Heroes of Old, Not Heroes of God

Read Genesis 6: 1-8

Now the Nephilim were on the earth those days...

We are not sure who the Nephilim were, and the debate continues among academic biblical circles. But this much we know: the sons of God (read - holy) went to the daughters of the world (read - unholy), and married them, because they were hot. Oh - and they just married anyone they chose. I like you - let’s get hitched. Their children were the Nephilim, and they were “heroes of old, men of renown.” Later on in Numbers 13, after Moses sent the spies into the Promised Land, they returned to give the bad report, saying “We saw the Nephilim there... we looked like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them.”

In this world, we prize these outward virtues. Big and strong, tall and mighty, ageless and powerful. Or, beautiful - hot, even, sensuous, etc. The same temptations existed back then, but note in verse 5-6 the LORD’s response: grief. Terrible grief. So terrible, in fact, God even regretted creating man in the first place. And then his response went further: I’m going to remove all creation. It was a bad idea. These people may be heroes of old, men of renown, but God didn’t see it that way. He saw them as disappointments. Everything they did, their thoughts, their actions, their everything, tended towards evil.

It shouldn’t be surprising. When we focus on the things of this world, we naturally think that God is optional. Thus, Jesus often rails against the wealthy, the strong, the powerful, because many of them have been bought out by the world. Even though they claimed to be Jews, they weren’t on the inside. Thus, when God’s people married the daughters of the world on beauty alone - but not holiness - it was a big middle finger to God. Who are you, God, to tell me what I should do? These women are beautiful, they’re hot - why shouldn’t I marry them? What’s more - the children were “heroes of hold, men of renown.” What’s so bad about that?

What’s so bad about that is that the “heroes of old” were testaments to disobedience. Do we suffer from this wanton disobedience? Do we live our lives as one gigantic middle finger to God? Or do we humbly follow Him and serve Him only? Are we heroes of God?

It is interesting to compare this story to Jesus’ temptation. One of Jesus’ temptations was to jump down from a high place into a crowd below. Satan’s rationale: “The angels will keep you safe.” The idea was simple - by jumping down and letting the angels save you in front of all these people, you become an instant celebrity, a hero to the masses. But Jesus would not do it. What a hero of God Jesus was - that he would humbly walk this earth and even ascend the hill of Calvary for our sake. Let us follow in his steps.