Let’s talk about offerings first. Clearly, since Cain and Abel brought offerings to Elohim “in the course of time” and there was no Israel yet, offerings were required right from the beginning by all people. Whenever animals were offered, they were totally burned up. Mankind is required to make offerings to Elohim at appointed times, and in proper ways. On this particular appointed time, Abel made his offering properly and Elohim was pleased, but Cain made his offering improperly and Elohim was displeased. Cain knew it, became jealous of his brother, and killed him—then claimed he wasn’t his brother’s keeper. Why was Elohim not pleased with Cain’s offering, and how did Cain know that? We are not told those details here, but it is obvious that there was some standard by which offerings were judged. Elohim said to Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.”

Next, let’s talk about birth order and its relevance. Adam, as the firstborn of all mankind, was supposed to rule over and take care of the human family. He was to be, as it were, “his brother’s keeper.” Then, whenever he died, his firstborn was to take over that responsibility. Upon that son’s death his firstborn was to take over, and so on. As Cain was Adam’s firstborn he was supposed to rule after Adam’s death, but he disqualified himself and declared he was not his brother’s keeper. Abel could not take Adam’s place because he was dead, so another son had to be born that could qualify as “firstborn.” Adam had numerous sons and daughters that did not qualify either, but when Seth was born Eve said that Elohim had given her a replacement for Abel. Seth’s firstborn was Enosh, and at that time men began to call upon the name of YHWH. Yeshua is YHWH’s “firstborn, among many brethren.” He does everything He can to be His brother’s keeper!

We must now talk about the words “elohim” and “sons of God” or “children of God,” which are somewhat parallel in meaning. First, notice that “elohim” is actually a plural word so whenever it is capitalized think of Father and Son. In this curriculum we generally use the word “Elohim” for God unless we know beyond a doubt that something is done or said by the Father or by the Son, in which case we will use “YHWH” or “Yeshua.” The Hebrew word “elohim” means “disembodied members of the spiritual realm.” We are used to
thinking of angels, but there might be other kinds of spiritual beings also. Job 2:1 tells us about a time when the sons of God, including Satan, presented themselves before YHWH. In Psalm 82 we are told of a group of elohim having a meeting in which YHWH stands and judges between them and calling them His sons. Some authors refer to this as “the divine council” or “the divine assembly” made up of Elohim and leading angels, who are responsible for the activities of other angels who look after mankind. Evidently some of them were not doing their job righteously and were going to die like humans. In contrast, Yeshua says people can become elohim also. Check out John 10:33-36 and Psalm 82:6! People will have some sort of authority, subject to that of Yeshua, in the Millennial Kingdom—if they qualify to dwell in the house of Elohim forever. This is what John 1:12 means by saying that those who received Him (Yeshua) He gave the right to become the sons (or children) of God. In the Millennial Kingdom, after we have received our spiritual bodies, at least some of us could become part of the divine council. So, depending on the context, elohim and gods can also mean “rulers.” The gods over the Gentile nations would be their rulers.

We are introduced to the idea and origin of Nephilim in the first several verses of chapter 6. They are children of fallen spirit beings and human women! Some of the angels that were supposed to be looking after mankind “left their first estate” (Jude 1:6) and chose some of the daughters of mankind to be their wives. Their children are called “Nephilim” and “mighty men of old” and “men of renown.” Yes, that does sound bizarre! But this idea explains so much of the material we find in Scripture that most people just ignore as being irrelevant or too confusing to bother with. The Nephilim mentioned in Numbers 13:33 are the sons of Anak; they are the very strong giants who made the 12 spies feel like grasshoppers. You don’t get giants from purely human marriages, but that is what many people believe and explain by the Sethite theory. They think that the sons of God are men from Seth’s lineage and the daughters of men are women from other lineages.

Elohim saw all the evil that was going on and was very sorry that He had created man upon the earth. He gave them 120 years to get their act together and then He proceeded to wipe out all the people, animals and birds. If people were the only defiled and wicked beings, Elohim could have left the animals and birds alone—but He was sorry He had made them also. Why? Could it be that the fallen angels and the Nephilim had done things to the creatures as well so that a lot of them were now also hybrids that don’t belong here?

But Noah found favour in the eyes of Elohim. How? We’ll find out why and what happened in Parashah Noach.