The four interpretations…are attempts to read a notoriously difficult passage. You might wonder which views have been popular historically and which ancient and modern theologians have held such interpretations. Let’s talk about that next.

How should we understand the “sons of God,” the “daughters of man,” and the Nephilim in Genesis 6:1–4? In the previous post, we considered the echoes in the passage from earlier parts of Genesis, and we thought about the literary placement of 6:1–4 in light of what immediately precedes and follows it.
What are the ways interpreters have read 6:1–4?
Option 1: The Sons of God are Sethites
According to the Sethite view, the “sons of God” are the descendants of Seth. They are human beings only. Their marriages to “daughters of man” would be human marriages, and their offspring would be human children. If the Nephilim are considered the offspring of these unions, the Nephilim are not supernatural beings.
The distinction between the “sons of God” and “daughters of man” is a spiritual one. The godly line of Seth would be intermarrying with the daughters of man, and “of man” emphasizes that these “daughters” do not know the Lord. In the Sethite view, then, these marriages displease the Lord because they involve the joining together of believers and unbelievers.
Support for this view comes, first of all, from the immediately preceding chapter. In Genesis 5, the genealogy of Adam through Seth is traced to Noah. Genesis 5 reports family descent through birth of human “sons” and human “daughters.” Second, the prior chapters of Genesis have been interested in conflicting spiritual lines. We see Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. After Abel dies, the Lord gives Eve another son, Seth. And in Genesis 4, we see the respective lines of descent for Cain and Seth, lines we should contrast. Third, the Sethite view has the advantage of staying with the realm of humanity and not moving to the realm of angels, so there may be less initial objection to strangeness. The non-human views of the “sons of God” must deal with the accompanying oddities which the Sethite view can avoid. Fourth, 6:1–4 reports marriages, and throughout the Old and New Testaments we see human beings getting married. Jesus says in Matthew 22:30 that the angels in heaven do not marry.
Option 2: The Sons of God are Human Kings
The “human king” view understands that in the ancient Near East, a king might be viewed as divine or partly divine, a “son” of the gods. In Genesis 6:1–4, then, the “sons of God” would be human kings who have relationships with human women. These human women became wives to these “sons of God.”
According to the human king—or royal son—view, the offspring of these marriages would be mighty people, the Nephilim, who were human offspring.
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The thing that makes revival so special is that it is rare. Yet, what is not rare is the everyday work of the Lord in our lives and churches. It is this slow growth that we see over time. We pray for great revival, but we trust in our God who is everyday working for his people.Last week there was breaking news about revival at Asbury College and Seminary in Kentucky. There are many on the internet giving balanced thoughts on this event and reminding us what true revival is. We should pray that the Lord would bring revival. A revival not just of feelings and emotions, but the true outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I do hope that what is happening at Asbury will prove to be a true revival.  An outpouring that changes lives, churches, and nations.
In the account of the Welsh Revival in the early Twentieth century there were clear transformations that took place. Individuals’ lives were transformed so that they gave up their sins and followed the Lord. Society was changed to the point that in some places they closed the Police stations because there was no more crime. We should pray that a true revival might sweep across our land and that we might see ourselves, our churches, and our nation changed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
As we long for revival, do not forget that the Lord is working everyday. Revivals are special times. However, we should not despise the day of small things. This is the ordinary work of God. To bless daily by the means of grace and to grow the church through small steps. Yes, we long for revival, but we must also acknowledge and trust the ordinary work of the Lord.
Sometimes this work of the Lord is hard to see. It is like watching your child grow. You can’t see the growth every day or week, maybe not even every month. But over time, as you mark their height on the door frame, you see the growth.
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Written by R.C. Sproul |
Friday, October 8, 2021
Paul was content because he knew his condition was ordained by his Creator. He understood that God brought both pleasure and pain into his life for a good purpose (Rom. 8:28). Paul knew that since the Lord wisely ordered his life, he could find strength in the Lord for any and all circumstances. Paul understood that he was fulfilling the purpose of God whether he was experiencing abundance or abasement. Submission to God’s sovereign rule over his life was the key to his contentment.

Blaise Pascal, the famous French philosopher and mathematician, noted that human beings are creatures of profound paradox. We’re capable of both deep misery and tremendous grandeur, often at the same time. All we have to do is scan the headlines to see that this is the case. How often do celebrities who have done great good through philanthropy get caught up in scandals?
Human grandeur is found in part in our ability to contemplate ourselves, to reflect upon our origins, our destiny, and our place in the universe. Yet, such contemplation has a negative side, and that is its potential to bring us pain. We may find ourselves miserable when we think of a life that is better than that which we enjoy now and recognize that we are incapable of achieving it. Perhaps we think of a life free of illness and pain, yet we know that physical agony and death are certain. Rich and poor alike know that a life of greater wealth is possible but grow frustrated when that wealth is unobtainable. Sick or healthy, poor or rich, successful or unsuccessful—we are all capable of growing vexed when a better life remains outside of our grasp.
Scripture prescribes only one remedy to this frustration: contentment.
Biblical contentment is a spiritual virtue that we find modeled by the Apostle Paul. He states, for example, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Phil. 4:11). No matter the state of his health, wealth, or success, Paul found it possible to be content with his life.
In Paul’s era, two prominent schools of Greek philosophy agreed that our goal should be to find contentment, but they had very different ways of getting there. The first of these, Stoicism, said imperturbability was the way to contentment. Stoics believed that human beings had no real control over their external circumstances, which were subject to the whims of fate. The only place they could have any control was in their personal attitudes. We cannot control what happens to us, they said, but we can control how we feel about it.
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