Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:1-8)

We can make God unhappy. By the time of Noah, God regretted the creation of human beings. So he resolved to destroy them for their wickedness. What was their wickedness? Not loving God and not loving other people is the best way to summarize it. But then God noticed Noah, and he discovered that he really liked Noah. So instead of wiping out all of humanity—he just wiped out most of it.

Questions regarding the identity of the “daughters of men” and the “sons of God” has resulted in a lot of discussion. Some have imagined angels marrying women and having children. Instead, Jesus commented that at the end of the world, when he returned, it would be like Noah’s time: life would be going along normally, with people marrying and giving in marriage, when destruction suddenly struck them. The “daughters of men” therefore are just human women and the “sons of God” are just human men. Luke’s genealogy, after all, pointed out that Adam was the son of God (Luke 3:37). “Nephelim” were giants. It’s the same Hebrew word that will later be used in the Bible to describe Goliath, the Philistine warrior slain by David.

God is not without feelings. He is not just a force. He feels as strongly as we do, we who have been created in his image. What we feel is what God feels. And our pain becomes his pain.

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