at this time that look like men,

00:15:11.280 but are actually demons, that are actually demons.

00:15:15.320 Now, many argue that in Matthew 22, verse 30,

00:15:18.540 that Jesus says, he's talking to the Sadducees. 0.94

00:15:21.980 Remember the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection 0.96

00:15:24.760 and that is why they're sad, you see, right?

00:15:28.240 And so they're arguing, well, hey,

00:15:32.600 this woman marries this husband and then he dies,

00:15:35.880 he marries her brother and he marries his brother. He marries his brother. Which brother is she

00:15:40.260 married to in heaven? And Jesus says, well, in the resurrection, people will neither marry nor

00:15:46.060 be given to marriage, but they will be like the angels in heaven. And so what they do is the people

00:15:53.400 that use this verse is they believe this indicates that angels, because angels don't marry, that they

00:15:58.960 don't have reproductive capability they don't have reproductive capability now i looked and i

00:16:05.840 spent a lot of time trying to figure this out it never says in scripture that angels don't have

00:16:10.320 reproductive capability or that they can't take on the uh the form of a reproductive being okay

00:16:18.640 so we know that angels can disguise themselves as different things as different creatures and

00:16:23.600 different beings there's lots of discussion around what level from fairies to bigfoot uh to aliens

00:16:31.520 what what are there out there in terms of the demonic realm now because of this verse

00:16:38.960 uh i believe that angels can either take on the form or may possibly possess some sort of

00:16:48.080 capacity to reproduce. If they did have that capacity, I would say the holy angels are so

00:16:55.560 conformed to the will of God that they would never exercise that ability, if they did have that.

00:17:01.800 Again, I kind of lean more towards taking on the form of a man, including the biological structure

00:17:07.080 of a man. Now, just as I believe Jesus did not lose his male organs when he was resurrected

00:17:13.980 it and ascended. I think he still has his reproductive capability, though he does not use

00:17:18.780 it. And so I don't believe we essentially become physical eunuchs as we resurrect and ascend into

00:17:26.320 heaven. Now, again, why would I believe this? Why do I believe that there are actual embodied demons

00:17:36.440 and not just demonically possessed men.

00:17:40.940 2 Peter 2, 4-5 says, speaking of this passage, it says,

00:17:48.280 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned,

00:17:51.980 but cast them into hell and committed them to the pits of darkness reserved for judgment,

00:17:58.020 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah,

00:18:02.460 a preacher of righteousness, with seven others,

00:18:05.420 when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.

00:18:10.960 So you have this passage of scripture in 2 Peter.

00:18:15.180 And what he's saying here is that these angels,

00:18:17.360 they committed a unique sin.

00:18:19.360 They committed some sort of a unique sin so severe

00:18:22.360 that God put them into a holding place

00:18:25.180 until the final judgment.

00:18:26.720 Some sort of unique sin that occurred right there.

00:18:29.220 And it was distinguished from their typical rebellion.

00:18:32.280 This is some sort of additional rebellion.

00:18:35.420 It's not the same as maybe their other possessions or their other fallenness,

00:18:39.260 but there was some sort of unique sin that occurred

00:18:42.100 that caused them to be put in to this holding place until the judgment.

00:18:50.760 Jude 6 and 7, because there's no chapters in Jude,

00:18:56.080 so Jude chapter, verse 6 and 7,

00:18:58.220 it also speaks of these fallen angels saying,

00:19:00.660 And quote, and the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling. 0.50

00:19:10.020 He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of that great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise, so he's connecting the demons and Sodom and Gomorrah, indulged in sexual immorality.

00:19:28.480 and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing punishment of eternal fire.

00:19:36.260 Okay, so the Bible speaks of angels in these two verses, A, who left their domain. They left their

00:19:43.160 domain. It actually uses the word abode in many translations. They left their abode, they left

00:19:48.040 their home. B, they sinned uniquely in some way. And C, they likewise indulged in sexual immorality

00:19:59.800 and pursued unnatural desires. So we have evidence in the New Testament that confirms this, that we

00:20:05.340 have essentially angels that left where they were supposed to be, came down, committed some sort of

00:20:12.700 unique sin that was sexually immoral. And that essentially, I think, gives us enough ground

00:20:17.920 to exegetically connect the possibility that angels came down in the form of man and slept

00:20:24.500 with women. And that's what we can take here. So I believe that we do have an embodiment,

00:20:32.960 again, whether it's the form, whether it's possession. And what was the purpose again?

00:20:40.960 Well, of course, if the war is about a seed,

00:20:44.900 if it's all about preventing the seed from being born,

00:20:49.980 then this is a great way to biologically corrupt

00:20:53.120 and extinguish the possibility of this seed being born.

00:20:58.740 In many ways, this actually mirrors the same type of pattern

00:21:02.020 that we see throughout the Old Testament.

00:21:04.800 The Egyptians sought to slaughter the Hebrew baby boys.

00:21:08.020 Same way, same kind of concept here. 1.00

00:21:10.380 slaughtering the baby boys and what did it do it led to moses's deliverance like it's so funny 0.53

00:21:16.060 satan's going i'm gonna i'm gonna go out and i'm gonna try to get rid of them by getting rid of

00:21:19.580 these boys and then like god's like nah like here's moses is gonna just escape you know and it 0.98

00:21:26.700 does it again right we see this in king herod what happens with herod oh i'm gonna go and slaughter 0.97

00:21:31.580 all the bait it's all about killing the seed i'm gonna go slaughter these baby boys and what does 0.96

00:21:37.580 god do oh no just go out this way go to egypt and all of a sudden jesus comes back so this is 0.99

00:21:44.060 this is again the the crushing the promised seed was always satan's primary objective throughout

00:21:52.700 history now it came in many forms and many wars and different battles but this is the biological

00:21:57.660 reality hey let's try to mix these things up biologically as a way to prevent now this demonic

00:22:05.900 perversion of the human race was one of the great reasons for the flood you have this very weird

00:22:12.380 polluted biology of the human race and in verse 3 god offers a countdown to this judgment a

00:22:20.460 countdown to this judgment so it says in verse 3 then the lord said my spirit shall not abide

00:22:27.420 in man forever for he is flesh his days shall be 120 years okay

00:22:35.900 many people have misinterpreted this passage believing that god is declaring some sort of

00:22:43.780 limitation of 120 years on human lifespan they just took it this verse right out of context no

00:22:49.600 that's not what it's saying at all has nothing to do with human beings living in a particular

00:22:54.420 number of years um god is responding to the perversion of humanity and declaring that his

00:23:00.740 grace is only going to extend for 120 more years and then the flood's coming and then the flood is

00:23:05.580 coming. We see in 1 Peter 3.20, it says, quote, because they formerly did not obey when God's

00:23:16.120 patience waited in the days of Noah, that 120 year period, while the ark was being prepared

00:23:23.020 in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water. And so we also

00:23:29.840 know this to be the correct interpretation because there are several people after the flood who live

00:23:35.100 far beyond 120 years. You have Shem, 600 years. You have Arpashad, 438 years. Shalath, 433 years.

00:23:44.840 Eber, 464 years. Abraham even lives 175 years. And so you have this continued long length of life,

00:23:51.740 though it is starting to diminish due to the effects of sin over time. Okay, so now we get to

00:23:58.960 verse four, which is the Nephilim. Okay. The Nephilim. It says the Nephilim were on the earth

00:24:07.920 in those days. And also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men 0.96

00:24:17.100 and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

00:24:26.240 Depends on which translation you have there.

00:24:28.540 And bear with me, I'm trying to fight a cold,

00:24:30.080 so I try not to speak too hard so I don't cough.

00:24:36.520 Now here we have this term, the notorious term, Nephilim,

00:24:42.480 which only appears in the scriptures twice.

00:24:46.240 And so you don't have a lot of context.

00:24:48.600 The word Nephilim, now you have giants

00:24:51.140 and you have discussions around,

00:24:52.460 but this particular word, okay?

00:24:54.500 the word Nephilim means to fall. That's what it means. It means to fall, which either refers to

00:25:00.840 their size and history upon falling on their enemies, which is, I think, the more historic

00:25:06.980 position. It could also mean their extraordinary degree of fallenness in terms of a moral condition.

00:25:15.160 But I take the former, not the latter. And we see the term again after the flood,

00:25:21.640 which is interesting. You see the term again after the flood in Numbers 13, 33, and it says,

00:25:28.480 and there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim.

00:25:36.700 And we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them. So there's this

00:25:44.860 essentially giants. They're giants. Now there's arguments, well, oh, they were just six foot five

00:25:54.100 and that's, you know, what they were. And then there's arguments that, you know, maybe they were

00:26:02.860 just afraid. And so they made up the idea that there was the Nephilim because they didn't want

00:26:07.880 to actually fight. No, most of the Hebrew scholars and ancient commentaries view the Nephilim as an

00:26:17.640 ancient race of violent giants who were mixed with demons. That's really what we see throughout

00:26:26.100 these commentaries. Most scholars believe that Goliath was part of this Nephilim ancestry,

00:26:32.560 and there are several post-flood scriptures that speak to giants. We actually have Genesis

00:26:37.680 14.5, Numbers 13.32-33, Deuteronomy 2.10-11, Deuteronomy 2.22-21, Deuteronomy 3.11, Joshua

00:26:46.340 11.21-22, 1 Samuel 17.4, 2 Samuel 21.16-22, and 1 Chronicles 20.4-8. So this isn't a

00:26:57.660 small theme in the Old Testament. We have this idea of giants or these types of people

00:27:03.500 that come from giants throughout the scriptures.

00:27:05.640 And so there are two questions that we have to answer.

00:27:09.920 Question number one is,

00:27:11.560 are these giants the offspring of the sons of God

00:27:15.940 and the daughters of men?

00:27:16.860 That's the first question you have to ask.

00:27:19.000 And if they are,

00:27:22.260 and if only eight persons survived the flood,

00:27:25.640 how do they come back after the flood?

00:27:27.800 Okay, those are the two common questions in this discussion.

00:27:31.200 So to the first question,

00:27:32.700 i believe they are the offspring of the sons of god which are the fallen angels

00:27:41.020 and the daughters of men so genesis 6 4 if you just read the text it directly connects the

00:27:48.020 nephilim to the unions described in verses 1 through 2 i think there's an easy exegetical

00:27:52.920 connection there um the text does not merely place the nephilim in like the same era

00:27:59.340 it actually states when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to

00:28:06.020 them. The most natural reading of this is that the children born to them were these mighty men

00:28:12.700 of old, were these Nephilim. I think that's the most natural reading that you can take.

00:28:17.620 Now, the language also suggests something biologically abnormal, right? So you have

00:28:22.500 this relationship, the sons of God and the daughters of men, and it produces this 0.82

00:28:26.760 biologically irregular result. These extraordinary beings, these mighty men,

00:28:32.500 men of old, right? And you also have extra biblical texts like 1 Enoch

00:28:39.300 that unanimously interpret the Nephilim as the offspring of these kind of superhuman

00:28:44.540 or supernatural unions, which indicates that, again, this wasn't some projected modern idea

00:28:52.200 on the text. But this is actually the historic interpretation from these generations that we've

00:29:00.540 received these texts. And so the second question becomes, how did the Nephilim come back after the

00:29:08.220 flood? And there's a lot of fascinating discussions. Some people say that, oh, you know

00:29:15.760 what? Maybe it killed all humanity. It killed all the Nephilim, the flood, but maybe the flood

00:29:23.740 didn't kill the sons of men because they were angels. They weren't actually men. They're 0.88

00:29:30.300 actually embodied angels. Maybe they changed their embodiment and maybe they became some sort of

00:29:37.020 water capable creature. So there's some weird interpretations. They exist out there and a lot

00:29:44.300 of it is just theory, but those exist as realities. So we have to notice that the text says the

00:29:52.660 Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward. In those days and also afterward.

00:29:58.560 It doesn't give us a ton of context. Is it talking post-flood? Is it talking about afterwards when?

00:30:04.740 But we do know because Numbers mentions the Nephilim that we go, okay, well, they're here.

00:30:08.740 They're here then, and they're here also in this other period of time as well.

00:30:13.520 And so we cannot view the flood merely as God trying to eliminate the Nephilim. 0.93

00:30:19.340 The purpose of the flood wasn't just, we're going to just eliminate the Nephilim. 0.58

00:30:23.420 Yes, that's a big part of it, especially if there was massive multiplication in the Nephilim prior to the flood. 0.96

00:30:30.080 But the primary objective of the flood was really to wipe out the sinfulness of man, which included the Nephilim creatures. 0.54

00:30:38.560 And so I say this because scripture places no explicit limitation on fallen angels repeating the same sin prior to the birth of Christ. 0.95

00:30:51.120 So I believe that could this same circumstance occur again where you have the angels of men or the sons of God that are looking down upon the daughters of women?

00:31:05.360 there's no explicit prohibition in scripture saying that this couldn't happen again to another

00:31:11.620 group of angels. We do know that the first group was taken and thrown into some dungeon for the

00:31:17.800 judgment, but it doesn't mean that this couldn't be reproduced again. And so until the seed of

00:31:25.660 Christ came, the war between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman continues 0.96

00:31:31.260 underway of course it does it's continuing all the way until that seed is born and so i would

00:31:37.980 argue that the restraining of the demonic war over the seeds uh really didn't have some sort of

00:31:47.580 reprieve until the birth life ministry death resurrection and ascension of jesus and so

00:31:54.220 And why is that? Why is that important? Mark 12, 29, they're calling Jesus a servant of Satan.

00:32:06.420 He's essentially serving God, or he's serving the devil. And Jesus says,

00:32:13.220 how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, he's casting out demons,

00:32:19.040 unless he first binds the strong man, meaning Jesus has bound Satan at some degree,

00:32:25.540 then indeed he may plunder his house, end quote.

00:32:28.540 And so the coming of Christ, we now know, especially after the resurrection,

00:32:33.700 all authority has been given to Christ in heaven and on earth.

00:32:37.220 Prior to that, we know that Satan had some sort of authority on earth.

00:32:42.020 We know that because he offered that authority to Jesus in the temptation of the 40 days.

00:32:47.220 He goes, hey, look at all the nations, look at all the earth, all these will be yours

00:32:51.700 if you just bow down to me.

00:32:53.560 And so Jesus obviously says no, but he crushes Satan under his feet through the death and

00:32:59.880 resurrection and ascension.

00:33:01.800 But here now Jesus regains the authority that was in the hands of Satan at that time.

00:33:09.600 And so there's again, something that occurs in the birth of the seed.

00:33:15.100 And there is some sort of binding of Satan at the gospel, at the start and the initiation of the kingdom of God.

00:33:25.440 And Jesus has essentially stripped Satan of his former domain.

00:33:30.680 And so, can the Nephilim be here today?

00:33:33.920 That's another discussion to argue.

00:33:38.000 How much of the binding of Satan has been accomplished by Christ?

00:33:43.160 how much has the demonic realm been bound? Is there a reason we don't see the type of demonic

00:33:51.460 activity that we saw in the scriptures as prevalent today? There's conversations around

00:33:57.140 demons where you go, well, is it taking different manifestations in technology and pharmaceuticals

00:34:05.560 and depression and anxiety and different sicknesses? And I think there's good and

00:34:10.700 strong arguments for that reality.

00:34:12.060 I think when you see some of these homeless people

00:34:14.020 and they're shaking their heads and they're moving

00:34:15.420 in circles, we often think that it's just sickness.

00:34:18.300 Historically and biblically, you would say,

00:34:19.700 well, maybe that's demonic possession.

00:34:21.080 And so there's lots of discussions around this topic

00:34:24.420 that we don't have time to get into today.

00:34:27.140 But Satan once had great freedom to deceive the nations.

00:34:30.840 He did, he had once, only Israel had the oracles of God

00:34:34.680 and understood the promised seed, 0.87

00:34:36.680 but the rest of the nations were deceived

00:34:38.840 and they were deceived in a great way.

00:34:40.700 um when christ comes and he says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me now go get

00:34:47.020 those nations they're mine i purchased them now you have again what you see is jesus actually

00:34:53.420 plundering the house of or in the the old domain of satan and how is he doing so well he's he's

00:35:01.420 converting and conquering his enemies through conversion of the gospel so by the the word of

00:35:06.380 of the gospel, by the power of the church, we're walking in through missionaries, through faithfulness,

00:35:11.980 through birthing and baptizing children. We are plundering the house of Satan by the power of the

00:35:19.020 gospel through the means of the church. And it's wonderful to watch that essentially Jesus is now 0.98

00:35:24.980 winning. We were losing up until the birth of Christ. You had every reason to be a pessimist

00:35:34.120 until the birth of Christ. It was just going to get worse and worse and worse until that promised

00:35:40.200 seed was born. But once that promised seed was born, we have a reversal of the effects of the

00:35:45.300 fall. And so we have this beautiful, people were born dead. And now in Christ, you could be born

00:35:52.660 again and be made alive. And now I believe that the resurrection of Christ is actually more

00:35:57.900 powerful than the fall of Adam. And we can have this great hope that Jesus will actually fulfill

00:36:05.080 the great dominion mandate to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And so in the way

00:36:10.340 that Adam and Eve reproduce death and destruction and sin, I believe Christ and his bride, the church

00:36:17.700 will actually be faithful and they will be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with

00:36:23.380 God lovers. And I think we're seeing that over the generations, over the centuries, we're going to

00:36:27.860 see greater and greater conformity to the gospel. And this should give us hope. This should give us

00:36:34.940 joy. This should give us great understanding that it's only going to get better. Doesn't mean it's

00:36:39.900 not going to be hard. It doesn't mean we don't have sin. It doesn't mean we don't have an enemy

00:36:42.700 still at some degree. Doesn't mean that we don't have the flesh to battle with. But it does mean

00:36:47.480 that we have hope in the reality that Christ has conquered the earth and we can be expectant

00:36:56.380 of joy and more redemption in the years and centuries to come. And so what stands out to

00:37:05.040 me in this passage is this kind of unmistakable truth that God is sovereign and control and even

00:37:11.640 the strangest situations and even the most dark. And again, if you look at that picture of the

00:37:17.720 marbles, you go, wow, there is a billion red marbles and there's eight blue marbles. And

00:37:25.200 from every carnal perspective of the flesh you look at, I just imagine Noah going, it's really

00:37:31.500 bad. It's really bad out here. And you just think that you're going to be completely overcome

00:37:37.600 and you're going to be completely ruined.

00:37:40.460 Yet God, when it's chaotic, when it appears evil,

00:37:46.680 the Lord has never overcome.

00:37:49.140 The Lord's will prevails over and over again.

00:37:52.680 And again, I believe God enjoys writing

00:37:55.240 these climactic, epic stories

00:37:58.540 where it just looks like everything is falling apart

00:38:02.240 and you're like, there's no way you could recover.

00:38:05.620 And then boom.

00:38:07.600 Just like the resurrection, right?

00:38:09.420 You just go, it's completely over.

00:38:11.780 It's completely done.

00:38:14.180 Three days later, boom.

00:38:17.380 You know, it's just, that's God's way.

00:38:20.020 He takes you to the very edge

00:38:22.460 where you think it's completely lost.

00:38:25.160 And then he pulls through.

00:38:28.520 The Lord says in Isaiah 46, 10,

00:38:31.440 my counsel shall stand

00:38:32.800 and I will accomplish all my purpose.

00:38:35.760 and this passage reminds us that darkness just can't outrun God's power again we saw it with

00:38:43.440 Abel right Cain murders Abel and everybody's got to go I thought he was the serpent crusher

00:38:49.840 I thought it was going to come through him what hope do we have you know and then here comes Seth

00:38:55.620 it's just over and over again that is the narrative what looks like disorder to us

00:39:01.720 is never threatening to God. And it requires faith. It requires us to constantly be going,

00:39:08.280 I know it looks bad. I know it looks like that America is going to fall apart.

00:39:13.320 And I know it looks like Western civilization is going to completely go under and that immigration 1.00

00:39:18.500 and Islam is coming in and everything is tearing apart our entire heritage and legacy. And it 1.00

00:39:26.200 looks like the church is getting smaller and I don't know what's going on, but you just have

00:39:30.520 the faith that you go, I don't know how it's going to work out, but somehow the world's 0.97

00:39:35.680 going to be Christianized. 0.99

00:39:37.380 Somehow we're going to see more and more Christians over the coming centuries.

00:39:42.080 And so again, even in the moments that appear bleak or irreversible, God is faithful in

00:39:48.300 moving history to accomplish his will.

00:39:52.280 Amen.

00:39:53.220 Amen.

00:39:53.780 Let's pray.

00:39:54.780 Father, we thank you, Lord, for this text, just for the general understanding of the

00:39:59.400 narrative of this passage of scripture. Lord, we ask that you would give us wisdom as we have

00:40:04.280 fun discussions around the theories and possibilities of the things in which are

00:40:09.160 mysterious to us. Lord, we ask that you'd help us to have wisdom in how we apply those things,

00:40:14.400 to not get carried away, but also to be sober, but also to enjoy that mystery of what could

00:40:20.760 possibly be. And Lord, we ask that you would help us to be faithful with your word and to be

00:40:26.480 faithful with the gospel. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dale Partridge - February 03, 2026

Genesis 6_1–4 - Who Are the Nephilim？

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