Genesis 6:1 - Meaning and Application

For the glory of God’s justice, and as a warning to a wicked world, the Bible gives us a full account of the old world’s ruin before it tells us how it fell. We see its deep corruption, its turning away from God, and its open rebellion against him. Its destruction was not an act of mere power, but of necessary justice, so that the honor of God’s rule would be upheld.

Here we are told of two things that helped bring about the wickedness of the old world. First, mankind increased greatly. “Men began to multiply on the face of the earth.” This was the result of God’s blessing (Gen 1:28), but human corruption abused that blessing and turned it into a curse. Sin often takes advantage of God’s mercies and becomes even more sinful. As Proverbs says, “When the wicked increase, transgression increases” (Pro 29:16). The more sinners there are, the more sin there is, and many offenders make others bold. Infectious disease spreads fastest in crowded cities, and sin spreads in the same way. In the New Testament church, when the disciples multiplied, a complaint arose (Act 6:1), and Isaiah speaks of a nation that was multiplied, not to increase joy (Isa 9:3). Large families must be carefully governed, or they may become wicked families.

Second, there were mixed marriages (Gen 6:2). “The sons of God,” meaning those who professed religion, who were called by the Lord’s name and called on that name, married “the daughters of men,” meaning women who were profane and strangers to God and holiness. The descendants of Seth did not keep apart, as they should have done, both to preserve their own purity and to show their hatred of apostasy. Instead, they mingled with the excommunicated line of Cain. “They took them wives of all that they chose.” But what was wrong with these marriages?

They chose only by outward appearance. They saw that the women were fair, and that was all they considered. They also followed their own corrupt desires. They took all they chose, without counsel or careful thought. But the great problem, and the one that brought such bad results, was that they married unbelievers and were wrongly joined with those outside the faith (Co2 6:14). This was forbidden to Israel (Deu 7:3, Deu 7:4). It later helped lead Solomon into apostasy, or turning away from God (Kg1 11:1-4), and it caused trouble for the Jews after their return from Babylon (Ezr 9:1, Ezr 9:2).

So those who profess religion, when they marry for themselves or their children, should take care to stay within the bounds of their profession. The bad are more likely to draw the good down than the good are to lift the bad up. Those who say they are children of God must not marry without his approval, and they do not have that approval if they join themselves to his enemies.