We are continuing the study of the Seven Dispensations of Man. As a reminder, dispensations are time periods that show the evolution of the relationship between God and man from creation to the end of this world. The focus is on the second dispensation, the Dispensation of Conscience. Each dispensation focuses on a particular people, a falling away from God, a judgment, and a promise.

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The Dispensation of Conscience

Time Period: From the Fall of Adam to The Flood (?? – 2349 BC).

Bible Books Covered: Genesis 4-7

People Focus: Descendants of Adam and Eve

God-Man Relationship: Man is estranged from God

Highlighted Events

• Right and Wrong Offerings

Genesis 4:1-7 (KJV)

¹ And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

² And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

³ And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.

⁴ And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

⁵ But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

⁶ And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?

⁷ If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

At some point Cain and Abel were instructed to give an offering to God from the sustenance God had given them. The fact that God said “If you refuse to do what is right” indicates Cain knew what was right. Cain and Abel inherited the knowledge of good and evil and just like Adam and Eve they were given a choice of doing good or evil. Will they give an offering as instructed or will they choose to do something different?

Why did God not accept Cain’s offering?

View #1

The reason God did not accept Cain’s offering was that it did not contain blood.

The Logic

It was thought that the offering to God was a “sin” offering. Sin offerings require a blood offering. Meaning an animal must be sacrificed. In Genesis chapter 3 an animal was sacrificed to “cover” Adam’s and Eve’s sin.

Genesis 3:21

²¹ The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

The New Testament supports sin is purged with blood.

Hebrews 9:22   

²²And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission [of sin].

Therefore, since Cain did not offer a blood sacrifice God did not accept his offering.

Arguments Against View #1

Hebrews 9:22 says “… almost all things are by the law purged with blood…”  Further digging shows that God accepted bloodless offerings as sin offerings.

Leviticus 5:11-12 (KJV)

¹¹ “‘If, however, they cannot afford two doves or two young pigeons, they are to bring as an offering for their sin a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour for a sin offering. They must not put olive oil or incense on it, because it is a sin offering. 

¹² They are to bring it to the priest, who shall take a handful of it as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar on top of the food offerings presented to the Lord. It is a sin offering. 

The same is stated in Leviticus 6:15-17.

These scriptures prove God established bloodless sin offerings as well. Therefore this could not have been the reason God was unhappy with Cain’s offering.

Not a Sin Offering

This begs to question if it actually was a sin offering they had prepared for God.  The Hebrew word minkhah is translated “offering” in Genesis chapter 4. It typically is an offering for tribute, thanksgiving, and reverence. This kind of offering was meant to be an expression of gratitude to God and could be satisfied with vegetables or animal. This again supports a bloodless offering is not the reason God was unhappy with Cain’s offering.

View #2

The reason God rejected Cain’s offering was because it was not given in faith.

Hebrews 11:4 NIV

⁴ By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead

If there was something about Abel’s offering that showed his faith, then we can say there was something about Cain’s offering that showed a lack of faith.

Let’s look at the scripture again.

Genesis 4:3-4

³ When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. 

⁴ Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, 

By faith Abel offered 1) the best offering he had and 2) his first fruits. Who chooses to give their first and best away? Not many people. Bottom-line, he had an attitude of faith toward giving.

What did Cain give? He gave “some” of his vegetables. From the writing, that could have been anything, in any condition. Perhaps he wanted to keep the best for himself not trusting that God could give him better than what he already had. That was the difference between the offerings, the attitude of giving in faith. We see this attitude exemplified in the New Testament with the widow and her few coins (Mark 12:41-44).

To summarize, Cain’s offering wasn’t rejected because it wasn’t a blood sacrifice. It wasn’t a sin offering! Cain’s gift was rejected because 1) it wasn’t heartfelt and, 2) he didn’t trust God enough to give Him his first and best.

How does the contrast in Cain’s and Abel’s offerings apply to you today, with respect to your offerings to God (your money, time and body/temple)?

The story of Ananias and Sapphira is a New Testament example of giving from the head and not the heart (Acts 5:1-10).

When we give our offerings to God it tests 1) our obedience, 2) the quality of our offering (first and best) and, 3) our faith.

• Cain kills Abel

• Seth’s bloodline replaces Abel

Seth—Noah–Abraham–Isaac—Jacob–Judah—David—Jesus

• Lifespan which ranges in hundreds of years reduced to 120 years (3 generations)

• Wickedness flourishes

Sons of God and Daughters of Men

It is implied that the union of these two entities propagated the evil rampant in that time.

Who are they?

Let’s go to the scripture.

Genesis 6:1-4 NIV

¹ When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 

² the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 

³ Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal^[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

⁴ The Nephilim [giants] were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

Who were the sons of God and the daughters of men?

There are two points of view, both of which are discussed.

View #1

The Sons of God were angels, and the daughters of men were just that, daughters of men.

Discussion

This view purports that fallen angels came down and married women thus procreating giants. The children of this union were evil and helped to accelerate God’s judgment, The Flood.

Yes, we can find that angels have been referred to as sons of God (Job 38:7). But can angels have sexual relations?

In Matthew chapter 22 Jesus answers the question of if a man marries multiple times, who will be his wife in heaven.  He responds in verse 30 saying that man “would be as the angels who neither marry or are given in marriage.” Bottom-line, angels don’t marry or engage in sexual activity as married couples do.

Kind After Kind

God in Genesis created living creature to be fruitful and multiply within their kind, meaning within their species. They were created conveniently physiologically to do so.

Genesis 1:21-22 NIV

²¹ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 

²² God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”

Angels and humans have different types of bodies. They are not the same kind. Man is a terrestrial body (of the earth), the angel a celestial body (of the heavenlies). The angels drawn by Michelangelo and others are NOT the angels of the Bible.

1 Corinthians 15:39-40 KJV

³⁹ All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

⁴⁰ There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

You may come back with,

“But what about the angels that who were with Abraham on their way to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter 18? They looked like men and were able to eat. Isn’t this proof they can adopt to human anatomy and functions?”

Although the angels looked like men and did eat, God made it possible for them to, possibly to minimize their naturally frightful appearance to men. Other than for accomplishment of God’s will, there is no mention of angels eating as a matter of routine survival.

In addition, angels travel the galaxies; there is no oxygen in known space. Therefore, angels don’t require oxygen to live. So, doesn’t that mean their internal configuration is different than humans? Considering the physiological differences, 1) is mating even possible and if it was, 2) what would the construct or survivability of an offspring be between an angel and an earthly woman?

If God miraculously made it possible for the angels to eat food then God would have to do the same for them to engage in sex because they were not made with that equipment! God would have had to facilitate sin and that’s not happening!

Some supporters of this thought may call out Jude 6-7,

⁶ And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 

⁷ In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

Some may assume the angels were guilty of the same sin, sexual immorality. No specific sin is mentioned of the angels other than leaving their original place of assignment.

The explicit similarities are that they both sinned and will spend an eternity in hell. Other than that, no hard lines can be drawn to angels committing sexual sins. And again you would have to ignore Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20:34-36 that say angels are not given in marriage meaning they don’t engage in sexual relations. 

View #2

The Sons of God were descendants of Seth, and the daughters of men were women from Cain’s descendants.

Discussion

The Sons of God are descendants of Seth who called on the name of the Lord.

Genesis 4:26 KJV

²⁶ And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.

This scripture shows that Seth’s descendants were inclined to serve God.

Who were the daughters of men?

The daughters of men are descendants of Cain. Those that were estranged from God.

Genesis 4:16 KJV

And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

Cain “went out from the presence of the Lord”  indicates that Cain and his descendants separated themselves from God.

Although Seth’s descendants called on the name of the Lord, they did not remain faithful. They began to lust after Cain’s daughters.

What made Cain’s daughters so attractive to Seth’s male descendants?

The Cainites were distinguished in their own rights. They were master craftsmen with of iron and brass.  Many were skilled in music and song (Genesis 4:16-22). Their daughters were jeweled enchantresses groomed in the allurement of the arts.

The descendants of Seth, falling prey to “greener pastures”, took them as wives. Guided by their fancies and lusts, they chose them without any regard to their sobriety or religious practices. The women, religious themselves, exerted pagan influences that led the people into great sin so much so that God regretted that He made man (Genesis 6:5-6).

Giants

If the giants in Genesis 6:4 were not the result of the union between the angels and women, where did they come from?

Genesis 6:4 KJV

 ⁴ There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

It has already been scripturally proven angels cannot procreate. So, can a common man and woman produce a giant?

Yes, there are giants in the world today procreated by common men and women.

 Physiologically, there is genetic potential for optimum height which is 80% dependent on genetic DNA and the remaining 20% on environmental factors such as health and nutrition. Ancient environments were more conducive to produce “giants” because the climate was absent of the poisons industry has afforded our environment today.

For example, when Hebrew spies went into Canaan, they reported giants living in a land “flowing with milk and honey”. This idiom simply means the land is rich and bountiful. Two men sent to spy out the land returned with one cluster of grapes so huge they had to strap it on a pole they carried between them (Numbers 13). A robust environment speaks to breeding robust people.

The Relationship Spoiler:

Unbridled wickedness in two stages.

1. The descendants of Seth pushed away from the things of God.
2. The descendants of Seth embraced pagan unions and practices.

The Judgement:

The Great Flood

Genesis 6:5-7 NIV

⁵ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 

⁶ The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 

⁷ So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

The Flood Facts

• Noah took 120 years to build the ark and was 600 years old when he entered.
• Comparatively the ark was approximately 1 and ½ football fields in length, ½ football field wide and 10 stories high.
• Only eight people were saved.
• One pair of unclean animals and seven pairs of clean animals entered the ark over a period of 7 days.
• Rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights. Forty is the number of judgement/trial/ testing.
• The flood waters stayed 150 days (5 months}
• The ark settled on Mount Ararat in modern-day eastern Turkey.

Summary:

Now living on their own without the day-to-day companionship and guidance from God, man lives by his conscience. What each man thinks is right is right and what he thinks is wrong is wrong. Without God evil rages ultimately resulting in the destruction of mankind with the exception of eight people,

Next Dispensation:

The Dispensation of Human Government

References

New English Translation Bible

Important Factors That Can Influence Height Growth (heightlengthening.com)   Rerieved 6/8/23

Genesis 6:2 Commentaries: that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. (biblehub.com)

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Matthew Poole’s Commentary

Featured Image: Popmelom “Mindful”