Enoch and the Watchers.

Why would God let the watchers fall at all? Enoch says the women were only part of the story. What those angels carried down from heaven was far more dangerous and its fingerprints are still on our world today. Most of us heard this story the same way. A strange little passage in Genesis. Four verses tucked between the family line of Adam and the building of the ark. The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves. A preacher reads it, maybe shrugs, and moves on to Noah. And the lesson we were handed was a simple one. Angels wanted women. They crossed a line. God punished them. Lust. That was the whole explanation. 

But read Genesis 6 slowly. The way you would read a letter from someone you love, and something doesn't sit right. There were giants in the earth in those days. The same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6:4. Then almost in the same breath, the Lord sees that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5. Every imagination, every thought, continually ask yourself, does a handful of forbidden marriages explain that? Does it explain a world so broken that it grieved him at his heart? Genesis 6:6. That he had made man at all. Something happened in those days that went deeper than desire. Something got inside the way mankind thought and planned. Genesis gives us the bare bones. It never fills in the picture. There is a book that does. 

The book of Enoch was no fringe scribble. It was read and copied by hand. Fragments of it in Aramaic were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Kumran, kept by people who took the word of God with deadly seriousness. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has kept it inside its Bible for centuries. And here is the part that catches many lifelong churchgoers offguard. The New Testament quotes it. Jude writes, "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10 thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all. Those words come straight from the opening chapter of Enoch. Jude didn't call them a legend. He called them prophecy. So, who was this man? 

Genesis tells us little, and what it tells us is staggering. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:24. He never died. Hebrews confirms that he was translated that he should not see death. Hebrews 11:5. A man who walked so close to the Lord that one day the walk simply kept going right into heaven. If anyone was going to be shown what really happened  behind the curtain of Genesis 6, it would be him. And what Enoch saw does not match the Sunday school version. He tells us that in the days of Jared, his own father, 200 angels came down on the summit of Mount Hermon. These were watchers, holy ones meant to stand guard and serve. Their leader was called Seam Jazza. And before they went through with it, he was afraid. He feared that he alone would end up paying the penalty for a great sin. So they bound themselves together with an oath, every one of them swearing that none would turn back. Picture that. Not a sudden stumble in a weak hour, a gathering, a plan, a pact sealed on a mountaintop with their eyes wide open, they took wives. Enoch doesn't hide that part. 

And from those unions came the giants, beings who consumed everything the people could grow and gather. And when that ran out, turned on mankind itself. The blood flowed so freely that the earth itself, Enoch says, cried out in accusation against the lawless ones. But then comes the chapter most people have never been told about. Enoch describes what the watchers taught. One of them named Aazel showed men how to make swords and knives, shields and breastplates. He taught them to work the metals hidden in the earth, to make bracelets and ornaments, to paint the eyes with antimony, to beautify the face, to choose precious stones and mix colors. Others taught enchantments and the cutting of roots. Others taught the signs of the stars, the courses of the moon, the reading of omens in the sky. Sit with that list for a moment. Weapons, vanity, sorcery, the heavens, which God made to declare his glory, twisted into a tool for fortunetelling. Each one of these was a door, a door into violence, a door into pride, a door into spiritual practices the Lord had never opened to mankind. And the result, as Enoch describes it, was that godlessness spread across the earth, and people were led astray and became corrupt in all their ways. Now go back to Genesis 6:5. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart. The corruption reached the mind before it ever reached the body. And then comes the line that should stop every reader cold. 

When Michael, Gabriel, and the other archangels saw the blood being shed on the earth, they brought the cry of the dead before the throne. And the Lord's answer includes this sentence. The whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Aazel. And to him ascribe all sin, all sin, not to the women, not even mainly to the marriages, to the teaching. That is what so many sermons have left out. The fall of the watchers was never only the story of angels who wanted what they could not have. It was the story of heavenly beings who placed in human hands a knowledge cut loose from the fear of the Lord. Peter would later write that God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell. A second Peter 2:4. The judgment was severe because the damage was severe. Which brings us to the question that troubles honest believers the moment they hear all this. If not even a sparrow falls without his knowledge, why did God let them come down at all? Why didn't he stop them on the slopes of Hermon? 

Moses told Israel that the secret things belong unto the Lord our God. Deuteronomy 29:29. Enoch was given some of those secret things, and he did not leave that question without an answer. The Forbidden Book of Enoch. What it reveals about the Watchers, giants, and the world before the flood. It walks you hrough Enoch's account side by side with the Watchers, the giants, and the vanished world Noah was born into. It's a guide you keep open next to your Bible. We have to go where Enoch went. After the Watchers fell, the Lord did not send an archangel to confront them first. He sent a man, Enoch, whom the book calls the scribe of righteousness, was told to go to the watchers, who had left the high heaven in their rebellion and tell them plainly, "You will have no peace and no forgiveness." Think about the reversal there. Angels, beings who once stood in the very presence of God, now trembling before a human being from the line of Seth. Scripture loves to do this. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. 1 Corinthians 1:27. And the watchers were terrified. 

They begged him to write a petition for them and carry it up before the Lord because they could no longer lift their own eyes toward heaven. They were too ashamed to speak to the one they had served. So Enoch wrote their words down. He went and sat by the waters of Dan, southwest of Herman, and read their petition until he fell asleep. That is when the vision came. He saw a wall built of crystals, surrounded by tongues of fire. Then a house, and beyond it another house greater than the first, built entirely of flames. On a throne within it sat the great glory, whose raignment shone brighter than the sun and whiter than any snow. Not even the angels could enter and look upon his face. Enoch fell on his face shaking. And then a voice called to him, "Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness." Listen closely to what God says next, because this is where the answer begins to take shape. The Lord tells Enoch to go back and say to the watchers, "You should intercede for men and not men for you.

"Why have you left the high, holy, and eternal heaven? You were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, and you defiled yourselves with the blood of women." Do you hear what is being exposed here? These were not fragile beings caught off guard. They had everything. Holiness, eternal life, a place in the courts of heaven. Nothing was missing. And God points out something else. He had given wives to men precisely because men die so that children would be born and nothing would fail on the earth. But the watchers were spirits. They were never made for that. They reached for something that was never theirs to hold. So the first piece of the answer  is FREEDOM. God made his heavenly servants with a will of their own, just as he made us. Love that cannot say no is not love at all. Loyalty that has never been tested is only a word. The same God who said to Israel, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life in Deuteronomy 30:19, did not build the angels as machines." When 200 of them climbed Mount Hermon and swore their oath, they were misusing [music] a freedom that had been handed to them as a gift. Could God have stopped them? Of course, he could. But stopping them by force would have meant taking back the very freedom that gave their obedience any meaning. And here is what I believe so many of us miss. God allowing something is not God approving it. It is God refusing to turn his creatures into puppets and then holding them fully accountable for what they choose. 

Then the Lord says something in chapter 16.10:25 that changes the whole story. He tells the watchers, "You have been in heaven, but all the mysteries had not yet been revealed to you, and you knew worthless ones. And in the hardness of your hearts, you made them known to the women, and through these mysteries, women and men work much evil on earth." Worthless mysteries. Let that land for a second. The watchers came down acting like keepers of great secrets. And God says what they carried was scraps, fragments, halftruths torn from their proper place. They never held the full council of heaven. They had pieces. And pieces of truth without the heart of God are more dangerous than plain ignorance. Isn't that exactly how deception still works? Not with an outright lie, but with a piece of something real, pulled out of context and handed over as if it were the whole. The serpent in Eden did the same thing. Your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:5. Part of it was even true. Their eyes were opened. But what they saw 11:30 first was their own nakedness. The pattern repeats on Mount Hermon, only louder. Eve was offered forbidden knowledge by one voice. In the days of Jared, a whole generation received it from 200. And this is where the second piece of the answer comes into view. 

The 11:46 Bible tells us God sometimes allows a test not because he doesn't know the outcome, but so that what is hidden in hearts comes to the surface. Moses told Israel that the Lord led them 40 years through the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or not. Deuteronomy 8:2 Paul said something startling to the Corinthians. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.  1 Corinthians 11:19. Made manifest, dragged into the light.12:2312 minuter, 23 sekunder[music] The rebellion did not begin on Herman. It began in hidden places in hearts that were already turning away.12:3012 minuter, 30 sekunderThe descent only revealed what was already there. And once it was revealed, it could be judged. [music] Rebellion12:3712 minuter, 37 sekunderleft in the dark spreads quietly like rot behind a wall. Rebellion brought into the open can finally be dealt with.12:4512 minuter, 45 sekunderThink of Job. Satan came before the Lord with an accusation, and God [music] permitted a season of suffering, not out12:5212 minuter, 52 sekunderof cruelty, but because something had to be shown about real faithfulness.12:5512 minuter, 55 sekunder[music]12:5612 minuter, 56 sekunderHast thou considered my servant Job? Job [music] 1:8. The permission was real. So were the limits. only upon himself put13:0613 minuter, 6 sekundernot forth thine hand. Job 1:12. The same was true of the watchers. [music] They were allowed to fall, but they were13:1313 minuter, 13 sekundernever allowed to win. Even while the giants raged across the land, God had already drawn his boundaries. [music] A man named Enoch was walking with him.13:2213 minuter, 22 sekunderA great grandson named Noah was on his [music] way. And the judgment that would answer all of this was already settled in heaven. But something here still13:3113 minuter, 31 sekundertroubles me. And maybe it troubles you, too. If God knew what those worthless mysteries would do to mankind, why did13:3813 minuter, 38 sekunderhe let human beings receive them? Why should ordinary people pay for the pride of angels? Because the people of that world were not as innocent as we would13:4613 minuter, 46 sekunderlike to believe. They did not simply have these secrets forced on them.13:5013 minuter, 50 sekunderSomething in them was hungry for exactly what the watchers came down to offer. To understand that hunger, you have to step back a few generations before Herman.13:5913 minuter, 59 sekunder[music] back to a field a brother and the first blood ever spilled on the ground.14:0514 minuter, 5 sekunderWhen Cain killed [music] Abel, the Lord said something that echoes all the way into the days of the watchers. The voice of thy brother's blood crith unto me from the ground. Genesis 4:10.14:1714 minuter, 17 sekunderRemember what Enoch wrote about the giants? The earth itself cried out against the lawless ones. The same cry, the same ground, the same God listening.14:2614 minuter, 26 sekunder[music]14:2714 minuter, 27 sekunderCain went out from the presence of the Lord. That's how Genesis puts it. And it's one of the loneliest sentences in the Bible. And what did he do once he was out there? Cut off from God's face.14:3814 minuter, 38 sekunderHe built a city. Genesis 4:17. Not an altar, a city, walls, safety he could14:4514 minuter, 45 sekundermake with his own hands since he no longer trusted [music] the hand of God.14:4814 minuter, 48 sekunderNow read what his descendants became because Genesis tells us [music] and most of us have skimmed right past it. Lamech from Cain's line took two wives.14:5814 minuter, 58 sekunder[music] Jabal became the father of those who dwell in tents and keep cattle.15:0215 minuter, 2 sekunderJubel became the father of all such as handled the harp and organ. [music] Genesis 4:21. And Tubalcain was an15:1015 minuter, 10 sekunderinstructor of every artificer in brass and iron. Genesis [music] 4:22. Brass and iron metal work. Long before the15:1915 minuter, 19 sekunderwatchers came down, the family of Cain was already reaching for the very things Aazel would later pour out without measure. [music] Then Lamek stands before his two wives and makes a speech.15:2915 minuter, 29 sekunderListen to it. I have slain a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt.15:3315 minuter, 33 sekunder[music] If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamek 70 and sevenfold.15:3815 minuter, 38 sekunderGenesis [music] 4:23 and 24. He brags about killing. He takes the mercy God showed Cain and turns it into a license15:4515 minuter, 45 sekunderfor revenge. This is a man with tools in his hands and no fear of God in his heart. Do you see the soil the watchers landed on? It had already been plowed.15:5615 minuter, 56 sekunderThe ground [music] was ready. That is the part of the story we don't like to hear. It is easier to picture the people of that world as helpless victims16:0416 minuter, 4 sekunderoverwhelmed by powerful beings from the sky. And in many ways they were victims,16:0916 minuter, 9 sekunder[music]16:1016 minuter, 10 sekunderespecially the ones crushed under the giants. But a seed only [music] grows where the soil receives it. The watchers offered knowledge without God, and a16:1816 minuter, 18 sekunderworld that had already walked away from the presence of the Lord reached out with both hands to take it. Meanwhile, on the other side of the family, something very different was happening.16:2816 minuter, 28 sekunderIn the days of Seth's son, Enos, then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Genesis 4:26. [music]16:3516 minuter, 35 sekunderTwo lines, two directions. One building cities and forging metal and boasting [music] of blood, the other learning to16:4316 minuter, 43 sekunderpray. And from that praying line a few generations later came [music] Enoch.16:4816 minuter, 48 sekunderThat contrast isn't an accident. It's the whole point. Humanity has always been offered two kinds of knowledge. One16:5516 minuter, 55 sekunderbegins with God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge of the holy is understanding.17:0217 minuter, 2 sekunderProverbs 9:10. The other begins with ourselves [music] with the old whisper from the garden that we can be as gods17:0917 minuter, 9 sekunderif we only learn the right secret. The watchers did not invent that hunger.17:1417 minuter, 14 sekunderThey [music] exploited it. They found people already starving for power without obedience, and they fed [music] them. James describes this exact thing,17:2217 minuter, 22 sekunderand I find it almost chilling how well it fits. He speaks of a wisdom that [music] descendeth not from above, but17:2917 minuter, 29 sekunderis earthly, sensual, devilish. James 3:15. [music] Earthly because it served only what17:3617 minuter, 36 sekundercould be grasped and used. Sensual because it fed the appetites, the eyes, the vanity of the face. Devilish because17:4317 minuter, 43 sekunder[music] its source was rebellion. Look again at what Aazelle and the others taught. Swords so a man could take what [music] he wanted. Ornaments and painted17:5117 minuter, 51 sekundereyes so people could be admired and desired. Enchantments and root cutings so they could reach into the spiritual world without asking God's permission.18:0018 minuter[music] Signs in the stars so they could know the future without trusting the one who holds it. Every single gift answered18:0818 minuter, 8 sekundera desire that was already burning inside fallen people. Control, admiration,18:1318 minuter, 13 sekunder[music]18:1418 minuter, 14 sekunderpower, certainty. And isn't that still what people want when they turn away from God? We don't usually reject him because [music] we found something18:2218 minuter, 22 sekunderbetter. We reject him because we want to be in charge of our own lives, our own image, our own future. The Watchers18:2918 minuter, 29 sekundersimply made it possible on a scale the world had never seen. Paul describes the same downward spiral in his letter to the Romans. Because that when they knew18:3918 minuter, 39 sekunderGod, [music] they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21.18:5018 minuter, 50 sekunderVain in their imaginations. Doesn't that sound like Genesis 6:5 all over again?18:5518 minuter, 55 sekunder[music] Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart, only evil continually. Paul goes on to say, "They changed the truth of God into a lie and19:0419 minuter, 4 sekunderworshiped and served the creature [music] more than the creator." Romans 1:25.19:0919 minuter, 9 sekunderThat is what the world before the flood did. [music] It woripped the creature.19:1419 minuter, 14 sekunderThe giants were the mighty men, the men of renown, and people looked at them the way crowds still look at celebrities [music] and strong men. fame, power,19:2319 minuter, 23 sekunderbodies that seemed beyond human, and all of it built on stolen knowledge and [music] spilled blood. So when we ask19:3019 minuter, 30 sekunderwhy God allowed the watchers to descend, we have to ask a harder question, too. Why did humanity open the door so wide?19:3819 minuter, 38 sekunderBecause the truth is the angels [music] could not have corrupted a world that refused to be corrupted. Enoch himself is the proof. He lived [music] in that19:4719 minuter, 47 sekundervery generation. He breathed the same air, walked the same land, watched the same violence, and yet [music] scripture19:5519 minuter, 55 sekundersays he walked with God. Nobody forced the darkness into Enoch's heart. He kept [music] the door shut. That should give20:0320 minuter, 3 sekunderevery one of us both a warning and a comfort. The warning is that the same hunger lives in us. [music] The comfort is that the same God who walked with20:1120 minuter, 11 sekunderEnoch still walks with anyone who chooses him.20:1520 minuter, 15 sekunderDraw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. James 4:8. Enoch, of course, did more than keep himself clean. He spoke.20:2420 minuter, 24 sekunderJude tells us he prophesied [music] against the ungodly, for all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken [music] against him. Jude 1:15.20:3320 minuter, 33 sekunderHe was a lone voice in a loud, violent world. And I imagine people laughed at him the way they would later laugh at20:4020 minuter, 40 sekunderNoah building a boat on dry ground. But the laughter didn't last because the knowledge the watchers left behind had produced [music] something far worse than painted faces and sharpened swords.20:5120 minuter, 51 sekunderIt had [music] produced the giants. And when God finally answered the cry of the earth, he made a declaration about what20:5920 minuter, 59 sekunderwould happen to the giants after their bodies died. A declaration that reaches straight into the world we live in today. [music] The giants were something21:0621 minuter, 6 sekunderthe world had never seen and was never meant to see. Born of heavenly fathers and human mothers, [music] they belonged fully to neither side. Too much flesh21:1621 minuter, 16 sekunderfor heaven, too much spirit for the earth. Enoch describes them consuming everything people could [music] produce, then turning to devour people21:2421 minuter, 24 sekunderthemselves, and even in the darkest line of all, turning [music] against one another and drinking blood. Genesis gives us the same moment in a single21:3221 minuter, 32 sekunderverse. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. [music] Genesis 6:11 filled,21:4121 minuter, 41 sekundernot touched by violence here and there, [music] filled with it, like a house filled with smoke. When God answered the archangels, he gave each of them a task.21:5121 minuter, 51 sekunderGabriel was sent against the giants [music] to stir them up against one another so they would destroy themselves in battle. And it happened. The mighty21:5921 minuter, 59 sekundermen of renown, the ones crowds had once looked up to, [music] fell by each other's swords. The weapons their own fathers had taught mankind to forge22:0822 minuter, 8 sekunder[music] became the instruments of their end. There is a terrible justice in that. They that [music] take the sword22:1522 minuter, 15 sekundershall perish with the sword. Matthew 26:52.22:1922 minuter, 19 sekunderBut their bodies dying was not the end of the story. And this is where Enoch says something that the Sunday [music] school version never even hints at. In22:2822 minuter, 28 sekunderchapter 15, the Lord explains what happens to the giants after death.22:3222 minuter, 32 sekunderBecause they were born of spirit and flesh, their spirits do not go where human spirits go. They remain on the earth. And God says, "They shall be22:4022 minuter, 40 sekundercalled evil [music] spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. They will rise up against the children of men and against women22:4822 minuter, 48 sekunderbecause they came forth from them. They will afflict, oppress, destroy, and cause trouble. And they will do this until the day of the great judgment.22:5622 minuter, 56 sekunder[music]22:5722 minuter, 57 sekunderLet that sink in slowly." According to Enoch, the evil spirits that have troubled humanity ever since were not created [music] evil. They are the23:0623 minuter, 6 sekunderrestless remains of the giants, beings that once had bodies and lost them [music] and have never stopped wanting them back. Now hold that thought and23:1523 minuter, 15 sekunderopen your New Testament. Look at how Jesus describes an unclean spirit.23:1923 minuter, 19 sekunder[music] When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none.23:2723 minuter, 27 sekunderMatthew 12:43.23:2923 minuter, 29 sekunderseeking rest, wandering, [music] unable to settle. Then the spirit says it will return to the house it left. A body is a23:3723 minuter, 37 sekunderhouse to it. Look at the man in the country of the gatherines. The spirits possessing him did not want to be sent away into nothing. They begged to go into the swine.23:4823 minuter, 48 sekunderSend us into the swine that we may enter into them. Mark 5:12.23:5423 minuter, 54 sekunderEven a pig's body was better to them than nobody at all. Think about how strange that request is. Why would a spirit care about flesh? Why plead for24:0324 minuter, 3 sekunderswine? Unless, somewhere deep in what it was, there remained the memory of a body [music] it once had, and could never stop craving. And then listen to what24:1124 minuter, 11 sekunderthe spirits cried out when they saw Jesus coming? What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the24:2024 minuter, 20 sekundertime? Matthew 8:29. [music] before the time they knew there was an appointed day, a set hour of judgment24:2724 minuter, 27 sekunderalready decreed. That is precisely what Enoch says the Lord told the watchers.24:3224 minuter, 32 sekunderThese spirits will act until the day [music] of the great consumation. The Bible does not spell out where demons came from. It simply shows them to us,24:4024 minuter, 40 sekunderrestless, hungry for bodies, terrified of an appointed judgment. Enoch fills in the origin story, and the pieces fit24:4724 minuter, 47 sekunderwith an unsettling precision. This is not a modern theory [music] either.24:5224 minuter, 52 sekunderJustin Martyr writing in the second century taught that the angels who sinned fathered children with women and that those children are the ones called25:0025 minuterdemons. Early believers read their Bibles with the story of the watchers in mind. Here is where the hook of this whole story comes into focus. The fall25:0925 minuter, 9 sekunderof the watchers was never about lust alone because lust ends when the moment ends. What they did kept going. Their25:1725 minuter, 17 sekunderteachings spread into every generation, and their offspring, stripped of their bodies, became the unseen enemies that Paul warned about. For we wrestle not25:2625 minuter, 26 sekunderagainst flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, [music] against spiritual25:3525 minuter, 35 sekunderwickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12.25:3925 minuter, 39 sekunderAnd what happened to the watchers themselves? God told Raphael to bind Aazel hand and foot and cast him into darkness, to open a pit [music] in the25:4825 minuter, 48 sekunderdesert called Dudiel, to lay rough and jagged rocks over him, and to cover his face so he would not see the light.25:5525 minuter, 55 sekunderThere he would wait until the day of judgment, [music] when he would be cast into the fire. Michael was told to bind Samjaza and his companions under the26:0426 minuter, 4 sekunderhills of the earth for 70 generations until the day their judgment is complete. Jude, the same writer who quoted [music] Enoch's prophecy,26:1226 minuter, 12 sekunderdescribes exactly this. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he [music] hath reserved in everlasting chains26:2126 minuter, 21 sekunderunder darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Jude 1:6 left their own habitation. That is [music] the sin.26:3026 minuter, 30 sekunderThey left the place God gave them, chains, darkness, waiting for the great day.26:3626 minuter, 36 sekunderJude was not borrowing loosely. He was telling the same story. So picture the world as Enoch saw it after judgment fell. The watchers bound in the [music]26:4526 minuter, 45 sekunderdeep places of the earth. The giants fallen in battle. And their spirits now loose, drifting over a world that still26:5326 minuter, 53 sekundercarried [music] the knowledge they left behind. The swords were still there. The enchantments were still whispered. The stars were still being read for [music]27:0127 minuter, 1 sekundomens. The bodies were gone, but the fingerprints remained. Maybe that explains something you have [music] felt but never had words for. Why evil seems27:1027 minuter, 10 sekunderso organized at times. Why certain sins feel older than the people committing them. Why temptation can come with a27:1827 minuter, 18 sekunderstrange intelligence [music] as if it knows exactly where you are weak. Peter warned that your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about [music]27:2727 minuter, 27 sekunderseeking whom he may devour. First Peter 5:8 devour. [music] the same word that fits the giants in Enoch's account. And27:3527 minuter, 35 sekunderyet, if the story ended here, it would be nothing but a horror tale. It doesn't end here because God was not taken by27:4227 minuter, 42 sekundersurprise on Mount Herman before the first watcher set foot on that summit.27:4727 minuter, 47 sekunderThe Lord already had a plan and it ran straight through a man named Noah. In the same chapter where God sends Raphael27:5527 minuter, 55 sekunderto bind Aazil and Gabriel [music] to turn the giants against one another, there is a quieter command that's easy to miss. Before any of the judgments28:0428 minuter, 4 sekunderfall, the Lord sends a messenger to the son of Lamek, [music] to Noah. He is told to hide himself because the end is coming upon the whole28:1228 minuter, 12 sekunderearth, a deluge that will destroy everything on it. [music] And then the promise, his seed will be preserved for28:1928 minuter, 19 sekunderall the generations of the world. Do you see the [music] order there? Before the binding, before the flood, before a single giant falls, God's first move is28:2828 minuter, 28 sekunderto protect one family. That tells you everything about the heart of God in this story. The judgment was real and terrible, but it was never his first thought. His first thought was rescue.28:4028 minuter, 40 sekunderGenesis says it in seven short words that carry the weight of the whole world. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis [music] 6:8.28:4928 minuter, 49 sekundergrace. In the middle of violence and corruption and spirits loose upon the earth, the very next word [music] God28:5628 minuter, 56 sekunderspeaks is grace. Then scripture adds, "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, [music] and Noah walked29:0429 minuter, 4 sekunderwith God." Genesis 6:9, "Walked with God." The exact phrase used for Enoch.29:1029 minuter, 10 sekunder[music] The same faithfulness that carried Enoch into heaven was now alive in his greatgrandson.29:1629 minuter, 16 sekunderEnoch had kept the door shut in his generation [music] and the inheritance he left wasn't land or gold. It was a way of walking and that way of walking29:2529 minuter, 25 sekunder[music] became the lifeline of the entire human race. Kenuk's book even tells the story of Noah's birth and it's one of the most moving scenes in the29:3429 minuter, 34 sekunderwhole collection. When the baby was born, his father Lamek was frightened.29:3929 minuter, 39 sekunderThe child's body was white as snow and red as a rose. His eyes lit up the house like [music] the sun, and he rose and29:4629 minuter, 46 sekunderpraised the Lord. Lamech feared his son might be the child of the watchers, one of them, not one of us. So he ran to his father, Methuselah, and begged him to go29:5529 minuter, 55 sekunderand ask Enoch, who was dwelling with the angels at the ends of the earth. Picture that old man, Methuselah, making that journey for his son's [music] peace of30:0330 minuter, 3 sekundermind. And Enoch answering him, "No, this child is truly Lamech's son. He will be the one through whom the earth is30:1130 minuter, 11 sekundercleansed. [music] In his days the great destruction will come and he and his sons will be saved. What fear Lamech30:1930 minuter, 19 sekundercarried? Is my child corrupted? Has the darkness touched my family? So many parents and grandparents have felt that30:2730 minuter, 27 sekundersame fear, watching the world grow harder and wondering if their children will be swallowed by it. And here comes the answer from the one man who walked30:3530 minuter, 35 sekunderwith God. No, this child belongs to the Lord. And through him, the [music] Lord will begin again. So Noah grew. And30:4430 minuter, 44 sekunderwhile the giants raged and the stolen knowledge spread, Noah did something that looked foolish to everyone around him. He built. By faith, Noah, being30:5430 minuter, 54 sekunderwarned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, [music] prepared an ark to the saving of his house. Hebrews31:0131 minuter, 1 sekund11:7. Peter calls him a preacher of righteousness. 2 [music] Peter 2:5 For year after year he hammered and31:0831 minuter, 8 sekunderpreached, preached and hammered and the world laughed. [music] Then the rain came. And now we can finally gather up the answer to the question this whole31:1731 minuter, 17 sekunderjourney has been chasing. [music] Why did God allow the watchers to descend?31:2131 minuter, 21 sekunderHe allowed it because [music] he gives real freedom to the beings he creates and he doesn't take it back by force. He31:2931 minuter, 29 sekunderallowed it because hidden rebellion once it comes into the open can be judged and ended. He allowed it because the hunger already living in fallen humanity needed31:3831 minuter, 38 sekunderto be exposed for what it was. And he allowed it because he had already prepared a way of rescue that the darkness could never stop. But there is31:4631 minuter, 46 sekunderone more layer, and it's the one that brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. The watchers [music] came down from heaven to take, to take31:5531 minuter, 55 sekunderwives, to take worship, to take the minds of men and shape them into something twisted. Their descent [music] was a descent of pride. Centuries later,32:0432 minuter, 4 sekundersomeone else came down from heaven, not to take, but [music] to give. Paul writes that Christ, being in the form of32:1132 minuter, 11 sekunderGod, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation [music] and took upon him the32:1932 minuter, 19 sekunderform of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Philippians [music] 2:6:7.32:2432 minuter, 24 sekunderThe watchers grasped at what wasn't theirs. Jesus let go of what was his. They brought worthless mysteries.32:3132 minuter, 31 sekunder[music] He brought the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, [music] which is Christ in32:3932 minuter, 39 sekunderyou, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:26-27.32:4432 minuter, 44 sekunderThe true mystery, the one the watchers never knew. And Peter [music] tells us something astonishing about where Christ32:5132 minuter, 51 sekunderwent after the cross. He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit, [music] by which also he went32:5932 minuter, 59 sekunderand preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in33:0633 minuter, 6 sekunderthe days [music] of Noah. 1 Peter 3:18 to20. Spirits in prison disobedient in the days [music] of Noah. Read that with33:1533 minuter, 15 sekunderEnoch open beside it, and the hair on your arms will stand up. The very ones bound in darkness [music] heard the announcement of his victory. John puts33:2433 minuter, 24 sekunderit in one sentence. For this purpose [music] the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the33:3033 minuter, 30 sekunderdevil. 1 John 3:8. Every sword as Aazel taught [music] men to forge. Every enchantment, every spirit wandering33:3833 minuter, 38 sekunderthrough dry places looking for a house to fill. All of it was answered at the cross. [music] And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a33:4633 minuter, 46 sekundershoe of them openly, triumphing over the minute. [music] Colossians 2:15. That is why this story was never about lust33:5433 minuter, 54 sekunderalone. It was about two descents. One brought corruption and the other brought redemption. One left fingerprints of34:0134 minuter, 1 sekunddarkness on the world. The other left nail prints in the hands of the one who came to save it. Jesus said, [music] "As34:0834 minuter, 8 sekunderthe days of Noi were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Matthew 24:37.34:1534 minuter, 15 sekunderThe same knowledge without God is still being offered. The same [music] restless spirits still wander, but the same grace34:2234 minuter, 22 sekunderNoah found is still open, and the same walk Enoch walked is still available to anyone who will take the first step.34:2834 minuter, 28 sekunder

Thank you for walking this road with me all the way to the end. 

-AI assisted based on scripture-

-Guide of Heaven-