Theoddity

The current format of this site is going away soon. The below posts will be stored on the new blog roll but this whole idea, which I thought I could keep up, got kinda, oh, I don’t know, stale for me. So I’m moving on to make something else that I enjoy a bit more and throw these types of posts in from time to time as I feel like it. So for anyone who actually linked to this site, so sorry, be back soon.

Strictly from our traditional Bible there’s no way of learning much more about the incident in Genesis than what we have here, a cryptic note about, more than likely, fallen angels getting their game on with some hotties. But, there is another source we can look to for answers. The complete story is found in The Book of Enoch. 

Who is Enoch? Back up in Genesis by a chapter and we’ll find a guy so close to God that God took him to heaven early without dying. The next time we see mention of him the author of Hebrews mentions that he was caught up to heaven by faith (Hebrews 11:5). Then we see that the author of Jude quotes Enoch (Jude 1:14 - 15)! How could the author of Jude quote Enoch? Because the book of Enoch was consider scripture to the early church. Some scholars also believe that Jesus quoted Enoch in Matthew 22:29-30 when he spoke about angels not giving and taking in marriage. What I find interesting is that Jesus says, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.” What other scripture, in our current Bible, is there anything to do about angels and marriage? None that I can find.

So what does Enoch have to say about Genesis 6? It’s one of the scariest and in-depth look at angels I’ve ever read. And if it is accurate it opens the doors to a world that even Frank Peretti would have a hard time comprehending. 

Apparently, some of the fallen angels, led by one named Semjaza, do take women and have children with them. Then as God prepares to punish them, they go to Enoch, knowing that Enoch has the ear of the Lord, to ask him to beseech the Lord on their behalf. Can you imagine a demon coming to you for help? Weird!

So, of course, that doesn’t fly. The Semjaza is punished to be imprisoned under a large stone for 10,000 years. Odd isn’t it? And this is where I back peddle to the alien bit. How long has passed from this story? How old are the earliest stories in the Bible? 6,000 - 15,000 years old is about the agreed timeframe. Maybe, just 10,000 years. Maybe Semjaza has served his sentence and is back to his old tricks in the guise of extra-terrestrial life? 

Far fetched? Probably. But hey, I didn’t call this blog Theoddity for nothing.

From time to time I run into someone who asks me how I reconcile alien abduction with God, the Bible and everything. I usually point them to the HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy and go on my merry way. *snicker-snicker* But really, is there a Biblical explanation for alien abductions? Dare I try to find something at least similar to alien abduction in the Good Book? Double-dog dare me!? Fine, the gauntlet’s been thrown, here I go.

To find something similar to alien abductions in the Bible let’s first focus on what the alien abduction is, or claims it is. Let’s define it loosely as a human being physically taken, willingly or unwillingly, by beings unknown to ourselves for purposes beyond our knowing. Easy. 

But what goes on when someone is taken? The most common characteristic of the alien abduction is the medical/sexual exam. This often includes and focuses on reproductive organs and can include sex. eewww.

So, can I find somewhere in the Bible that describes something similar to this? Unfortunately, yes. Some of you know where I’m headed, that’s right, Genesis 6:1 - 4, that tiny little passage that makes us scratch our head like the end of a LOST episode. Here’s the script that really intrigues us, verse 4:

⁴ There were giants 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.

So many questions spring to mind—but the first one we need to tackle is this: Who are the ’sons of God?’ If we check out some more script we find this term used in Job:

^1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.

 ^2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.

^38:7 When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

I’d argue that it’s clear from these verses that the ’sons of God’ are angels. What are angels doing having sex and making babies? Now, it goes without saying, that the sons of God we’re talking about in Genesis 6 are fallen angels. But I’ll leave that for next week when I delve deeper into the issue in Jude and the mind-blowing book of Enoch. Stay tuned!

Last week I passed a threshold of fatherhood that I didn’t realize was there. It was like an initiation going from brand-new-wet-behind-the-ears fatherhood to oh-God-oh-God-I-am-someone’s-FATHER fatherhood. 

It started with wrestling and deep tummy laughter as Kai, Ivy and I brawled our way from room to room, the girls armed with pillows and myself armed with “The Chin.” My weapon of choice is perfect for digging between ribs and shoulder blades extracting shrieks of breathless laughter. I like my little friend, my little friend “The Chin.”

It was in the middle of this cacophony that Kai screamed she was bleeding. As we paused I saw on her lip blood and then she wiggled her font tooth. And it seemed to me that it would wiggle straight from the gums into her palm. And then the other wiggled. I nearly crapped myself. It’s too early for her to lose her baby teeth!

Apparently not, because a few days later I was sitting in front of her looping thread between thread scouring my mind to remember how my dad tied the knot he used to pull my teeth. That’s when it hit me, my baby isn’t a baby, she’s a kid and more importantly, she’s going to remember this and she’s going to remember what her dad did for her first teeth and she’s actually like, a person-person. Not just a baby person but a person with opinions, and memories and more opinions. Crap, that makes me a dad-dad, not just a baby’s-dad but a dad-dad that has to walk his daughter down a wedding isle someday, and scare her first boyfriend dad-dad. 

When did this happen!? When did I become a dad-dad—then Kai’s tooth went flying through the air and tick-tacked itself to a stop on the hardwood floor. Just like that it was pulled out of her mouth and lay still. Just like that she had gone from baby to kid and she could go as easily from kid to…teen…to adult?

How swiftly the string of time pulls us from infant to adult. If I’m not careful it could I could miss it like a pulled tooth sailing through the air. I’m a dad-dad. I need to slow down enjoy my kid-kids before they’re gone-gone.

Sometimes while I’m reading the Bible I come across an odd tidbit that goes just beyond my understanding. They’re insights into a world we know very little about and what we do know are glimpses of something so much bigger. These small passages often stop me in my tracks and set me to day dreaming of the possibilities. This is one of those scriptures. It comes just after Jesus has cast a demon out of a mute person and defends himself against some who thought he was using the power of Beelzebub [Luke 11:19]

24 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’

Jesus goes on to say that the unclean spirit brings with him seven more who are worse then himself in verse 25 but it’s verse 24 that really smashes me in the brain pan. Do you see it? A demon, coming out of a man, goes through dry places … where in world is that? 

Really, what does this mean? We always think of the Hollywood version of where demons hang out, they’re in hell chillin’ in fire and brimstone or they’re inspiring cults to give them sacrifices. Whatever. Jesus says they’re passing through dry places seeking rest and finding none. It’s like they’re roaming through a desert without a canteen. So they return to a body? And it feels good to them? 

Do you see where I’m going with this? From this small phrase that Jesus drops we begin to wonder just how much fallen angels are fascinated by humans that they take comfort or pleasure in being in our bodies and how miserable their plane of existence is without us—outside our bodies they seek comfort and find none. It also makes me wonder what other “place’s” lay beside us and all around us that we just can’t see.

And I wonder, these fallen angels, separated from God live in unrest and the only place they seem to find pleasure is by inhabiting man, who was made in God’s image. How strange. What more must we be then we see in ourselves?