Now we get the next strange reference, namely to the Nephilim. There are several traditions amongst middle eastern peoples of an early race of giants, but archaeologists have found no hard evidence for their actual existence. The long and the short of it is that no one has a clue who they were. By the way, if you do a search in Google you will find all sorts of weird and wonderful explanations.
Verse 5 brings us back to more solid ground. God sees the wickedness of men’s hearts, and God regrets having made man. It also says His heart was deeply troubled. Now we do need to be careful with anthropomorphic description of God’s thoughts and emotions (i.e. expressing them in purely human terms), as there is bound to be a degree of approximation. However, verse 6 does sum up a lot of what the Bible is about. On the one hand justice demands that God condemn sinful men, on the other we are His creation and He loves us. Ultimately the cross was the answer to the dilemma.
So God decides to wipe out most of mankind and a lot of creation, except for Noah. The fate of creation is tied up with the moral state of man. This has relevance for environmental concerns. I believe we should manage resources wisely and with care, but the environment will only fully function as it should when we turn to God.
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