Thursday 24 September, 2015

6 There began to be many human beings on the earth. And daughters were born to them. 2 The sons of God saw that the daughters of human beings were beautiful. So they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not struggle with human beings forever. They will have only 120 years to live.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days. That was when the sons of God went to the daughters of human beings. Children were born to them. The Nephilim were famous heroes who lived long ago. Nephilim were also on the earth later on.

There is some discussion about exactly what the 120 years refers to, but we will emphasize that whether verse 3 refers to life-span or to the period leading up to the great flood, it clearly refers to God’s relationship with man. The Message Bible reads: “Then God said, ”I am not going to breathe life into men and women endlessly. Eventually they are going to die; from now on they can expect a life-span of 120 years.”

These verses reveal three characteristics about God. [1] He is a patient God, [2] He is merciful and [3] He is compassionate. Man’s separation from God and His fellowship began when Adam and Eve disobeyed His command not to eat the fruit of the tree in the garden of Eden. In our passage, after 10 generations since Adam, the Lord placed a further restriction on mankind by reducing their life-span to 120 years. The key point here is that sin, corruption, and violence caused a greater separation between God and man. [see v.5]

The thing that impresses so much is the absolute patience of a loving Creator God. For mankind’s sake He moved in compassion to prevent mankind’s sin from destroying him. Deep in His heart the Lord knew that eventually through His Son Jesus His relationship with man would be restored completely.

Lord, I am inspired by your patience and faithfulness to offer my worship to you and to glorify your Name for your remarkable plan of salvation.

Written by Keith Bennett