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Sonship
Biblical History of the Sons of God
Studio Session 60
Sam Soleyn
11/2004
What I would like to do is pursue the matter of the discovery of the nature of the sons of God in this installment. But before we do that we must deal with certain controversies that have arisen that cloud the issue, and one such controversy is identified with a passage of Scripture in Genesis, the 6th chapter. Books have been written about this and it shows human’s fascination with the bizarre, but it cannot be construed as a pursuit of the truth. Here in the 6th chapter of the book of Genesis, the following is said, “When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.’
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” – Genesis 6:1-8)
Let’s begin with this thought, or this first question: Who is referred to in this passage that says, “When the sons of God looked upon the daughters of men”? Now from Jewish mythology, the origin of this thought has sprung: that there were demonic spirits who cohabitated with human females, producing an offspring that was an aberrant creature called the “Nephilim.” These demonic creatures are said to be that which was referred to here in the Scripture as the sons of God. This would not be true for a number of very specific reasons. Number one, the operative law of creation is: every creature reproducing after its own kind. So relative to the very subject at hand, the matter of reproduction, the operative law that governs creation on this earth is this law: Every creature after its own kind.
Now the human being and a demonic spirit are very different creatures. They are both creatures but they are very different creatures. The fact that they are both creatures means that they are subject to the design of their nature. God who is the creator of both man and angel-who-fell-becoming-demonic, He is the creator of both. The creation cannot make itself into a different creature. The first truth then that would negate this understanding and call it false, the understanding that there was cohabitation between human females and another species, another created species—the demonic—is every creature after its own kind.
Well as an example that that law firmly operates: In the typical barnyard, there are chickens and there are ducks. No one is attending and telling them what to do but yet you never have a new species called “chucks” or what would be the other one? Not a cross between… not “chucks” or “dickens”. There is just simply no creature that reflects this aberration, and nobody is watching, and there are neither “chucks” nor “dickens”. That’s because the law operates: every creature after its own kind. In the ocean there are fish, schools of fish that swim through each other. No new species developed in this fashion. Sometimes you have to call attention to these things in humorous ways to indicate the certainty of this reality. When nature is not being tended or watched over, the reality is that every creature will obey the law governing his creation—every creature after its own kind.
There is a second reason why humans and demons cannot cohabitate and produce offspring, and that reason is very simply that God created the angelic for a different purpose than procreation. The Scriptures refer to the fact that in the resurrection, when we also have a spiritual body as angels have and do have, that we will neither marry nor will we be given in marriage, but we also shall be like the angels, because the time for procreation is finished and the creation of new species upon the earth will have ended with the age of man. (Inserted – actual verse—“ ‘At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” – Matthew 22:30) So for these two reasons it is quite apparent that this could not possibly be a reference to sons of God as angels.
We have a very distinct and clear understanding that, for these two reasons, it is impossible for this to be a reference to angelic spirits. Moreover though, if the angelic/demonic could go through some sort of self-induced metamorphosis by which they would end up being able to cohabitate with human females and create a new race, they would in fact exceed the design capabilities that their creator had placed on them by virtue of the design, and they themselves would become what they have always wanted to be; they would become as gods, being able to defy the one true creator by coming up with a form that was quite different and a function equally different from that which God gave them. If then this is not a reference to the demonic as the sons of God, then to what is it a reference? Who are the sons of God?
Well begin with the fact that by now we know one example of such a son of God. He is Adam… Adam. The 38th verse of the 3rd chapter of Luke says, “And Adam was the son of God.” Here it is: the first man created was created as a son of God. That means that we know from the beginning that God intended to create sons when He created men. “The son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” That’s Luke 3:38. Adam was a son of God. Interestingly enough, the word “Adam” also means “man.” It is a proper name when used to identify Adam as opposed to all other humans but the term “Adam” is also the Hebrew term for “man.” “Man” is the son of God. God made man in his own image. God made man after his own likeness. In what way then is Adam like God? Well God gave him a spirit.
“There was a time when the sons of God began to look upon the daughters of men.” Now it does appear that by the sixth chapter of Genesis there is a specific reference to certain men as the sons of God. Why would God refer to certain men as the sons of God and not others? Well there is a cadre of men who are used for a particular purpose—as ancient as these references are. The most ancient order of priesthood in all of the Scriptures is the order called “the sons of God.”
After the Fall, God continued to speak to humans through certain sons of God. These were men like Enoch who walked with God, because you see, God had already sworn that He would have sons. He had made this oath to himself and He intended to continue to keep this oath and not to simply ignore man. So He immediately, upon the fall of man, God moves into this second phase, as it were, of walking with man, speaking with man, and developing the race that has come from Adam into his intended purpose for the creation of the race. Such men as were used by God were used in a fashion to represent the interests of God, the nature of God and the character of God to man. Since God never intended to be the father of our flesh, sonship would never be reckoned according to the flesh but according to the spirit. So God is always attempting to replicate his character, his nature in man, and to manifest that by the spirit of just men being made perfect.
The last of these sons of God was Noah. Why is it that God was profoundly angry with man, but specifically his anger was directed towards those sons of God who “married any of the daughters of men whom they chose”? The answer is this: Instead of this being a reference to demonic spirits cohabitating with human females, this is a reference to polygamy. The sons of God began to engage in polygamous conduct. God never made a man to have more than one wife. Polygamy was always abhorrent to the express purpose for which God created man and here is why. It also explains why God was angry with those ancient priests representing the interests of Christ who were called the sons of God.
As we spoke earlier when we gave the example of a matter that is fully known in the eternal and deposited in time in a partial way, we saw in that example of Adam and Eve and the creation of the woman out of the man and further to that we saw how Christ was pierced on the cross, his side was opened and the bride was re-inserted. It is the latter event that explains the purpose of the former. In other words, it was the event of Jesus on the cross that speaks of the salvation of man that explains why God created woman by putting man to sleep and removing a rib out of which He makes the woman.
This was the story of the Gospel preached in shadowy form in the creation of Eve.
God was showing that just as it is possible to take a woman out of the side of a man because the two are one flesh and the one is to be found in the other, and that’s what Adam says in the record of Genesis 2, “This is now flesh of my flesh, bone of my bones; she shall be called woman because she is taken out of man.” (Inserted – actual verse—“ ‘The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.’” – Genesis 2:23) And the record is complete in Ephesians the 5th chapter that references this event with Adam and Eve and says, “For this cause a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two will be one flesh. But this,” he said, “is a profound mystery.”
Paul, speaking to the Ephesians, explains the mystery: “This is a profound mystery,” he says, “but I am speaking about Christ and the church.” (Inserted – actual verse—“ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” – Ephesians 5:31,32) So Adam and Eve are a type of Christ and the church. Well in what way are they a type of Christ and the church? Well inasmuch as the woman is taken out of the man and belongs natively into the man and the two are one, this is the human, fleshly manifestation of this great mystery: the mystery of how in the one, in Christ, in the body of Christ, those who have been separated from each other and separated from God may be reconciled as one in the body of Christ and become the body of Christ of which Jesus is the head and ourselves the body in the earth.
This is a mystery. Adam and Eve portrayed the mystery in the way that Eve is created out of Adam. Jesus is the explanation of the mystery—how the two may be re-integrated and given the status of being viewed as one. God swore an oath before the creation of the world and that oath was to himself. God swore to God. This oath says that God was creating man in order to have sons. Jesus is God who swears an oath comparable to the oath that the Father swears. The Father swears to Jesus that whoever is found “included” in the person of Christ, God will treat in the same manner in which He treats Christ. God says to Christ, “I swear to you Oh God that you are a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. That I will treat—whoever you include as your body—I will treat them in the same manner in which I treat you. All of your righteousness, all of your glory, I will attribute to them.” (Inserted – Hebrews 6:13- Hebrews 7:28)
So Jesus says, “Father, the glory you have given me from before the foundations of the world, I have given to them that they might be one in this manner: in the manner in which I am in you and you are in me, let them be one in us.” (Inserted – actual verse—“ ‘I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one; I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’” – John 17:22,23) Clear. There is no ambiguity as to this mystery. Therefore in the case of Adam and Eve, they are presenting the Gospel and the sons of God were charged with the maintaining of this Gospel.
God swears to Jesus in this fashion; Jesus swears to God in this fashion. Jesus says, “I will give you the body that you give me that you might dwell in my body and I might dwell under your authority. You live in me by your Spirit, I will live in you by doing nothing on the earth that is of my own so that whoever sees me will only see you. Though I am capable of independent action, though I am capable of independent function, I will dedicate all of who I am exclusively to your will so that this desire on your part to have sons will not be frustrated even slightly by what I do independently of you. I will do nothing of myself.” (Inserted – John 5:19-30)
Jesus swears this to the Father and so a covenant is enacted prior to the creation of the world and this covenant now, in the world, is lived out—the full and complete living out of it is known from the foundations of the world. The charge of it takes place in time and the first ones to be charged with living this out is that cadre of believers in the Old Testament who are pursuing this covenant and they are called “the sons of God.” Enoch walked with God and was not for he was taken. Noah was the last of these sons of God before the flood. Why does God not simply destroy all of mankind in the Flood? Why does He wait until He has one righteous man on the earth before He brings judgment?
There was the indication that before Noah was born that the thoughts and imagination of the hearts of men was only evil continually. Why did God not destroy them prior to the Flood when there was apparently no one righteous? The answer is that God waited—the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing—because God was waiting for one righteous man for whose sake He would save the whole earth and He would begin again with one righteous man because God had sworn on oath to God. That’s why God has not gotten rid of the human race because if He did his oath would come to nothing. God started with one man, namely Adam, and God started over with another man—namely Noah. God’s continuation to pursue his covenant through human lineage is the indication of how God has sworn and will not repent. So when there is found but one man on the earth, God will continue. That’s why God doesn’t discard the human race, because He swore on oath to himself.
Now in the next set of broadcasts we want to pick up and look at this priesthood to God called the sons of God and we will be introduced to the character called Melchizedek, who is a royal priest. The sons of God are sons of the Almighty God, King and God, the Lord of all Lords, the King of all Kings. Therefore it is inevitable that the sons of God will be—whether in antiquity or in the New Testament—a royal priesthood. This will begin to introduce us now to the covenant that existed and how God begins to tie this covenant into the lineage of one man, the father of the Jewish race: Abraham. And we will begin to explore this pre-existing covenant and how it is contrasted with the covenant at Sinai. We will begin to look at the way that this second covenant at Sinai came into effect in lieu of the pre-existing covenant with which the worlds were framed and out of which God created man… a covenant in which God swore on oath to himself, making man the beneficiary. We will begin to look at a particular man to whom the benefits are meant to attach particularly. The covenant of sonship however exists before Melchizedek but it is tied into Melchizedek. Let’s look at it the next time. I’m Sam Soleyn. God bless you, I’ll see you then.
Scripture References:
Genesis 6:1-8
Matthew 22:30
Luke 3:38
Genesis 2:23
Ephesians 5:31,32
Hebrews 6:13-7:28
John 17:22,23
John 5:19-30
