I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 4-7. I have decided to switch from suing the New Living Translation to using the New International Version because, all in all, I prefer the NIV.

Once again I am unsure where I am going with today’s blog.  However, today I see several things I want to touch on which I do not see any connection between.  The first was something which I first thought of yesterday.  In yesterday’s passage it mentioned that God had given every seed bearing plant as food for mankind.  Then in today’s passage, Abel is a shepherd who brought an offering of the fat portions of some of the firstborn of his flock.  God found this a more acceptable offering than Cain’s offering from among his crops.  I am unsure of what significance this has, but it feels rather significant.

A little later the passage tells us that the “sons of God” married the daughters of humans who they found attractive and had children by them.  This provides the context in which the writer tells us that human wickedness had become so great that God decided to unleash the Flood.  We have no other references which give us any insight into who these “sons of God” were, nor what connection there was between them taking human women as wives and the wickedness of humanity.  One thing I find interesting is that the passage tells us that the “Nephilim” were the offspring of these matings between the “sons of God” and human women, which happened before the Flood.  Later, the Israelites encountered descendants of the Nephilim when they entered Canaan to conquer it.  Did the Nephilim survive the Flood? Or, did more “sons of God” mate with human women after the Flood?
The final thing I want to touch upon is that the passage tells us that Noah walked faithfully with God, which appears to be unique among the people of his time.  Although, we should note that Noah’s great grandfather was Enoch, who walked faithfully with God, then was no more because God took him away.  Also, Noah’s father and grandfather died just before the Flood, so we should suspect that they were similarly faithful to God as Enoch and Noah.