What lessons do we learn from the families in Genesis? Most consequences don’t come with an expiration date. Love your wife, love your kids, but put God first. Live a life amongst your critics that deserves respect.
Preached at North Coast Church. Used by permission.
Does Nephilim mean “Giants”?
For many people, the beginning of the 6th chapter of Genesis, where the word Nephilim comes from, is one of the most baffling passages of the Bible:
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.[1]
Remarkably, some translations have here the word ‘giants’, instead of ‘Nephilim’:
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.[2]
As if to make this story even more complicated, scripture also mentions Nephilim after the flood: in the well-known story in Numbers 13, where Moses sent twelve spies to scout out the land, and all the spies, except Caleb and Joshua, brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched, saying:
We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.[3]
Once again, King James Version translates the word “Nephilim” here as “giants”:
33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.[4]
For centuries, people have debated whether the “sons of God” expression refers to angels or to men, and just who these Nephilim/giants were. As in the case of Melchizedek, this story also gains much more clarity when read in Hebrew.
PARDES
However, before we delve into our story and use some Hebrew, I would like to introduce here four different levels of Biblical interpretation in Judaism: PARDES. The term PaRDeS is an acronym formed from the initials of these four levels, which are:
Peshat “plain”, “straight” – the direct, literal meaning of Scripture;
Remez “hint” – the deeper, symbolic meaning, beyond the literal sense;
Derash “to inquire”, “to seek” – the comparative meaning: a deeper meaning obtained from a passage by comparing its words and content to similar passages;
Sod “secret” , “mystery” – the deeper meaning, revealed only through inspiration or revelation.
Thus, Peshat means the literal interpretation; Remez is the non-literal, or allegorical meaning; Derash refers to the expanded comparative meaning; Sod represents the hidden, secret meaning of the text.
There is something I should add here: This word pardes that was chosen by our sages to symbolize the different levels of interpretation of scripture, means “garden” or “orchard” in Hebrew, and comes from the Song of Solomon:
Your plants are an orchard (pardes) of pomegranates
With pleasant fruits,
Fragrant henna with spikenard [5]
An orchard might be filled with the most fragrant scents and the most delectable tastes, but one has to walk through it and sample the fruit of the trees in order to appreciate the tastes and smells. Yes, even from outside you can peek in , even from outside, you can try to recognize which trees grow there – however, it is only when you go inside, when you walk through the garden, when you really see and taste the fruits, that the garden also becomes for you an orchard, or pardes. (If you are interested to see the examples of PARDES interpretation, you can read my book, Abraham had two sons[6], which is written according to the four levels of PARDES).
SONS OF GOD
Now we have all the necessary tools to delve into our story. First of all, let us try to understand who “the sons of God” were. The Hebrew words translated “the sons of God” are b’nai ha Elohim, Does the Torah mean angels, or just “the sons of rulers”, or “the sons of the nobles”, as some Jewish translations translate b’nai ha Elohim here? We have “the sons of the princes” in Targumim, and “the sons of the Judges” in Midrashim[7] – in fact, the “angelic interpretation” (that they were angels, or some kind of divine beings) is almost non-existent in Judaism. Many of you probably know that the noun Elohim is in a plural form, and it can be read not only as “God”, but also as ‘gods” or even “lords, rulers”, and this is exactly how the Jewish commentaries choose to read this word in this particular verse.
However, if we study the use of this expression in Tanach, we will see a completely different picture. There is no better commentary to the Bible than the Bible itself, and for that reason, we will use the “derash” technique to compare our passage with other similar passages.
The expression “sons of God” doesn’t occur many times in Tanach. The next time we encounter this expression is in Job 1:6: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. We have the same expression again in Job 2:1: Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.
Nobody questions the meaning of “the sons of God” here: We all know that these verses describe the Divine Council – a meeting in Heaven – therefore, the “sons of God” here are obviously not humans, but angels, who are meeting with God. Notice that the words in Hebrew translated as “the sons of God” here, are exactly the same as in Genesis 6:2: –b’nai ha Elohim.
The next (and the last, at least in Hebrew[8]) reference to “the sons of God” in Tanach is again in the book of Job, in chapter 38. Speaking about the creation of the universe, God is saying: I laid the foundations of the earth… When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.[9]
From this verse[10], we can see that the sons of God existed even before the earth itself was created. This indicates that every use of the term: b’nai ha Elohim or b’nai Elohim in the Old Testament, is, in fact, a reference to angelic beings. Thus, we can conclude that “the sons of God” in Genesis 6 also refers to angels.
Now, that we’ve established that “the sons of God” were angels, we can try to understand the story of Nephilim – and we will do it in our next post.[11]
www.eteacherbiblical.com. Used by permission.
[1] Gen. 6:4, NIV
[2] Gen. 6:4, KJV
[3] Num 13:33, NIV
[4] Num 13:33, KJV
[5] Song of Solomon 4:13
[6] You can get the book from my website: readjuliablum.com
[7] Gen. Rabbah 26:5
[8] In Ps 29:1, we have B’nai Elim – sons of elim.
[9] Job 38:4,7
[10] In Hebrew, it is b’nai Elohim here, without
God knows your name. Like Jacob, God does not name him for what he would accomplish. He names him for the internal character and values that are to be the core of his being. God knows your name! In the midst of the noise and chaos of this world, God seeks to declare to your soul who you are!
Pastor Carey Nieuwhof reflects on Andy Stanley’s teaching about how to make your church seeker-friendly. Here are a few of his observations. The bold type statements are quotes from Andy Stanley with comments from Pastor Nieuwhof. Powerful insights!
1. We don’t tailor content of our services for unchurched people, but we do tailor the experience. This is such a huge and important distinction. Opening up your service to the unchurched doesn’t mean dumbing it down.
2. Nothing should offend people in your weekend services except the Gospel. Often people get turned away not because of Christ, but because of people’s bad attitudes or strange preferences for certain kinds of music or culture.
3. A parking team is not about ‘parking’ guests, it’s about welcoming them. Even if you don’t have a “parking problem”, your welcome should start when your guests pull into the parking lot. Greet them personally and help them start their experience well.
4. Everyone has an approach to their weekend services. If there is a conflict between your goal and your approach, your approach always wins. Everyone has a template for their weekend services. If your template and approach aren’t getting you to your goal, change it.
5. If you start (a message or event) with common emotions and common experiences, not everybody agrees with your point, but everybody follows you there. Brilliant.
6. People learn best in emotionally charged environments. So engage their emotions early – with a fun opener (Andy referenced the 101st anniversary of the Oreo recently. They gave away a prize of Oreos and milk to an attender – cool). Or let music prepare people’s emotions.
7. We leverage common experiences and emotions, not belief systems. When you’re reaching unchurched people, don’t start with disagreement (belief), start with agreement (common experiences and emotions) and then get to belief later.
8. The more time you can spend in planning a service or experience, the more personal it becomes. Planning is the friend of the Holy Spirit, not His enemy. Often “I’m relying on God” actually means “I didn’t prepare”.
9. Our goal is not to be creative, but to leverage creativity for the sake of the mission and vision. Bingo.
10. A clean environment communicates that we’re expecting you. I wish this was in the Bible. Then I could preach at people about it. But it’s not. So quoting Andy will do.
11. An orderly environment communicates you know what you’re doing. I wish this was in the Bible too. Clean and orderly communicates so much about you and so much about how you value the people you’re welcoming.
12. People stop attending church because they disengage, not because they disagree. HUGE insight. Very few people walk out your door because of disagreement. Many leave because of disengagement.
13. Attention span is determined by the quality of the presentation. With all the talk about diminishing attention spans, this is a clear reminder than 5 minutes of boring is 5 minutes too much, and 1 hour of gripping feels like not nearly enough. Pastors, before you use it to justify a 60 minute message, just make sure you’re that gripping.
14. A goal is something you accomplish. A win is something you experience. So true!
15. Creativity works best in the context of predictability. Creativity has constraints, but like obedience to the law, eventually the constraints bring a new kind of freedom.
Other Gems
1. Public loyalty buys you private leverage. Criticize privately, praise publicly. Your boss and colleagues will respect you. Flip it and they’ll fire you or never trust you.
2. Your direction, not intention, determines your destination. This principle came up numerous times. It’s just true. Good intentions amount to little.
3. Evaluate everything you do against your mission. This was from a session I attended led by Diane Grant. Diane is Andy’s Executive Assistant but a super strong leader in her own right. She owns this principles.
4. Great opportunities are a chance for a vision to drift. Again from Diane Grant. Exactly. And an opportunity does not equal an obligation. Stay true to the mission.
5. The loudest critics in the church are people who have become missionally disengaged. Clay Scroggins, a campus pastor at North Point, shared this nugget. So true. Why listen to people who are missionally disengaged give you feedback on your mission?
6. Kids begging their parents to go to church beats parents begging their kids to go to church. Invest in your family ministry environments. Chad Ward, UpStreet director at one of the North Point campuses shared this. So true. Get the kids, and you’ve got the parents.
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careynieuwhof.com/2013/03/21-key-learnings-from-andy-stanley-and-the-drive-conference/
Dear Roger,
What does the Bible say about acupuncture?
Sincerely, K
Dear K,
I believe that the Bible is completely silent on the subject.
However, my studies regarding the electrical and neuronal pathways of the human body lead me to believe that acupuncture may have some physical healing efficacy.
I think that many Christians wonder whether or not acupuncture has some sort of divine component that would best be left alone and even avoided. We will discuss that idea in a moment.
To understand the possible spiritual implications of acupuncture means that we must understand the concept of “Qi” (also spelled chi or ch’i). In traditional Chinese culture, Qi is the life force or energy flow in every living creature. Qi is often compared to the Western ideas of energeia or élan vital (vitalism), as well as the yogic notions of prana and pranayama. The literal translation of “qi” is air, breath, or gas. Qi is comparable to the Greek word, pneuma, which means wind, breath, or air. From a Chinese perspective, Qi would be analogous to the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians.
We might imagine that Qi is the wind in the sails that drives a ship. We can’t see the wind but we can see its results in moving the ship along in its journey.
Balanced and free-flowing Qi results in good health, while stagnant or imbalanced Qi leads to disease. The purpose of both acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine is to restore balanced and free-flowing Qi.
Acupuncture is the practice of inserting thin needles into specific body points to improve health and well-being. There is much discussion among acupuncturists revolving around the number and location of the various energy points. As I understand the procedure, care is taken to find the moving, positive Qi and place the needles accordingly.
Does acupuncture work? Medical research demonstrates that acupuncture can reduce nausea and vomiting after surgery and chemotherapy. It can also relieve pain.
No one understands how acupuncture works. But, I figure that sense it has been around for 2,000 years, there may be some validity to it. Some researchers conjecture that it aids in the body’s pain-killing chemicals. Others suggest that acupuncture may help release chemicals that regulate blood pressure and flow.
Since the human body is an electro-magnetic entity, it is not far beyond the realm of reason to think that acupuncture really does tap into the body’s electro-magnetic energy which affects every cell in the body. Everything that occurs in the human body is powered by chemical reactions which produce electrical and therefore magnetic waves as well—in other words, energy! For example, magnets are best fashioned from iron—and the blood is filled with iron. The electrical and magnetic forces in the body interact in a myriad of ways. These intersections may help to explain the “energy centers” sought out by acupuncturists in their work.
Now for the religious questions: Does acupuncture have a spiritual component? If I turn to acupuncture to help relieve some physical aliment, is there a possibility that I am getting involved with, or under the influence of, some Near or Far Eastern god or spirit?
I believe that the answer to this question is a resounding, “no.” Acupuncture was developed in the context of Taoism during the 4th century B.C.. While Taoism is considered to be a sort of religious/philosophical system, it is basically atheistic. While there is no doubt that many Eastern Religions are profoundly intertwined with the occult world, Taoism is not one of them.
I hope this gives some help.
Love, Roger
