A Biblical Geekout

I LOVE THE BIBLE.

I look at people who think it's just a boring old book and I just can't understand. It's only boring to the people who aren't going to take the time to look any deeper than the surface. The mere premise of such a book, a book that contains within its pages EVERYTHING we need to survive in this life and make it to the next one, is incredible in and of itself. That alone would be more awe-inspiring than any book man could ever contrive. But here's the thing: there's so many hidden treasures in it, too. There are tons of little connections to be made that we don't really NEED to make. We can go to heaven even if we don't realize how cool this or that aspect of Scripture is... but we get to realize how cool they are!!

This isn't going to be a really formal article for two reasons. Quite frankly, I don't know how I would organize it. More importantly, however, this isn't "for sure." It's speculation, and I think it's well founded speculation, but it's one of those things you just can't know for sure until you get to Heaven and ask God about it. If you have a different opinion on the matter, good for you. You don't have to listen to me. However, I think the way all this ties together is really super incredible. :)

Alright. We're going to flip around a lot, but bear with me. Go ahead and look at Genesis 6:1-4. (I'm just gonna post it here but if you want to have your Bible so you can mark it or something like that, cool.) This is right before the account of the flood.

"Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.' The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, wen the sons of God came into the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."

So... a lot of people take the "sons of God" to be the descendants of Seth, because Christ came through Seth's lineage. Which makes sense. However, every other time the phrase translated "sons of God" is used in Scripture, it's referring to angels (see Job 1:6 for an example). So what, angels came to earth and married people? How's that work? Well... I'm not sure. But take a look at Jude 6. Jude's warning those he is writing to about the danger of false teachers, so he's calling to mind what happens to those who disobey God. Verse 6 says:

"And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day."

The "domain" and "proper abode" of the angels would be heaven, right? So it sounds like they abandoned heaven. Huh. Now look at 2 Peter 2:4-5, where Peter is ALSO talking about false prophets and using the same tactic as Jude:

"For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly."

I don't know about you, but that for sure makes it sound to me like the angels sin ended up having something to do with the flood. (For real though, you might not think so. Which is cool. 'Cause this isn't a heaven or hell issue. Just speculating.) Couple that with Jude 6 and it sounds like their sin was leaving heaven. Now look back at Genesis 6:2: "The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose." So angels left Heaven, and then the sons of God, who could plausibly be angels, were cohabiting with people and marrying them. Which was apparently a problem. I think the fact that the very next thing Moses talks about were these super-human Nephilim is an interesting tie-in... if the dads were angels, you certainly wouldn't expect the kids to be normal, now would you?

So how does God get rid of angels on the earth? Take a look at Matthew 8:28-34, where Jesus casts out "Legion." (Go ahead and just read this whole passage for me and then I'll focus in.) Okay. Verse 32:

"And He said to them, 'Go!' And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters."

So what happened to the demons? Surely they didn't drown... right? Look at what Jesus says in Matthew 12:43.

"Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it."

Now, we know the Bible is inspired. We know there's not a single word in there that God didn't hand pick to say EXACTLY what He wanted it to say. So why would He mention "waterless"? I take it to mean that spirits have an issue with water, especially when you consider that water apparently got rid of Legion.

I realize that angels and spirits most likely aren't quite the same, but it would make a lot of sense if they were similar in a lot of ways. Especially when you consider what God did after the sons of God came down to earth and were being sinful right along with men.

HE FLOODED THE EARTH!!

DUDE!!!

Like I keep saying, I'll never know for sure if that's definitely the way things played out. But it makes some sense, doesn't it? And either way, I consider it a huge blessing that there are so many hidden mysteries in the Bible that we get to try and solve that we don't NEED to know the answer to. It's just there for us to think about and geek out about and appreciate the complexity.

I LOVE THE BIBLE.

"How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" -Psalm 119:103

~green eyes :)