A Life Line of Hope

Casket Empty   •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  26:57
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So far in our journey, in our series Casket Empty - we’ve been seeing how our God, the Creator God, the LORD God, who is named Yahweh Elohim - is a God who pursues man despite the fumblings, errors, and total disobedience. We saw it in the Garden after the original sin - God came walking in the garden and called out for Adam, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9.
Genesis 3:9 ESV
But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
We saw it later after Cain killed his brother Abel. In Genesis 4:9 the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?”
Genesis 4:9 ESV
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”
Not only have we witnessed this God to not be a God of absolute wrath as God is often depicted by some, but we have discovered God to be a God of grace - again the “Where are you?” question. But more than that.
God makes the original animal sacrifice for their sins - sacrificing something he’d just referred to as “Good!”
Genesis 3:21 ESV
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
The removing of Adam and Eve from the garden (a consequence or their sin) was also an action of grace. They would not be condemned to live eternally in their sin.
Genesis 3:22 ESV
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”
And as we go out of the garden, Adam and Eve begin to have children. The first is Cain, and then Abel. But it is not to quick before we see how sin has changed things in the world. After Cain and Abel bring offerings to God, Cain is upset because God looks with favor on Abel’s offering. Jealousy has raised its evil head, and the result is Can kills Abel.
Genesis 4:8 ESV
Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Again, we see God’s mercy and grace. God could have easily destroyed Cain, but instead he puts his mark on him to protect him.
Genesis 4:15 ESV
Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
Sadly, Cain chooses to move away from the Lord:
Genesis 4:16 ESV
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
There he settles with his wife and begins having children. And we see there that Cain’s descendents work breeding animals, music, and metal work. All of which are cultural and technological developments.
But we also see the corruption of Cain’s line continue. Lamech - 7th generation from Adam - and he takes not just one wife, but two, so polygamy enters the picture ignoring the principle of monogamy endorsed in chapter 2:23-24. But more than that he brags about killing a man simply for wounding him - a disproportional response. And then he boasts of how disproportional he sees his right for vengeance:
Genesis 4:24 ESV
If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”
This is the corruption that we see taking place in humankind.
But - as we said last week there is hope.
Genesis 4:25 ESV
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
This points to something different happening, and then we read the line continues:
Genesis 4:26 ESV
To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Now we’re going to pick up the pace and move pretty quick through the next several chapters:
In chapter 5, we begin with a genealogy beginning with Adam. It is worth noting that this genealogy takes us through the Seth, not Cain, and not Abel.
And it is also worth noting that we see a new phrase we haven’t seen before in our Scriptures, “and he died.”
Genesis 5:5 ESV
Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
We will see this repeated over and over again throughout chapter 5 all the way through verse 31, with one very notable exception. When it came to Enoch son of Jared - I use that reference to distinguish him from Cain’s son Enoch. It is important that we track the descendants and who they are descending from. This is Enoch who is in the line of Seth the one in whom we see there was hope.
It says of Enoch,
Genesis 5:22 ESV
Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
And in verse 24
Genesis 5:24 ESV
Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
There is no, “And he died.”
And we finally get to a man named Noah the son of Lamech (again not of Cain’s line, but of Seth’s).
It is interesting that the genealogy is interrupted her for clarification on the meaning of Noah’s name
Genesis 5:29 ESV
and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.”
It’s important to notice the last part of that statement. “This one shall bring us relief”, Noah is a salvific figure at this point.
The Lord limits man’s lifespan - chapter 6, verse 3.
In fact if you look at verse 9, you will recognize the phrase: “walked with God” - the same statement used in reference to Enoch who God took up. In a way we will see God take up Noah - and not Noah alone, but his whole family and lift him out of the mire that has become humankind’s condition.
Genesis 6:9 ESV
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
This was in contrast to the world at the time.
And note the judgment of verse 5
Genesis 6:5 ESV
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And the result of humankind’s errant ways impacted the entirety of creation:
Genesis 6:12 ESV
And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
But God is a God of grace - and he makes a covenant with Noah - which he tells us of in Chapter 6, but is not completed until chapter 9.
Genesis 6:18 ESV
But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
God is promising to save.
And we see God Continue to put his mark of blessing on people.
This covenant is further explained in chapter 9 of Genesis where we read of Noah coming out of the ark.
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