Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #2 of Genesis, chapter 6 and we are going to read Genesis 6:1-3:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And JEHOVAH said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

I will stop reading there. We are at the point just prior to the flood and God is looking out upon the world and He saw that the line of believers has been contaminated through intermarriage with the line of “man.” The professed believers of that time were marrying people that were unbelievers, those that did not follow the God of creation, the Lord JEHOVAH. God reacted by indicating that He would give a timeline for judgment of the “first world” which He had begun at creation and which has progressed over 5,000 years into history and it will continue 120 more years into Noah’s 600th year and 6023 years from creation and then God will bring the flood.

The Lord made an interesting statement in Genesis 6:3:

And JEHOVAH said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

What does God mean that His Spirit shall not always strive with man? Let us look more closely at a couple of the key words used in this verse. For instance, there is the word “strive” and it is Strong’s #1777 and it is a word that is translated as “judge” or “plead the cause” or “strive.” For instance, it says in Genesis 30:5-6:

And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan.

The English word “judge” is one of the most difficult words to understand in the Bible because depending on the particular Hebrew word that was used, it could have several meanings and it could be used in either a positive or negative way. For instance, Rachel called her son’s name “Dan” because God has judged her and she does not mean that God is punishing her or pouring out His wrath upon her. It does not have that idea at all, but it has to do with God hearing her plea or prayer. Remember that this word “judge” can also be translated as “pleading the cause.” Rachel is saying, “God has pleaded my cause,” so she named his name “Dan,” which means “judge.”

Also, this word is used in Jeremiah 22:16:

He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith JEHOVAH.

Here, the word “judged” is not used negatively at all. When someone judges the cause of the poor and needy, it is like a judge hearing a case and taking into consideration the cause of the poor and needy. Using practically the same wording, it says in Proverbs 31:9:

Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

It is the same Hebrew word, so it could have said, Judge the cause of the poor and needy.” And who are these “poor and needy”? God typifies the “poor and needy” as those He intends to save. They are poor in spirit and in need of salvation and it is language that the Lord ties into His people, the elect. To “plead the cause of the poor and needy” is a very positive and good thing.

So when we read in Genesis 6, verse 3 that His spirit will not always strive with man, it could be properly translated as, “My spirit shall not always plead the cause with man.” In other words, God is not always going to make salvation available; He is not always going to be concerned about a “poor and needy people” because there will come a time when He has found all His “poor and needy.” There would come a time when the lost sheep of the house of Israel have all been recovered, so God is indicating in our verse, “My spirit will not always plead the cause with man.” Then He goes on to say in Genesis 6:3:

… for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

We probably will not get around to discussing the 120-year timeline in this study. By the way, it is a timeline. There are those people that like to make the accusation, “Date setters!” And they act like it is the most horrible thing you can do. Today being a “date setter” is the most despised and terrible thing you can do when it comes to spiritual matters. You can “fall over backwards.” You can “speak in tongues.” You can produce a Bible that changes all the references to God to the feminine case. You can do practically anything else under the sun and your “brethren” in the church world today do not have a problem with it, but if you “set a date,” they act like you should be stoned and they say, “You are false prophet!” It is ironic that the corporate church that God characterizes as a “false prophet” in the Book of Revelation points the finger and says, “You are a false prophet!” But the churches that had been given over into the hand of Satan when Satan took his seat in the temple and ruled as the man of sin accuse the true believers of being of Satan. Of course, this is all within the will of God. It is God’s end time testing program for His people, which really is not very different than what many of the saints of God have had to endure in their testing and trials at various times in history. For example, Jeremiah was thrown in a pit and he was often insulted and condemned by his own people. They accused him of being a heretic, a false prophet and unpatriotic. This is just the general lot in life for the child of God and the true believers do not pay much attention. It is not significant any longer because God ended the church age, but there are definite places in the Bible where God forewarned that He would “visit His people,” such as Genesis 15 where God told Abram that after 400 years He would come to “visit His people” or in the Book of Daniel where He speaks of the seventy weeks. Or, again, in our verse where it says, “yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years,” God becomes a “date setter.”

He is our example. The God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our example and if God sets dates then we can suffer with the accusation of being “date setters.” Frankly, I do not care if people accuse me of that, especially when we consider the ones that are casting the stones, but the fact is that the Bible sets dates. There are several dates that God has established in His Word and this is one of them. The 120 years does identify with what should have been the whole history of the world as the world reaching its “fullness” would reach 12,000 years overall. But, again, we will save that for later and how the “120” points to “10 x 12” and to the fullness and complete fullness of the history of the world.

Again, God says in our verse that His Spirit will not always plead the cause for man. He goes on to say in Genesis 6:3:

for that he also is flesh…

This is kind of a strange statement. Of course, man is flesh, but why is God making this statement here in this particular verse? It seems like it is sort of a condemnation and we ask, “But did not God create man in the flesh?” Yes, He did. He created man with flesh and bones and our bodies today are the same types of bodies that Adam and Eve had or Cain and Abel had, but the difference is that when God created Adam and Eve He gave them bodies that were created “good,” initially. So the flesh of Adam and Eve was good in the sight of God. That is what the Bible tells us. You can just think about Eve being formed out of Adam’s rib and God making this statement through Adam in Genesis 2:23:

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Flesh and bones are mentioned and this is how they were made and this was before their fall into sin. Back in Genesis, chapter 1 God said in Genesis 1:31:

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

Flesh itself is not sinful because it was created that way at the beginning, but we know that man fell into sin and in that very day he died in his soul existence, but his physical body continued to live, but in a cursed condition. Therefore, the body began to corrupt and deteriorate and, eventually, it would also die. Adam died hundreds of years later after eating of the forbidden fruit. The wages of sin is death and the soul of man dies and the physical body of man dies, but after the fall the “flesh” took on an evil connotation and has a different meaning than it did with the original creation.

Let me read our verse, again, in Genesis 6:3:

And JEHOVAH said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh…

The translation done in the second part of the verse where it says, “for that he also is flesh” is not the best translation. Let me read the literal translation in Jay Green’s Interlinear and, hopefully, you will see the difference. Literally, it says, “in their erring, he is flesh.” Of course, that idea is not coming across in the English in the King James Bible. The Hebrew word, Strong’s #7683, is translated as “erred” in Leviticus 5:18:

And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him.

The word “erred” is the same word as used in our verse in Genesis 6, verse 3. Also, it says in Numbers 15:28:

And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly…

It says in Job 12:16:

With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his.

The word translated here as “deceived” is our word.

Then it says in Psalm 119:67:

Before I was afflicted I went astray…

The word translated as “went astray” is our Hebrew word.

So, we see that in the King James Bible where it says, “for that he also is flesh,” it is not presenting the idea that this Hebrew word carries. It is sort of interesting that it is translated differently every time it is used, but at least the other words, like “erred,” “deceived” and “went astray,” all have a relationship and we can see how they identify with sin. To err from the right way against God’s commandments or to sin ignorantly or to be deceived all carry the idea of not following the truth of God and this idea of a connection to “sin” is missing from the King James translation. That is why I said it is not the best translation. So when God says, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,” it would be better translated, “My spirit shall not always plead with man, for erring he is flesh.” God is defining what flesh will be from this point on and flesh will have identification with erring, going astray, being deceived and, therefore, sinning. When we read the rest of the Bible, that idea is what comes across when we look at verses like 1Peter 3:21:

The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh…

Do you see how God is associating the “flesh” with evil things?

Then it also says in Romans 7:17-18-20:

Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

What dwells within man? It is “no good thing.” That which is in my “flesh” is the “filth of the flesh,” according to 1Peter 3, verse 21. Flesh now has complete identification with sin and going astray from God’s commandments. After man’s fall into sin, throughout the Bible God sets the “flesh” and the “spirit” in opposition to one another. It says in Romans 8:1:

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

It is implied that if you walk “after the flesh” there would be condemnation. Then it goes on to say in Romans 8:2-9:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Here, God tells us that if we have the Spirit there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ and “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” If you have the Spirit of Christ it means you are saved and God has granted you salvation through the hearing of the Word during the day of salvation; then you are a child of God and God considers you as someone that is in the “spirit” and not in the “flesh.” On the other hand, if you do not possess the Spirit of Christ, which only enters into an individual through salvation, then you are in the “flesh.” In the flesh, there is condemnation and you are under the wrath of God. The Bible says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

God says in Galatians 5:16-18:

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

This is a wonderful statement: If you are led by the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ is in you and there is no condemnation. You follow the Spirit and you walk in the Spirit. All these things are true as long as you have become saved. It is also true that if you are led of the Spirit, you are not under the Law. The child of God desires to observe the Sunday Sabbath or any of the other commandments that are still applicable to our time, then it does not have anything to do with being under the Law. We are not under the Law, so it has nothing to do with keeping the Law of God in order to get right with God, but it is a matter of walking in the Spirit. You will have a desire to keep the commandments of God: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” There are individuals that accuse God’s elect of placing themselves under the Law and their accusation is false because they do not understand what God does in the lives of the ones He has saved.