Genesis 6: If All the Raindrops Were Lemon Drops and Gum Drops

Summary: The "sons of God" marry the "daughters of men." The world becomes wicked. God decided that he wants to start over. Noah is a righteous man. God tells him to build a boat, gather his family, and two of each animal to weather the flood that God is sending. Noah does so.

To be continued . . .

Personal Reflection: There is some really strange commentary, at least to me, about who the sons of God are vis a vis the daughters of men (see Chuck Smith's Commentary. This feels like reaching to me, although I do like what he says about "it repented the Lord"). Now, I really do not mean to denigrate anyone's ability to understand the scriptures, and I know part of it is my own religious doctrice showing, but I would contend that the sons of God are simply those who follow God, and the daughters of man are the children of those men who do not (see Journal of Discourses 25:227).

Imagine how much harder it would be for God's people to follow him if they were marrying those who weren't of their faith. God was always commanding his people to marry those within the covenant in later times, and it was a problem when they married outside the covenant (see Gen. 26:34-35). It would be perfectly logical for this to be the problem here in Noah's time.

Also, the great flood is another great example of a story that has a lot of parallels in other cultures. Here are links to a few sites that talk about the various stories: livius.org, nationalgeographic.com, mystae.com, nwcreation.net.

Dimensions of the ark: 450 ft long x 75 feet wide x 45 feet tall, with three stories and a window.