Lesson for October 20, 2024
Victorious Proclamation
Lesson 3
The Divine Judgment and Protection
God’s decision to destroy the Nephilim was grace! It was the only means by which He could keep His promise of Genesis 3:15. Otherwise, all humanity would be tainted with the fallen angelic strain, and it would be impossible for Christ to come in the flesh and to win the strategic victory of the Angelic Conflict. Therefore, not only was the Flood divine judgment on a reversionistic civilization, but it was also the frustration of the satanic plot through the preservation of true humanity in Noah’s family, as well as the perpetuation of the human race itself!
To demonstrate that this generation had no desire whatever for a relationship with God, He gave them a grace period of 120 years. Every individual had free will plus 120 years to make up their mind! At the end of that period there were only eight people who had made a choice for God, every one of whom was uncontaminated humanity.
When the promise of the Flood was finally fulfilled and the Nephilim were destroyed, God judged those angels who were guilty of infiltrating the human race.
II Peter 2:4, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment…”
The context of this chapter is a warning against false teachers. To affirm the certainty of their eternal judgment, and the consistency of God’s character, Peter cited three examples from the past where God’s judgment fell upon certain groups who were in a state of total degeneracy. For if he spared not is a first-class conditional clause, meaning that He did not spare them. Just as God did not hesitate to punish the fallen angels of Genesis 6, He also punished the Nephilim by ending their entire civilization with the Flood.
In Noah’s day, God protected His plan in order to safeguard true humanity through whom Christ would come into the world, first by casting the angels that sinned to Tartarus (a compartment of Hades), then by drowning their offspring. Tartarus is a place in Hades for divine judgment for the fallen angels of Genesis 6. Tartarus is described here by the Greek phrase: “hupo zophos,” meaning utter darkness.
The severity of God’s judgment protects both the human race and His plan of salvation for the human race. The angels in Tartarus are at the present time being reserved there until the final judgment when they will be cast into the Lake of Fire for all eternity.
II Peter 2:5, “And spared not the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.”
God not only neutralized Satan’s forces that were involved in the corruption of the human race, but He also destroyed the population of unbelievers. But grace always precedes judgment! God gave them 120 years. Their judgment is also mentioned in the Book of Jude, along with unbelievers of the Exodus generation (Jude 5); fallen angels in Noah’s generation (Jude 6); and unbelievers in Sodom and Gomorrah (Jude 7).
Jude 5-7, “Now I want to remind you, though you know everything once and for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in sexual perversion and went after strange (different) flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”
Kept not their own domain. The Greek word for domain is “arche,” meaning the celestial order of being. So, these fallen angels did not stay in their own created order. They forsook their own kind for human females. Their action violated a divine law where God maintained segregation among the various species. (Genesis 1:24)
Since these fallen angels did not follow God’s law, they are now in Tartarus awaiting their final judgment. Why is this specifically mentioned? Remember, angels are constructed of light. They cannot be killed, as was the exodus generation in Jude 5, or the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah in Jude 7. How, then, does God judge these reversionistic and evil fallen angels? He renders them completely immobile. They are completely shut down and cannot be used by Satan for his evil purposes.
Satan is more clever than any other created being man, or angel. (Genesis 3:1). When you take all the verses pertaining to the angelic infiltration, it becomes apparent that Satan was genius enough to understand that if he could corrupt genuine humanity, there would be no salvation. Furthermore, God, Who had made a promise to Adam and his descendants in Genesis 3:15, would prove to be a liar, as He would not be able to keep His Word. Of course, God could have created another race, but He had already guaranteed to Adam’s race a Savior Who would come in the flesh. Consequently, Satan did all in his power to prevent true humanity from continuing on the earth.
After his insidious scheme of Genesis 6 was stopped by the Flood, Satan was never again able to come close to destroying true humanity, though he seized upon every opportunity to try. For example, when it was known that the Savior would come from the line of Abraham, Satan tried to stop the plan of God through the birth of Ishmael.
Genesis 15:4-6, “Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘This man will not be your heir; but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.’ And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ Then he believed in the Lord; and He credited it to him as righteousness.”
It would be through the line of Isaac, Abraham’s promised son, not his illegitimate son Ishmael, that the humanity of Jesus Christ would be born. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was unable to have children, so she convinced Abraham to have a child with Haggar, their maid, who was named Ishmael. The spiritual result of the promise of Abraham’s descendants being a blessing would be that millions would be blessed by believing in the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. All believers after Abraham are spiritual descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Isaac was the promised son of Abraham and Sarah, who would continue the spiritual line. God made the promise to Abraham that Sarah (not Haggar) would have a son to continue his spiritual line. Sarah did conceive and give birth to Isaac, and the spiritual line of Abraham continued. Satan’s plan once again failed, and Ishmael’s descendants (the Arabs) have continually been a “thorn in the side” of Israel ever since.
In the days of Moses, Satan again tried to cut off the Messianic line by ordering all Jewish boys killed immediately after birth. (Exodus 1:15-16)
In the days of David, God again prevented a Satanic attack by protecting Joash, David’s only remaining descendant, from being murdered. (II Chronicles 22)
King Herod, inspired by Satan, tried to kill all of the male infants, under two years of age born in Bethlehem, after Jesus was born. (Matthew 2). God, by means of a dream, told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus and go to Egypt and stay until God told him it was safe. When Herod finally died, Joseph was able to return to Israel with Mary and Jesus.
Despite these numerous attempts to cut off the line of Christ or to kill Him, God always protected the messianic line. God’s protection assured the world that the Savior would come, make the payment for sin, and win the victory over Satan.