Questions for Littles: How old did Methuselah live to be? What did Lamech call his son in v29? Why? Why did they need rest (“Noah,” v29)? Who are the sons of God (6:2, cf. 4:26-5:3)? From which line, then, did the “daughters of men” come? Why did the sons of God marry them? How did God respond to the mixing of the two lines (v3)? How long did He give them from when He pronounced this judgment until He carried it out? What were the children of these families like from an earthly perspective (v4)? But what were they like spiritually (v5)? Whose line does this remind us of (cf. 4:19-24)? Sadly, which line now looks like this? What does a holy God think of a world like this (v6)? How does a holy God respond to a world like this (v7)? What did Noah find from the Lord in v8?In this week’s Old Testament reading, the covenant of grace almost came to a disastrous end. How many times in Scripture has the covenant hung by the thinnest of threads! And yet, that thinnest thread is also the strongest: the faithfulness of God and His grace toward men.
How did things get so bad so quickly? The sons of God were calling upon the name of Yahweh. Enoch walked with God for three hundred years after fathering Methuselah, who grew up in the household of that admirable saint. When his son Lamech became the father of Noah, his heart was tender toward the Lord and eager for an end to the curse.
Now, we cannot know how many children Methuselah had before fathering Lamech at the age of 187, or how many Lamech had before fathering Noah at 182, or how many Noah had before Shem, Ham, and Japheth (were they triplets?), beginning at the age of 500. And, of course, if they continued having children until the age of 500, their families would have numbered in the thousands or even millions by the time of the flood.
Every intention of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil, continually? That means that none of them had come to faith, and none of them were doing any good works. How, then, did there come to be no converted people left on earth, except Noah? The answer is something that still plagues so many Christian families today: a fleshly approach to marriage choices.
They chose from among the wrong families: those from the line of Cain. They chose according to the wrong criteria: they saw that they were beautiful to look at. They chose without taking good counsel “whomever they chose.”
Just as more famously later with Solomon, so also more grievously and disastrously here with the line of the godly: poor marriage choices made impressive matches and produced offspring that were impressive from a worldly standpoint, but spiritually they cared little for the Lord’s promise of a seed who would crush the Serpent’s head. Of the millions and perhaps even billions of families now on earth, only one was not producing the seed of the Serpent.
Dear Christian, you work so hard to equip your children to be “men of renown”; what view of covenant, family, and marriage are you training them up with? Have they bought in? Are they eager to find a spouse from the family of God? Are they “following their hearts” (a Satanic decision-making method propagated by Disney and too many preachers), or learning to seek and heed good counsel? Do they see the purpose of marriage as to raise up godly seed for the Lord (cf. Mal 2:13-15)?
The church will never again be brought to a worldwide low, where the earth now needs to be destroyed. But there are local churches (such as some of those in Revelation), and of course also nations, that come under the frightful judgment of God. There is no faster way to bring that about than poor marriage choices!
And even while we are careful with our marriages and childrearing to serve the Lord and His church, we can be about the business of raiding Satan’s kingdom as well: by evangelism. Seed of the serpent are captured by missions, not marriage! The thinnest line of God’s grace can lay hold of a man in the midst of the most corrupt generation in history, and save him!
What efforts are you making to establish good relationships in the church and connections with other godly families? How are you preparing your children to seek good counsel and make a good choice?Suggested songs: ARP78B “O Come, My People,” or HB408 “Come, We That Love the Lord”
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