And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
3. And the lord said ] It is not evident in this verse, why the Lord should pass a sentence of condemnation upon man. In the two preceding verses, it is not man, but “the sons of God,” whose depravity has been described. Perhaps, however, the object of the words is, in view of the mixed marriages, to impose a more restricted limit upon the duration of human life. Man is warned, as in Gen 4:22, that on earth he has no immortality. The warning is administered to the progeny of the sons of God and the daughters of men no less than to the children of men generally.
Following this line of interpretation, we obtain some clue to the meaning of a most obscure verse. Its obscurities, indeed, are such that it may well be the case, that the original text has suffered corruption in the early stages of its transmission.
1. The R.V. text may be paraphrased: “My spirit shall not for ever be contending with man; seeing that he also is carnally minded. His days are numbered: but I will not at once consume him. There shall yet be an interval of 120 years, before I bring upon mankind the catastrophe of the Deluge.” The objections to this are numerous: ( a) the rendering “strive” is exceedingly doubtful; ( b) the idea of the spirit of Jehovah striving with men is unsuitable; ( c) the rendering, “for that he also, &c.” represents a Hebrew idiom found nowhere else in the Pentateuch, while the word “also” has no logical connexion; ( d) the mention of “his days” being 120 years despite the Flood is, to say the least, strange Noah is expressly stated in P to be 500 years old at the birth of his sons ( Gen 6:22), and 600 years old when he entered the ark (Gen 7:6); ( e) “flesh” is used in its metaphorical, not in its literal, sense.
2. R.V. marg. rule in. Better, according to many ancient versions, abide in in their going astray they are flesh. The following paraphrase may be given: “the Spirit which I have implanted in man is not to abide in him for ever. (Still he shall not be judged too severely.) In their continual going astray men shew that they are frail flesh. Mortal life, therefore, shall be limited to 120 years (no admixture of the heavenly strain shall avail for the greater prolongation of life).”
It is objected that the lives of the patriarchs in P exceed this limit. But the passage is evidently an independent fragment from J. And it is a more serious objection that the words of the verse, taken literally, make no clear allusion to the illicit marriages, and are applicable to mankind generally.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 6:3
My Spirit shall not always strive with man
The striving of the Spirit
I.
WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THE ASSERTION, My Spirit shall not always strive with man? It is implied:–
(1) that the Spirit does sometimes strive with men;
(2) that men resist the Spirit.
II. WHAT IS NOT INTENDED BY THE SPIRIT STRIVING. It is no form of physical struggling or effort whatever. It is not any force applied to our bodies.
III. WHAT, THEN, IS THE STRIVING OF THE SPIRIT? It is an energy of God applied to the mind of man, setting truth before his mind, reasoning, convincing, and persuading.
IV. HOW MAY IT BE KNOWN WHEN THE SPIRIT OF GOD STRIVES WITH AN INDIVIDUAL?
(1) When a man finds his attention arrested to the great concerns of his soul;
(2) when a man finds himself convinced of sin;
(3) when the mind is convicted of the great guilt and ill-desert of sin;
(4) when men see the folly of seeking salvation in any other way than through Christ alone.
V. WHAT IS INTENDED BY THE SPIRIT NOT STRIVING ALWAYS? Not that He will at some period withdraw from among mankind, but that He will withdraw from the individual in question. There is a limit to the Spirits efforts in the case of each sinner; at some uncertain, awful point, he will reach and pass it.
VI. WHY WILL GODS SPIRIT NOT STRIVE ALWAYS?
(1) Because longer striving will do the sinner no good;
(2) because sinners sin wilfully when they resist the Holy Ghost;
(3) because there is a point beyond which forbearance is no virtue.
VII. CONSEQUENCES OF THE SPIRITS CEASING TO STRIVE WITH MEN.
(1) A confirmed hardness of heart;
(2) a seared conscience;
(3) certain damnation. (C. G. Finney.)
God striving with man
God strives with man in many ways by the working of His blessed Spirit within him; by the working of our own conscience, by various warnings from without constantly strewn in our paths; but if we grieve and resist the Holy Spirit of God, then He will not always strive with us, but will give us over to a reprobate mind.
I. Consider the great mercy of God, in consenting to strive with man at all.
II. The striving of the Spirit is a means of resisting the flesh.
III. The Spirit of God strives in many ways. His strivings have a meaning, a message, and a warning to us all. (Bishop Atlay.)
The Spirits influence
I. THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DOES EXERT AN INFLUENCE ON MAN FOR THE PURPOSE OF SECURING HIS BEST INTEREST. Notice–
1. That this spiritual influence is universal. No doubt respecting its possibility. He who made man can influence him.
2. That this spiritual influence is essential to the production of good. Human nature is depraved, and therefore incapable of itself of producing anything good. As every drop of rain which falls from the clouds, and every spring that issues from the rocky mountains, comes from the mighty oceans; as the light which makes every planet and satellite gleam in the dark void of space comes from the sun, so does all good in man proceed from the Spirit of God.
3. That this spiritual influence is, in every case, limited by the conditions of mans free agency. Nothing compulsory in its nature. If religion be virtue, man in becoming religious must act from choice and not from necessity.
4. That this spiritual influence is effective in proportion to the adaptation of the means by which it acts upon mens minds. Nature. Providence. Chiefly the gospel.
II. THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD MAY CEASE TO INFLUENCE MEN FOR GOOD. This proved by facts. Saul (1Sa 28:15); Belshazzar (Dan 5:1-31); Jews in time of Jeremiah (Jer 15:1).
III. THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD CEASES TO INFLUENCE MAN FOR GOOD BECAUSE OF MANS CONTINUED REBELLION. For that he also is flesh. The word flesh is often used in Scripture to denote the sinfulness of man. This ceasing to strive may not be the result of a positive act of withdrawal of heavenly influences, so much as that of the law of nature which determines that the momentum of any moving body is diminished by constant resistance. In the moral universe, as well as in the physical, this law operates.
IV. THAT THE BENEVOLENCE OF GOD IS MANIFESTED IN THE MANNER IN WHICH SPIRITUAL INFLUENCES ARE WITHDRAWN FROM MAN. Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
1. The withdrawal never happens till after a long period of existence.
2. It never happens suddenly, but gradually.
3. It never happens without sufficient warning. (Evan Lewis.)
The Spirit striving
I. A WONDERFUL FACT IMPLIED. The Holy Spirit strives with man.
1. Remarkable power. Man can refuse to obey the Creator.
2. Amazing Divine condescension.
3. Astonishing human obduracy.
4. A merciful reason. Why not abandon man? Love of God.
5. The benevolent purpose. That man may forsake sin.
6. The mysterious method.
II. AN ALARMING PACT STATED.
1. A calamity of awful magnitude.
2. Most melancholy. (Homilist.)
The time of Gods grace is limited
There is a time when God will strive; but when that time is gone, God will strive no more. To make this plain I will lay down these six things:–
1. I will let you see that it hath been so by testimonies of Scripture. (1Sa 15:23; Heb 12:16-18; Luk 19:41-42)
2. I will show in or after what manner God deals with a soul in giving it over.
(1) The Lord changes His mind, and repents of the good He has done to such rebellious and stubborn creatures.
(2) The Lord gives over that man to the power of that sin, which He never did before when He strove with him; we must either lose our sins or our souls; and if no means will serve to bring a man home, then the Lord gives him over to commit his old sin (Psa 81:11-12).
(3) As God gives a man over to the power of his lusts, so He doth blast a man in regard of all abilities and gifts that formerly he hath had. Look into the world, and you shall see this plain. Great scholars, learned doctors and preachers, their learning hath been blasted; they were bright candles, yet in the end they became snuffs, men of corrupt minds, etc. Look upon other common Christians, who have given hope of coming unto God when they were in sickness or necessity, etc. Yet at last it turns to nothing; He sent leanness into their souls (Psa 106:15). He gave them their request. One aims at honour; well, God gives it unto Him. Another will have profit; well, saith God, and thou shalt have it, but My Spirit and the excellency thereof thou shalt never have.
(4) The Lord hardens that man. He repents of the good that is done unto him; He gives him up to the power of his lusts, and blasts all his parts, so that he hardens his heart. And look by what means God sought to bring him unto Him, those means harden him; afflictions harden, him, which should have been the means to have recalled him. God brays a fool ten times in a mortar, and yet he is the harder, harder, and harder.
(5) The Lord lets that man build upon false bottoms, live by false principles: that man which hath been enlightened must have somewhat to hold upon; else he would be in a little hell, and ergo a man hath his shifts. Saul saith, I have performed the will of the Lord, I have done that which He commanded me. Have you so, says Samuel? What then means the lowing of the oxen? Oh, saith he, it is to do sacrifice unto the Lord.
(6) The Lord gives a commission to all means formerly used, that they shall never come to Him more; the Lord bids those judgments and mercies wherewith He sought to humble him before, never more to meddle with him. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone (Hos 4:17).
3. I will let you see what persons they are.
(1) Those that have lived a good while under the means of grace, but are still unprofitable and no good is wrought upon them; it is likely such men are given over (Mat 23:34-37). And a man that hardens his neck when he is rebuked, shall suddenly be destroyed and cannot be cured Pro 29:1).
(2) Those that have much calling and means and also many secret workings of the Spirit on them, that when they have gone out of the house of God have determined never to be drunk more, never to swear, lie, nor steal more, etc., and yet these come to nought. He that hath had many proclamations, as Eze 24:13.
(3) Those that have much grieved the good Spirit of God in bringing in some sin contrary to the light of conscience and the suggestions of the good Spirit of God, as did the children of Israel, who resisted the good Spirit of God, and He sware, etc.
(4) Such as have a common, base, vile, and contemptible esteem of the gospel and ministers thereof. They mocked the ministers till the wrath of God broke out against them and there was no remedy (2Ch 36:16).
4. Now I come to the fourth thing which is the grounds of it, viz. Why the Lord in this life doth give men over and strive with them no more. The grounds of this point arise from these two attributes of God, His justice and His wisdom.
(1) God is a just God; and is it not just that those who have rejected Him, that He should reject them? I have called, but you answered not Jer 7:13).
(2) God is a wise God. A man that knocks at the door if he be wise, will not always lie knocking if none answer: he gives over and goes away; so the Lord knocks at our hearts by mercies to allure us, by judgments to terrify us: yet He can find no entrance. Is it not wisdom then to be gone? Why should I smite you any more, saith God? (Isa 1:5). (W. Fenner.)
Divine forbearance and justice
I. THE LONG SUFFERANCE OF JEHOVAH TOWARDS HIS WAYWARD CREATURES IS SET FORTH IS THE SCRIPTURES IN VARIOUS WAYS. It is stated in a multitude of passages, that longsuffering is one of His distinguishing attributes; and the truth of this is evidenced by the exceeding great forbearance manifested towards many whose character and conduct are recorded in Holy Writ (Exo 34:6-7; Num 14:8; Ps 2Pe 3:9). Consider, then, the fact of Gods exceeding great forbearance, and let it be the means of gently leading you to repentance. But, in addition to this, there is another consideration which ought to operate on your minds–namely:
II. THE WARNINGS AFFORDED TO SINNERS BEFORE THE POURING OUT OF HIS JUDGMENTS. There is nothing more clearly manifested in the account given us in the Word of God of His dealings with mankind, than the fact of the unwillingness with which the Almighty inflicts punishment on sinners. It is termed in the twenty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, and the twenty-first verse, His strange work, His strange act. Mercy is the work in which the Lord delights; and judgment when executed is performed as a matter of constraint, the effect of necessity. How many are the warnings which the Lord holds forth before He strikes the blow I This was remarkable in the case of the antediluvians. (T. R. Redwar, M. A.)
The danger of resisting the Spirit
I. THAT GODS TAKING AWAY HIS SPIRIT FROM ANY SOUL IS THE CERTAIN FORERUNNER OF THE RUIN AND DESTRUCTION OF THAT SOUL. This is clearly evinced from the words; for, although the flood did immediately terminate in the destruction of the body only, yet because it snatched these men away in a state of impenitence, it was consequentially the destruction of the soul.
II. THAT THERE IS IN THE HEART OF MAN A NATURAL ENMITY AND OPPOSITION TO THE MOTIONS OF GODS HOLY SPIRIT; outward contention is the proper issue and product of inward hatred: striving in action is an undoubted sign of enmity in the heart (Gal 5:17). Here we see there is a sharp combat between these two: and the apostle subjoins the reason of it: for these two are contrary. Things contrary will vent their contrariety in mutual strife.
III. THAT THE SPIRIT IN ITS DEALINGS WITH THE HEART IS VERY EARNEST AND VEHEMENT. To strive, imports a vigorous putting forth of the power: it is such a posture as denotes an active desire. There is none that strives with another but conquest is the thing both in his desire and in his endeavour.
IV. THAT THERE IS A SET AND PUNCTUAL TIME, AFTER WHICH THE CONVINCING OPERATIONS OF GODS SPIRIT UPON THE HEART OF MAN IN ORDER TO HIS CONVERSION BEING RESISTED, WILL CEASE AND FOREVER LEAVE HIM.
1. Scripture proof (Psa 95:10; Luk 19:42).
2. How the Spirit may be resisted in His workings upon the heart. Where we must first lay down, what it is in general to resist the Spirit.
And this I conceive is, in brief, to disobey the Spirit commanding and persuading the soul to the performance of duty, and the avoidance of sin. Now, the Spirit commands and persuades two ways.
1. Externally, by the letter of the word either written or preached.
2. By its immediate internal workings upon the soul, which I shall reduce to two:
(1) The illumination of the understanding.
(2) The conviction of the will. Now, suitable to all these ways of the Spirits dealings with us, there are so many different acts of resistance by which these dealings are opposed. Of all which in their order.
1. Concerning the resistance of the Spirit in disobeying the letter of the Word. The reason that disobedience to the Word is to be accounted an opposing of the Spirit, is because the Word was dictated and inspired by the Spirit itself.
2. I shall next show how it is resisted in its immediate internal workings upon the soul. Here we must reflect upon ourselves, and know that upon the unhappy fall of man, sin and the wretched effects of sin immediately entered upon, and took full possession of all his faculties: his understanding, that before shined clear like the lamp of God, was by sin overspread with darkness; his will, that bore a perfect conformity to the Divine will, was rendered totally averse from and contrary to the things of God.
(1) Concerning our resistance of it in illumination or its enlightening work. And these enlightenings both may be, and often are, resisted by the soul. Illumination in general may be described, the Spirits infusing a certain light into the mind, whereby it is in some measure enabled to discern and judge of the things of God. Now, this light is threefold.
(a) That universal light which we usually term the light of nature, yet so as it may also be rightly termed the light of the Spirit; but in a different respect. It is called the light of nature, because of its general inherence in all men; because it is commensurate and of equal extent with nature, so that wheresoever the nature of man is to be found there this light is to be found. It enlightens every man that comes into the world. But on the other hand, it is called the light of the Spirit, in respect of the Spirits efficiency, in that it is the producing cause of it as it is of every good and perfect gift.
(b) The second kind of light may be called a notional Scripture light; that is, a bare knowledge of or assent to Scripture truths. This light is begot in the mind of all professors by the mere hearing or reading the word; it is the bare perception of evangelical truths placed in the intellect, resting in the brain, treasured up there by a naked apprehension and speculation. So that the resisting this is almost the same with our resistance of the Spirit speaking in the word, only with this difference, that in the former we resist the word as considered in the letter, in this we resist it as it lies transcribed in the conceptions of the understanding.
(c) The third kind of light may be called a special convincing light, which is a higher degree of the enlightening work of the Spirit. This is the highest attainment of the soul on this side saving grace; it is like the clear shining of the moon and stars, which is the greatest light that is consistent with a state of darkness. Yea, it is such a light as does not only make a discovery of the things of God, but also engenders in the soul a certain relish and taste of them.
(2) We come now to the second, which is the conviction of the will, which conviction may be described in general. A work of the Spirit of God upon the will and affections, producing in them some imperfect liking of the ways of God, and dislike to the ways of sin. Now, the convincing works of the Spirit upon the will may be reduced to these three.
(a) A begetting in it some good desires, wishes, and inclinations.
(b) An enabling it to perform some imperfect obedience.
(c) An enabling it to leave some sins. In all these works the Spirit may be resisted and opposed.
3. Why, upon such resistance, the Spirit finally withdraws.
(1) The first reason is drawn from Gods decree.
(2) The second reason is because it is most agreeable to the great intent and design of the gospel.
(3) The third ground or reason why God withdraws His Spirit upon our resistance, is because it highly tends to the vindication of His honour. Now, God may vindicate His honour two ways in the Spirits departure.
(a) As it is a punishment to the sinner, that has dishonoured Him. Gods glory cannot be repaired but by the misery of the party that made a breach upon it.
(b) God may vindicate His honour by clearing His injured attributes from those aspersions that human mistakes might charge upon them.
(4) God withdraws His Spirit upon resistance, because this naturally raises in the hearts of men an esteem and valuation of the Spirits workings: and the reason of this is, because in so doing, men apparently see that God Himself puts an esteem and value upon them, otherwise why should He so severely bereave men of them upon their abuse? Were it not a treasure God would not be so choice of it. APPLICATION; And now, what can be more seasonable than to wrap up all in the apostles own exhortation, Quench not the Spirit (1Th 5:19). Now, as arguments to dissuade or deter you from this, and withal to persuade and excite you to the former, take these motives.
1. Our resisting of the Spirit in His precepts and instructions will certainly bereave us of His comforts.
2. The second motive why we should comply with the Spirit is, because the resisting of it brings a man under hardness of heart and a reprobate sense.
3. The third motive is, because resisting of the Spirit puts a man in the very next disposition to the great and unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. (R. South, DD.)
Why Gods Spirit will not always strive
There is a certain point beyond which He will not go for sufficient reasons known fully to Himself, partly to us. Two of these we are to notice for our instruction.
1. He will not touch the free agency of His rational creatures. He can put no force on the volitions of men. An involuntary or compulsory faith, hope, love, obedience, is a contradiction in terms, and anything that could bear the name can have no moral validity whatsoever.
2. After giving ample warning, instruction and invitation, He will, as a just judgment on the unbelieving and the impenitent, withdraw His Spirit and let them alone. (Prof. J. G. Murphy.)
Neglecting the opportunity of grace
When I think of opportunities, I think I may liken us here tonight to a number of men in the Arctic regions. They have been frozen up for a long time, and the ship is high and dry on great masses of ice. The thaw comes on; but the thaw, however, will last but for a very short time. They set their saws to work; they see a split in the ice; there is a long and very narrow lane of water. If they can get the ship along there before the water freezes it up again, they may yet reach the shores of dear old England, and be safe; but if not, they are frozen in for another winter, and very likely will be frozen in forever. Well, now, tonight it seems just so with us. It seems as if the Spirit of God had purposely brought some of you here; and I do trust He is opening, as it were, the lane of mercy for you–causing your sins for a little time to loose their frosty hold, and opening your heart a little to the genial influences of the gospel. But, oh! if it should be frozen up again. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The worlds treatment of the Holy Spirit
It is sad, when the physician, having exhausted all the resources of his skill, gives up his patient and retires. It is sad when the parent, having tried severity and kindness, correction and encouragement, in vain, at last, heartbroken and hopeless, desists from his endeavours to reform his wayward child. But it is sadder still when Almighty God foiled, as it were, by human obduracy, in all the manifestations of His grace and mercy, at last gives up His efforts for the salvation of men, and retires exclaiming: How often would I have gathered you under My wing, and ye would not. Such is the spectacle here. The Spirit of God has, all through, been connected with our world. It was He who moved on the face of the waters, reducing the discordant elements to order, and building up that fair and goodly structure, which has still so many traces of its original beauty lingering amid its ruin and decay.
It was He who was breathed into man, making him a living soul, spiritual, and like to God in wisdom, goodness, happiness, and truth. After the Fall, He did not forsake the work of His hands, but clave to the souls of men, seeking to help their recovery, and if that might not be, seeking to act as a drag on their downward progress. Oh, how long-continued, constant, and persevering have been His efforts for the good of man! What has been the treatment which He has received from them in return? God tells us what it was from the men before the flood. They were going on in evils ways, and the Spirit strove with them, tried to stop them, and turn them back. He pleaded with them, warned them, but it was in vain; they went on, and grew worse and worse. Like a mighty torrent they swept along, and drew even the godly along with them. At length it became time for God to decide and act, and so He did. My Spirit shall not always strive with man. Slowly and reluctantly, God comes to this determination. Oh, the evil of mans sin! It makes, as it were, a conflict in the Divine bosom. Mercy calls for delay, but justice says, It must be limited. Love to men, and unwillingness that they should perish, cry, Let alone a little longer, but God is jealous for the honour of His Spirit. And so a time comes when the blessed God must decide and act; and so He does. Man has become flesh, mere flesh; all, with one exception, flesh. The case is hopeless, Open the windows of heaven, and break up the fountains of the great deep. So it was with Israel. With growing light, unparalleled privileges, they grew worse and worse–more hardened, formal, hypocritical. The case was hopeless; Israel was mere flesh–a dead, corrupting carcase. Ho, ho, ye Roman eagles, come and devour! (J. Milne.)
The long suffering of God
The stroke of judgment is like the lightning flash, irresistible, fatal; it kills–kills in the twinkling of an eye. But the clouds from which it leaps are slow to gather; they thicken by degrees; and he must be intensely engaged with the pleasures, or engrossed in the business of the world, whom the flash and peal surprise. The mustering clouds, the deepening gloom, the still and sultry air, the awful silence, the big pattering raindrops, these reveal his danger to the traveller, and warn him away from river, road, or hill, to the nearest shelter. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Sin beyond mercy
In an age of despotism, an Italian prince became celebrated for his forbearance, also for his severe punishment when aroused to do vengeance. He had an offending servant who was repeatedly admonished. With every pardon he became more reckless and impudent, and thought he could do anything with impunity. One day, he entered the presence of the prince with his hat on, and, when rebuked, said he had a cold. His much-enduring master said, I will take care that you never catch cold again. He immediately ordered the man to prison, and that the executioner should nail his hat to his head. One of the princes friends expressed surprise at this severe sentence, because the servant had been pardoned for more serious crimes. The prince took a goblet, and having half filled it with water, requested his friend to put an apple into it. This made the water rise to the brim. The prince then told his friend to drop in a coin. This made the water to run over. How is it? the prince asked, that the small coin caused the water to run over, whereas the large apple raised it only to the brim? The overflowing of the cup of Gods mercy is wrath and destruction to the impenitent.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. My spirit shall not always strive] It is only by the influence of the Spirit of God that the carnal mind can be subdued and destroyed; but those who wilfully resist and grieve that Spirit must be ultimately left to the hardness and blindness of their own hearts, if they do not repent and turn to God. God delights in mercy, and therefore a gracious warning is given. Even at this time the earth was ripe for destruction; but God promised them one hundred and twenty years’ respite: if they repented in that interim, well; if not, they should be destroyed by a flood. See note on “Ge 6:5“
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Lord said; either,
1. To the men of that age by the mouth of Noah; or,
2. Within himself; (see Psa 14:1) he determined.
Strive with man, or, contend, or, debate in or against men, as it hath hitherto done, by inward motions and suggestions in the minds and consciences of wicked men, or by the mouths and ministry of that small remnant of holy men, and particularly of Noah, who protested against and contended with the world of the ungodly, and by their doctrines, admonitions, threatenings, and examples, endeavoured to bring them to repentance: 1Pe 3:19; or dispute with, or concerning, or because of men, i.e. whether I should destroy or save him, as God disputes with or about Ephraim, Hos 11:8.
For that he also, i.e. even the seed of Seth, or the sons of God also, no less than the offspring of Cain; the pronoun being here put for the foregoing noun, and the singular number put for the plural, he, i.e. they, to wit, the sons of God. Both which figures are frequent in the use of Scripture. Or, he, i.e. man, all mankind, the sons of God not excepted,
is flesh; not only fleshly in part, or in some actions, but altogether, in regard of soul as well as body, minding nothing but making provision for the flesh to fulfil its lusts, Rom 13:14.
Not having the Spirit, Jud 1:19, nor heeding its good motions, but suppressing and resisting them.
Flesh not only in the condition of their nature, but in the baseness and corruption of their hearts and lives; as the word flesh is commonly used when it is opposed to the Spirit, as Joh 3:6; Rom 7:18; 8:5,7; Gal 5:17.
Yet, though he deserve a speedy destruction,
his days, i.e. the time allowed him for repentance, and the prevention of his ruin,
shall be an hundred and twenty years. During which time Noah was preaching; and, to assure them of the truth of his doctrine, preparing the ark. See 1Pe 3:20; 2Pe 2:5.
Quest. How did God perform this promise, when there were but a hundred years between this time and the flood, by comparing Gen 5:32, with Gen 7:11?
Answ.
1. The increasing wickedness of mankind might justly hasten their ruin, and forfeit the benefit of this indulgence.
2. This promise, though mentioned after that, Gen 5:32, yet seems to have been made twenty years before it; for that verse is added there out of its proper place only to complete the genealogy; and therefore, after this narration, it is repeated here in its due order, Gen 6:10. And such hysteron proterons are frequently noted in Scripture.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. fleshutterly, hopelesslydebased.
And the Lord said, My spiritshall not always striveChrist, as God, had by His Spiritinspiring Enoch, Noah, and perhaps other prophets (1Pe 3:20;2Pe 2:5; Jdg 1:14),preached repentance to the antediluvians; but they were incorrigible.
yet his days shall be anhundred and twenty yearsIt is probable that the corruption ofthe world, which had now reached its height, had been long andgradually increasing, and this idea receives support from thelong respite granted.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Lord said,…. Not to Noah, as in Ge 6:13 for, as yet, he is not taken notice of, or any discourse addressed to him; but rather to or within himself, he said what follows, or thus concluded, and resolved on in his own mind:
my Spirit shall not always strive with man; meaning either the soul of man, called the Spirit of God, Job 27:3 because of his creation, and is what he breathes and puts into men, and therefore is styled the Father of spirits; and which is in man, as some in Aben Ezra observe to be the sense the word used, as a sword in the scabbard; and so the meaning is, it shall not always abide there, but be unsheathed and drawn out; man shall not live always, since he is corrupt, and given to carnal lusts: or else, as Jarchi thinks, God himself is meant, and that the sense is, my Spirit shall not always contend within myself; or there shall not always be contention within me concerning man, whether I shall destroy him, or have mercy on him; I am at a point to punish him, since he is wholly carnal: or rather this is to be understood of the Holy Spirit of God, as the Targum of Jonathan, which agrees with 1Pe 3:18 and to be thus interpreted; that the Spirit of God, which had been litigating and reasoning the point, as men do in a court of judicature, as the word signifies, with these men in the court, and at the bar of their own consciences, by one providence or by one minister or another, particularly by Noah, a preacher of righteousness, in vain, and to no purpose; therefore, he determines to proceed no longer in this way, but pass and execute the sentence of condemnation on them:
for that he also is flesh; not only carnal and corrupt, but sadly corrupted, and wholly given up to and immersed in sensual lusts and carnal pleasures, so as not to be restrained nor reformed; even the posterity of Seth, professors of religion also, as well as the profane world and posterity of Cain:
yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years: meaning not the term of man’s life, reduced to this from the length of time he lived before the flood; but this designs the space that God would give for repentance, before he proceeded to execute his vengeance on him; this is that “longsuffering of God” the apostle speaks of in the afore mentioned place, “that waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing”; and so both the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan interpret it of a space of an hundred and twenty years given them to repent: now whereas it was but an hundred years from the birth of Japheth to the flood, some think the space was shortened twenty years, because of their impenitence; but it is more probable what Jarchi observes, that this decree was made and given out twenty years before his birth, though here related, by a figure called “hysteron proteron”, frequent in the Scriptures.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
This comes in here as a token of God’s displeasure at those who married strange wives; he threatens to withdraw from them his Spirit, whom they had grieved by such marriages, contrary to their convictions: fleshly lusts are often punished with spiritual judgments, the sorest of all judgments. Or as another occasion of the great wickedness of the old world; the Spirit of the Lord, being provoked by their resistance of his motions, ceased to strive with them, and then all religion was soon lost among them. This he warns them of before, that they might not further vex his Holy Spirit, but by their prayers might stay him with them. Observe in this verse,
I. God’s resolution not always to strive with man by his Spirit. The Spirit then strove by Noah’s preaching (1Pe 3:19; 1Pe 3:20) and by inward checks, but it was in vain with the most of men; therefore, says God, He shall not always strive. Note, 1. The blessed Spirit strives with sinners, by the convictions and admonitions of conscience, to turn them from sin to God. 2. If the Spirit be resisted, quenched, and striven against, though he strive long, he will not strive always, Hos. iv. 17. 3. Those are ripening apace for ruin whom the Spirit of grace has left off striving with.
II. The reason of this resolution: For that he also is flesh, that is, incurably corrupt, and carnal, and sensual, so that it is labour lost to strive with him. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? He also, that is, All, one as well as another, they have all sunk into the mire of flesh. Note, 1. It is the corrupt nature, and the inclination of the soul towards the flesh, that oppose the Spirit’s strivings and render them ineffectual. 2. When a sinner has long adhered to that interest, and sided with the flesh against the Spirit, the Spirit justly withdraws his agency, and strives no more. None lose the Spirit’s strivings but those that have first forfeited them.
III. A reprieve granted, notwithstanding: Yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years; so long I will defer the judgment they deserve, and give them space to prevent it by their repentance and reformation. Justice said, Cut them down; but mercy interceded, Lord, let them alone this year also; and so far mercy prevailed, that a reprieve was obtained for six-score years. Note, The time of God’s patience and forbearance towards provoking sinners is sometimes long, but always limited: reprieves are not pardons; though God bear a great while, he will not bear always.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
3. My Spirit shall not always strive. Although Moses had before shown that the world had proceeded to such a degree of wickedness and impiety, as ought not any longer to be borne; yet in order to prove more certainly, that the vengeance by which the whole world was drowned, was not less just than severe, he introduces God himself as the speaker. For there is greater weight in the declaration when pronounced by God’s own mouth, that the wickedness of men was too deplorable to leave any apparent hope of remedy, and that therefore there was no reason why he should spare them. Moreover, since this would be a terrible example of divine anger, at the bare hearing of which we are even now afraid, it was necessary to be declared, that God had not been impelled by the heat of his anger into precipitation, nor had been more severe than was right; but was almost compelled, by necessity, utterly to destroy the whole world, except one single family. For men commonly do not refrain from accusing God of excessive haste; nay, they will even deem him cruel for taking vengeance of the sins of men. Therefore, that no man may murmur, Moses here, in the person of God, pronounces the depravity of the world to have been intolerable, and obstinately incurable by any remedy. This passage, however, is variously expounded. In the first place, some of the Hebrews derive the word which Moses uses from the root (260) נדן ( nadan) which signifies a scabbard. And hence they elicit the meaning that God was unwilling for his Spirit to be any longer held captive in a human body, as if enclosed like a sword in the scabbard. But because the exposition is distorted, and savours of the delirium of the Manichees, as if the soul of man were a portion of the Divine Spirit, it is by us to be rejected. Even among the Jews, it is a more commonly received opinion, that the word in question is from the root דון ( doon.) But since it often means to judge, and sometimes to litigate, hence also arise different interpretations. For some explain the passage to mean, that God will no longer deign to govern men by his Spirit; because the Spirit of God acts the part of a judge within us, when he so enlightens us with reason that we pursue what is right. Luther, according to his custom, applies the term to the external jurisdiction which God exercises by the ministry of the prophets, as if some one of the patriarchs had said in an assembly, ‘We must cease from crying aloud; because it is an unbecoming thing that the Spirit of God, who speaks through us, should any longer weary himself in reproving the world.’ This is indeed ingeniously spoken; but because we must not seek the sense of Scripture in uncertain conjectures, I interpret the words simply to mean, that the Lord, as if wearied with the obstinate perverseness of the world, denounces that vengeance as present, which he had hitherto deferred. For as long as the Lord suspends punishment, he, in a certain sense, strives with men, especially if either by threats or by examples of gentle chastisement, he invites them to repentance. In this way he had striven already, some centuries, with the world, which, nevertheless, was perpetually becoming worse. And now, as if wearied out, he declares that he has no mind to contend any longer. (261) For when God, by inviting the unbelievers to repentance, had long striven with them; the deluge put an end to the controversy. However, I do not entirely reject the opinion of Luther that God, having seen the deplorable wickedness of men, would not allow his prophets to spend their labor in vain. But the general declaration is not to be restricted to that particular case. When the Lord says, ‘I will not contend for ever,’ he utters his censure on an excessive and incurable obstinacy; and, at the same time, gives proof of the divine longsuffering: as if he would say, There will never be an end of contentions unless some unprecedented act of vengeance cuts off the occasion of it. The Greek interpreters, deceived by the similitude of one letter to another have improperly read, ‘shall not remain:’ (262) which has commonly been explained, as if men were then deprived of a sound and correct judgment; but this has nothing to do with the present passage.
For that he also is flesh. The reason is added why there is no advantage to be expected from further contention. The Lord here seems to place his Spirit in opposition to the carnal nature of men. In which method, Paul declares that the
‘
natural man does not receive those things which belong to the Spirit, and that they are foolishness unto him,’ (1Co 2:14.)
The meaning of the passage therefore is, that it is in vain for the Spirit of God to dispute with the flesh, which is incapable of reason. God gives the name of flesh as a mark of ignominy to men, whom he, nevertheless, had formed in his own image. And this is a mode of speaking familiar to Scripture. They who restrict this appellation to the inferior part of the soul are greatly deceived. For since the soul of man is vitiated in every part, and the reason of man is not less blind than his affections are perverse, the whole is properly called carnal. Therefore, let us know, that the whole man is naturally flesh, until by the grace of regeneration he begins to be spiritual. Now, as it regards the words of Moses, there is no doubt that they contain a grievous complaint together with a reproof on the part of God. Man ought to have excelled all other creatures, on account of the mind with which he was endued; but now, alienated from right reason, he is almost like the cattle of the field. Therefore God inveighs against the degenerate and corrupt nature of men; because, by their own fault, they are fallen to that degree of fatuity, that now they approach more nearly to beasts than to true men, such as they ought to be, in consequence of their creation. He intimates, however, this to be an adventitious fault, that man has a relish only for the earth, and that, the light of intelligence being extinct, he follows his own desires. I wonder that the emphasis contained in the particle בשגם ( beshagam,) has been overlooked by commentators; for the words mean, ‘on this account, because he also is flesh.’ In which language God complains, that the order appointed by him has been so greatly disturbed, that his own image has been transformed into flesh.
Yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. Certain writers of antiquity, such as Lactantius, and others, have too grossly blundered in thinking that the term of human life was limited within this space of time; whereas, it is evident, that the language used in this place refers not to the private life of any one, but to a time of repentance to be granted to the whole world. Moreover, here also the admirable benignity of God is apparent, in that he, though wearied with the wickedness of men, yet postpones the execution of extreme vengeance for more than a century. But here arises an apparent discrepancy. For Noah departed this life when he had completed nine hundred and fifty years. It is however said that he lived from the time of the deluge three hundred and fifty years. Therefore, on the day he entered the ark he was six hundred years old. Where then will the twenty years be found? The Jews answer, that these years were cut off in consequence of the increasing wickedness of men. But there is no need of that subterfuge; when the Scripture speaks of the five hundredth year of his age, it does not affirm, that he had actually reached that point. And this mode of speaking, which takes into account the beginning of a period, as well as its end, is very common. Therefore, inasmuch as the greater part of the fifth century of his life was passed, so that he was nearly five hundred years old, he is said to have been of that age. (263)
(260) “ גדן Vagina, in qua gladius est reconditus. Per metaphorum corpus, cui anima, tanquam gladius vaginae, inest.” “A scabbard in which the sword is concealed. Metaphorically, the body in which the soul is, as a sword in its scabbard.” — Schindler. — Ed
(261) “ Acsi Gallice quis diceret, c’est trop plaider,” as if any one should say in French, “This is to plead too much.”
(262) “ Non permanebit.” — Vulgate. “ Οὐ μὴ καταμείνη τὸ πνε̑υμά μου.” — Sept. See on the word דון, Poole’s Synopsis in loco, and Professor Lee’s Lexicon.
(263) The whole of this passage might have been more clearly expressed. At the close of chapter 5, it is said, “Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japeth.” In the verse on which Calvin here comments, it is stated, that man’s days on earth “shall be one hundred and twenty years”; but in Gen 7:11, we are told, that the deluge came “in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life.” This would pare down the one hundred and twenty years to one hundred; and therefore Calvin asks, “Where are the remaining twenty to be found?” To answer this question, he shows that there was something indefinite in the statement of Noah’s age in the first of these passages, and Moses does not say that the flood began precisely in that year. He therefore concludes that, according to a common mode of speaking among the Hebrews, he was in the fifth century of his life; and therefore he would infer, that Noah was about four hundred and eighty years of age at the time referred to: if one hundred and twenty years be added, it will make him six hundred years old at the time of his entering the ark. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) And the Lord said.As the Sethites are now the fallen race, it is their covenant Jehovah who determines to reduce the extreme duration of human life to that which, under the most favourable sanitary influences, might still be its normal length.
My spirit shall not always strive with man.The meaning of this much-contested clause is really settled by the main purpose and context of the verse, which is the Divine determination to shorten human life. Whether, then, Gods spirit be the animating breath spoken of in Gen. 2:7; Gen. 7:22, whereby human life is sustained, or the spiritual part of man, his conscience and moral senseGods best gift to himin opposition to his flesh, the struggle henceforward is not to be indefinitely prolonged. In the first case, the struggle spoken of is that between the elements of life and death in the body; in the second, it refers to the moral probation to which man is subject. The versions generally take the former meaning, and translate shall not dwell, or abide ; but there is much in favour of the rendering shall strive, though the verb more exactly means to rule, preside over, sit as judge. Literally, then, it signifies that the Divine gift of life shall not rule in man for ever; that is, for a period so protracted as was antediluvian life. (Comp. Deu. 15:17, &c.)
With man.Heb., with the adam: spoken with especial reference to the Sethites.
For that he also is flesh.So all the versions; but many commentators, to avoid an Aramaism which does not occur again till the later Psalms, translate, in their erring he is (= they are) flesh. But no reason for shortening human life can be found in this commonplace assertion; and if Abraham brought these records with him from Ur, we have an explanation of the acknowledged fact that Aramaisms do occur in the earlier portions of the Bible. Man, then, is also flesh, that is, his body is of the same nature as those of the animals, and in spite of his noble gifts and precedence, he must submit to a life of the same moderate duration as that allotted them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. My Spirit shall not always strive with man , here rendered strive, occurs nowhere else, and its meaning is doubtful . Our translation assumes that it is the same as , following in this respect Symmachus ( ) and Kimchi . This is not impossible, as the verbs and often interchange their middle radical . Gesenius renders the word to be made low, depressed; (so Vatablus and Ewald;) and, if this be the meaning, the sense of the text would seem to be, my Spirit shall not be trampled on, despised by man forever; language of weariness after long forbearance . Some (as Grotius) have favoured the translation ensheathed, and understand that Jehovah here threatens that his spirit (the soul breathed into man by God) shall not forever be sheathed in the human body, as a sword in the scabbard; that is, the human race shall be cut off . But most of the ancient versions, as well as the Targums, render, my spirit shall not abide, or dwell among men; and understand the words to threaten that the spirit breathed into man at his creation shall no more dwell on the earth, now that man has become brutalized with fleshly lusts . T . Lewis somewhat modifies this view, understanding by my spirit not simply the life principle, but the spiritual or rational in man, as distinguished from the carnal (the , as distinguished from the ,) and, moreover, considers it a sorrowing prediction rather than a threat . The meaning shall dwell or abide, is more in harmony with the context than strive. The reason of the threat, or prediction, is because he is flesh. This would seem to be a reason why the Spirit should continue to strive, unless, indeed, we understand it as the language of weariness and hopelessness in view of man’s degradation. But this expression furnishes a reason, most forcible and appropriate, why God should refuse to allow his image to be longer defiled upon the earth. Man’s kinship with God, his sonship, (comp. Gen 6:2,) gives special flagrancy to his guilt. Man has dishonoured the divine image; it is the “Spirit of God that giveth him understanding;” that he has defiled, and, therefore, that “Spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Ecc 12:7. It was a resolution made in divine justice and mercy. It was a fearful sin for a son of God to prostitute his highest powers in the service of the flesh, a sin that called for the divine wrath. But the very enormity of the sin leads a merciful God to resolve on blotting out the race, to stop the ever-increasing flood of wretchedness that flows from increasing wickedness. So he drove man away from the tree of life, lest he should secure an immortality of sin.
For that he also is flesh Or, because of their transgression, he is flesh, (Ewald, Nordh., Furst, Gesen.,) that is, he is all flesh. The flesh the body, with its appetites and passions, has risen above the spirit. The divine has become quenched in the carnal. Jehovah describes the being whose nobler part was made an image of himself, as now wholly flesh. Flesh and spirit were originally made in happy, harmonious adjustment; but now all is flesh. From this text arose the Pauline phraseology carnal and spiritual, flesh and spirit, so common in the epistle to the Romans. The difficult word may also be construed with what precedes, thus disregarding the Masoretic punctuation and reading: My spirit shall not dwell with men forever in their errors . He is flesh, and his days, etc . In this case, the word is composed of the preposition , and pronominal suffix , connected with the construct infinitive of the verb .
His days His allotted time on the earth .
Hundred and twenty years This language is used of man, the race with whom God’s Spirit dwelt, not of individual men . It refers, then, to the duration of the then existing race, and not, as some have supposed, to the length of human life . It was then in the four hundred and eightieth year of Noah’s life that the antediluvian world received its sentence; but it was allowed a respite of one hundred and twenty years, during which, according to 2Pe 2:8, Noah was a “preacher of righteousness,” “when once the longsuffering of God waited” for the world’s repentance, “while the ark was a preparing . ” 1Pe 3:20.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit (ruach) will not strive with (or abide in, or plead the cause with) man for ever, in that he also is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.’
Either translation is possible, (given emendation of the text), and whichever we select the general idea can be seen as the same, that God’s activity within man would cease.
The verb yathon (from thyn) – which in the qal as here means ‘judge’ or possibly ‘rule’ – is difficult, but it could mean here ‘plead the cause with’ (the ‘with’, present in the hebrew, prevents it simply meaning ‘judge’). ‘Strive’ would be expected to be the niphal yathin. ‘Abide’ is found in the versions, which might suggest they read (or changed it to) yathor or yalun.
Some see the use of ‘spirit’ as spirit with a small ‘s’ and as basically meaning man’s life through God’s breath will not abide for ever, thus referring to the fact that after one hundred and twenty years they will die (compare 6:17; 7:22 where ruach is again used with this meaning of breath). This would point to the unity of the passage with the Flood narrative.
However here ‘spirit’ is qualified by ‘My’ and thus is far more likely to mean God’s Spirit, as this is the usual meaning of ruach when so closely connected with God. God has seen how they have revealed their fleshliness and unworthiness. They have chosen to respond to evil powers and He will therefore withdraw from them His activity in them through His Spirit, His Power.
The table of the patriarchs has already emphasised that life is withdrawn so that man will not live for ever (‘and he died’), so that if verse 3 means only that it is somewhat innocuous. No one thought now that man would live for ever. But as a statement that God’s dealings with man will finalise it is powerful.
“In that he also is flesh” or ‘in their going astray’. Either is possible depending on the vowels, which are not in the original. The former, which is more probable, would mean that man has by his behaviour revealed his basic fleshly nature and that he was not worthy of life from God. The latter would signify that their behaviour has brought God’s judgment on them.
In context the one hundred and twenty years refers to the length of time until God sends the flood. Here God is, by covenant, giving man one last chance to change. He has to give time for Noah to make his preparations, and He wishes to give men time to reconsider.
Alternately it might be seen as signifying an intended reduction in life span. But if the latter is the case it is clear that this does not happen for some considerable time, see the genealogy in Genesis 11, (although the slow reduction in life spans might be seen as a gradual introduction of the limit). Besides there is nowhere else any suggestion of a length of one hundred and twenty years for human life span, even though Moses was 120 years old when he died (Deu 34:7). Thus the former suggestion that it referred to the period up to the flood would seem much more likely and be more meaningful in context, and that would suggest the verb be translated as ‘plead the cause with’ or ‘strive’ on the basis that God covenants to put a limit on how long He will seek to bring men to repentance.
So God through a theophany warns man of the danger of His judgment to come, and yet gives the suggestion that mercy is yet available.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 6:3. And the Lord said, &c. On a view of the extreme degeneracy of mankind, God said, i.e.. “He resolved and made known” by the mouth of his prophets, such as Enoch and Noah, by whom the Spirit of Christ preached to the unbelievers and disobedient of the old world, 1Pe 3:18-20. 2Pe 2:5 that his Spirit should not always strive, or plead with man; that is to say, after having exhorted these men in vain to repentance, after having laboured in vain in their hearts by the internal operations of his grace, he would use no more efforts to reclaim them, but would exercise his justice upon them.
Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years “That is,” says Mr. Locke, “their days, or time of trial for repentance, shall be so long, before I destroy the race.” This hath been often understood as referring to the general age of man; whereas it is evident, that it refers to that period of God’s waiting for the reformation of the world, while the ark was preparing. The Chaldee has it, a period of an hundred and twenty years shall be given them, wherein to repent.
It is here objected, that, on a comparison of Gen 5:32; Gen 7:11 this time is found to have been not a hundred and twenty, but only a hundred years. How then did God perform his promise? I answer, this promise, though mentioned after what we read in ch. Gen 5:32. was nevertheless made twenty years before it, for that verse is added there only to complete the genealogy; and therefore, after this narrative of the wickedness of the world, it is repeated here in its due order, in the 10th verse. Nor are such transpositions, says Poole, uncommon in scripture, without any diminution of its authority.
Observe here, the merciful respite, a hundred and twenty years! God never strikes without warning: but when his grace is rejected, his calls disregarded, his admonitions made light of: though he wait long, his time of patience ends; the sword is drawn, the sinner dies. Let us hear then, and fear, and do no more wickedly.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 12
STRIVINGS OF THE SPIRIT
Gen 6:3. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man.
MAN, at first, was created in the image of his God: but when he fell, he begat children in his own fallen image. His very first-born became a murderer. Some of his posterity, however, were pious: but they, not being careful to connect themselves with those who feared God, were drawn aside from religion by their ungodly wives, insomuch that, in eight or nine generations, all flesh had corrupted their way, and it repented God that he had made man [Note: Gen 6:6-7; Gen 6:12.]. In consequence of this, God determined to destroy the whole earth. But yet, being full of mercy, he would not proceed to this extremity without giving to man space for repentance. Accordingly, he commanded Noah to preach to them; and to declare, that in the space of 120 years the threatened judgments should be inflicted, if the people did not avert those judgments by their penitence. During that period his Holy Spirit should continue to strive with thembut no longer: for he should not always strive with man, who was now become altogether flesh, and carnal; and who, if he did not repent in the time allotted him, should be left to reap the bitter fruit of his own ways.
That this warning may have a salutary effect on us, I will endeavour to shew,
I.
That the Spirit of God, if long resisted, will cease to strive with us.
Certain it is, that the Spirit of God does strive with unregenerate men
[He strove with the whole antediluvian world, by the ministry of Noah: for by the Spirit did that holy man preach, during the whole period whilst the ark was preparing, even to the spirits which for their disobedience were condemned, and shut up in the prison reserved for all impenitent transgressors [Note: 1Pe 3:19-20.]. To the whole nation of Israel, also, did the Holy Spirit for ages testify, in and by his Prophets, notwithstanding they dealt proudly, and withdrew their shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear [Note: Neh 9:29-30.]. With us also does he strive, both by the ministry of his word, and by his own immediate agency on the hearts of men. For, what is conscience, but Gods vicegerent in the soul? By that, God speaks to us; warning, and inviting us from time to time, if by any means we may be induced to repent and turn unto him. Let any one only look back upon his past life; and he shall find that there have been some periods when he has felt a conviction upon his mind that it was his duty, and would be his happiness, to seek after God, and obtain, whilst yet he might, the remission of his sins.]
But we resist his sacred motions
[To whom amongst us may not those words of Stephen be applied, (if not in reference to the present moment, yet certainly in reference to some period of our lives,) Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so also do ye [Note: Act 7:51.]. We may not, indeed, have set ourselves in such hostility to the truth as they did; but have we been more practically obedient than they? Have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, calling us to repentance, and to a dedication of our whole selves to him? Alas! there has been the same stoutness of heart in us, as in persons of a more profane character; many of whom, perhaps, have said, I will not, but afterwards have repented, and went into their Lords vineyard; whilst we, perhaps, have said, I go, Sir, but have been as far from executing our acknowledged duty as ever [Note: Mat 21:28-30.].]
And will the Spirit always continue to strive with us?
[No: we are assured he will not. We know that his motions may be resisted, till they are altogether quenche [Note: 1Th 5:19.]. And in many instances has he been driven away by the obstinacy of those with whom he had striven. Of Saul we are told, that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul; and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him [Note: 1Sa 16:14.]. And it was not without reason that David prayed, Cast me not away from thy presence! and take not thy Holy Spirit from me [Note: Psa 51:11.] ! When God saw his ancient people incurably addicted to idolatry, He said, Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone [Note: Hos 4:17.]. And what else can we expect, if we continue obstinate in our sins? The doom of Israel must of necessity be ours. Of them it is said, They rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and fought against them [Note: Isa 63:10.]: and we verily can expect no other, than that He, whose solicitations we refused to follow, as a Friend, shall send forth his vindictive judgments against us, as an Enemy.]
Let me then proceed to shew,
II.
What is the state of a soul thus abandoned by the Lord.
Truly its condition is most pitiable. God has said, Woe unto them, when I depart from them [Note: Hos 9:12.]: and verily it will be a woeful day for any one of us, if God should ever abandon us to ourselves! for the deserted soul is from that moment given up, yes, and given up for ever,
1.
To delusion
[It is surprising what delusions an abandoned sinner will harbour in his heart: I shall have peace, though I walk in the imaginations of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst, and sin to sin [Note: Deu 29:19.]. Refuges of lies he shall have in plenty, to administer to his composure: There is no future state: death is but an eternal sleep: or, at all events, God is too merciful to inflict punishment in a future state: or, at any rate, the punishment cannot be eternal. As for the Holy Scriptures, perhaps they are only the writings of fallible men, like ourselves: or, at best, they are so highly figurative, that you cannot depend upon them. Thus men take refuge in infidelity, that so they may rid themselves of records, which, if credited, would be subversive of their peace. And to these delusions God will give them up; as he has said: They have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations: I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them [Note: Isa 66:3-4.]. In the New Testament, this judgment is yet more emphatically denounced: They (the Antichristian powers) received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, says St. Paul: and for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness [Note: 2Th 2:10-12.]. Oh, terrible judgment!and the more terrible, because they who are subjected to it have no conception that they are lying under it: but it will be the assured portion of all with whom the Spirit of God has ceased to strive.]
2.
To bondage
[To the power of their own lusts will they be given up, so that Satan shall lead them captive at his will. How awful is that declaration of Solomon, His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself; and he shall be holden with the cords of his own sins [Note: Pro 5:22.] ! Yet this must be the fate of all who constrain the Holy Spirit to depart from them. If men will despise and reject all the counsel of the Lord, they will assuredly be left to eat the fruit of their own ways, and be filled with their own devices. It was so with the Heathen, who liked not to retain God in their knowledge: he gave them over to a reprobate mind [Note: Rom 1:28.]. It was so, also, with the Israelites: My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me: so I gave them up unto their own hearts lust; and they walked in their own counsels [Note: Psa 81:11-12.]. What more common than to see this very judgment inflicted before our eyes? The infidel, the drunkard, the whoremonger, the thief, the covetous man, the profane swearer, what slaves do they become to their respective habits! These shew us the very truth that I am insisting on; and declare, with one voice, that the Ethiopian may as well change his skin or the leopard his spots, as they renounce the habits to which they have been given over by their God.]
3.
To obduracy
[Pharaoh, for his obstinacy, was given up to a state of hardness that is scarcely to be credited. And how many, in every age, when forsaken by the Lord, have had their consciences seared as with a hot iron, and become altogether past feeling [Note: Eph 4:19; 1Ti 4:2.] ! Behold the scoffer, who pours contempt on all religion, and, with daring impiety, cries, Where is the promise of Gods coming to judgment? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation [Note: 2Pe 3:4.]. If reproved for their impiety, they will in effect say, Who is Lord over us [Note: Psa 12:4.] ? We know not the Lord; neither will we obey his voice [Note: Exo 5:2.]. Even in death itself, they often evince the very same hardness, and shew how entirely they are given over by the Lord. Their friends around them are ready to say, They died like lambs:and so indeed they did, even like brute beasts that have no understanding, having no conception of the state which awaits them at their departure hence. A terrible judgment this is! and a certain prelude,]
4.
To ruin!
[There is a time wherein God may be found, by every living man: but that season may be passed; and a time arrive, when he will no more be found [Note: Isa 55:6.], and when all Gods offered mercies shall be for ever withheld. Such a period had actually arrived to the Jewish nation, when they crucified the Lord of glory. Our blessed Saviour, previous to his death, took up this lamentation over them: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them who are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate [Note: Mat 23:37-38.] ! Oh that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes [Note: Luk 19:42.]. Thus, it is to be feared, there may be, even amongst ourselves, some with whom God will strive no longer: they have so long trifled with the means of grace, and been unprofitable under all the culture that has been bestowed upon them, that they shall be henceforth left only to be gathered, in due season, as fuel for the fire [Note: Heb 6:7-8.]. What an awful thought, To be left only to fill up the measure of their iniquities, and to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath [Note: Rom 2:5.] ! Better were it for a man that he had never been born, than that ever he should live for such an end as that! But such is the state of the deserted soul: and at the appointed hour, wrath will come upon him to the uttermost.]
Address,
1.
Those who are yet withstanding the motions of the Holy Spirit
[Little do you think how greatly you offend your God, or what misery you are entailing on your own souls. But let me ask, Is there one amongst you that does not look back upon his past rebellion with regret? Is there one who is not persuaded in his mind, that he would have been a far happier man, if he had obeyed the voice of the Lord, and followed, instead of resisting, the dictates of his conscience? How long, then, will ye continue this rebellious course? Shall not the declaration in my text affect you? Shall not even the possibility of your day of grace having come to an end, appal you? Do but think how much you have at stake and how short is the time which you have to seek the things belonging to your peace. I pray you, Arise, ere it be too late, and cry unto your God, if God peradventure may give you repentance, and you may be recovered out of the snare of the devil, by whom you have been taken captive at his will [Note: 2Ti 2:25-26.] ! To-day, while it is called to-day, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness; lest you provoke God to swear, in his wrath, that you shall never enter into his rest [Note: Psa 95:7-11.].]
2.
Those who through grace have obeyed his blessed will
[Truly this is of the Lord, who alone has made you willing [Note: Psa 110:3.], and has thus caused you to differ from those around you [Note: l Cor. 4:7.]. Be thankful for this distinguishing grace; but remember that you still need his gracious influences as much as ever. There is not any part of the divine life that can be carried on within you but by the operation of the Holy Spirit. He must be within you a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and of might, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and must make you of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord [Note: Isa 11:2-3.]. Seek him, then, for all these gracious ends: and be careful that you do not grieve him, by any sinful disposition, or any secret neglect [Note: Eph 4:30.]. It is by him that you are to be sealed unto the day of redemption [Note: Eph 4:30.], and by him that you are to be rendered meet for your heavenly inheritance. To him, therefore, I commend you, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified [Note: Act 20:32.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
And the LORD 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.
An awful scripture! Read, in confirmation of it, Eze 16:42 , compare both with Hos 4:17 . and then remark, that when the Lord ceases to correct, destruction is at hand.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 6:3 And the LORD 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.
Ver. 3. My Spirit shall not always strive, ] that is, I’ll consult no longer, but resolve to ruin them, as some gloss it; or, I’ll pull the sword out of the sheath, the soul out of the body, as others gather out of the Hebrew word a here used. But they do best, in my mind, that sense it thus: My Spirit – whereby I hitherto “went and preached,” by Noah and other patriarchs, to those “spirits” (once in pleasure, now) “in prison,” Ecc 11:9 1Pe 3:18-19 but prevailed not – shall not always strive with perverse men by preaching, disputing, convincing, in the mouths of my servants, whom I have sent unto them; nor in their own minds and consciences, by inward checks and motions, which they have made no good use of. Delicata res est Spiritus Dei . Grieve it once, and you may drive it away for ever. It “bloweth where it listeth,” and will not be at your whistle.
For that he also is flesh.
Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
a Sunt qui deductum volunt a Nadan , Vagina.
b Ideo deteriores sumus, quia meliores esse debemus – . Salv.
spirit. Hebrew. ruach. See App-9.
strive = remain in, with Septuagint, Arabic, Syriac, and Vulgate; Occurs only here.
man: with article, as in verses: Gen 6:1 and Gen 6:2 = the man Adam, App-14.
he: emphatic, i.e. the man Adam.
also: i.e. the man Adam also, as well as the others. (Not “men”; if so, as well as what?)
is flesh. If taken as a verb, then it = “in their erring”. Hebrew. shagag. App-44. Adam had become like the others.
yet his days = yet Adam’s days. See App-24.
hundred and twenty years: this fixes the date A. M. 930-120-810. The B.C. date being 3194, as given.
My: Num 11:17, Neh 9:30, Isa 5:4, Isa 63:10, Jer 11:7, Jer 11:11, Act 7:51, Gal 5:16, Gal 5:17, 1Th 5:19, 1Pe 3:18-20, Jud 1:14, Jud 1:15
is: Psa 78:39, Joh 3:6, Rom 8:1-13, Gal 5:16-24, 1Pe 3:20
Reciprocal: Gen 6:4 – after Gen 7:4 – For Exo 4:21 – I will harden Deu 7:3 – General 2Ki 13:23 – presence Psa 51:11 – take Psa 81:12 – I gave Pro 1:28 – shall they Jer 44:22 – could Dan 4:29 – end Mat 16:4 – And he Eph 4:30 – grieve Heb 1:1 – at
Gen 6:3. My spirit shall not always strive with man The Spirit then strove by Noahs preaching, 1Pe 3:19, and by inward checks, but it was in vain with the most of men; therefore, saith God, he shall not always strive, for that he (man) also is flesh Incurably corrupt and sensual, so that it is labour lost to strive with him. He also; that is, all, one as well as another; they are all sunk into the mire of flesh. Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years So long will I defer the judgment they deserve, and give them space to prevent it by their repentance and reformation. Justice said, Cut them down; but mercy interceded: Lord, let them alone this year also; and so far mercy prevailed, that a reprieve was obtained for six-score years; and during this time Noah was preaching righteousness to them, and, to assure them of the truth of his doctrine, was preparing the ark.
6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always {d} strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an {e} hundred and twenty years.
(d) Because man could not by won by God’s leniency and patience by which he tried to win him, he would no longer withhold his vengeance.
(e) Which time span God gave man to repent before he would destroy the earth, 1Pe 3:20.
The "120 years" are evidently the years that God would give humankind before the flood. [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, 1:136.] They probably do not indicate a reduction in the normal human lifespan to 120 years. [Note: However Mathews, p. 335; Westermann, p. 376; Wenham, pp. 142, 146-47; et al. defended the shortening of life view.]
"The judgment is that God will not endlessly and forever permit his life-giving spirit to enliven those who disorder his world. The breath of life (Gen 2:7; Psa 104:29-30) remains his to give and to recall." [Note: Brueggemann, Genesis, p. 72.]
"The attempt by man to become more than he is results in his becoming less." [Note: L. Eslinger, "A Contextual Identification of the bene ha’elohim and benoth ha’adam in Genesis 6:1-4," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 13 (1979):72.]
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)