Shaking the Family Tree

PROGRESSIVE NARRATIVE SERMON OUTLINE

Date: August 22, 2021

Audience: Grass Valley Corps

Title: Shaking the Family Tree

Scripture: Genesis 5

Proposition: A Godly-life is centered on relationships

Purpose: Focus on your relationships

Introduction

Grace and peace!

-illustration When I was at the fair last week, I was very sad that I didn’t find the place they displayed people’s crafts. You know, stuff like scrapbooks and quilts and cross-stitch. I found the art barn and spent an hour or so looking at people’s photographs, but I also had hoped to see the textiles. I know that seems like a strange thing for me to be interested in, but my wife does some brilliant cross-stitch so I’m always interested in what other people manage to turn out.

Some of the pieces Bridget has created belong in galleries because they are so beautiful. There are some projects she has seen the patterns for and has immediately known she wants to make them for some certain person or family, and when they are done, they are always beautiful gifts which get displayed and appreciated by all who see them.

I can think of several special pieces she has done over the years, but there are two which stand out.

My Grandma Irene loved hummingbirds and fuchsias and Bridget made her this amazing picture of a hummingbird feeding from a fuchsia blossom using metallic threads in a way that made the bird look alive. It was framed and kept in a place of honor as a cherished treasure, and in later years Irene would introduce Bridget to visitors by saying, “This is my granddaughter – the one who made that beautiful picture of the hummingbird.”

The second one looks simpler but may actually have been more complicated to make. It was done as an anniversary gift for my other set of grandparents. It’s a family tree celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

By “complicated”, I don’t necessarily mean it was difficult to stitch, although the detail involved in making all those little letters perfectly is amazing to me. The hard part was the family tree itself because our branches don’t necessarily follow the normal family pattern.

Or perhaps it might be more accurate to say that our family tree follows a modern pattern: It looks more like a tangle of roots than nice symmetrical branches. We worked hard to include everyone in a smooth design and Bridget’s stitching and framing were amazing, as usual.

After my grandfather’s death, this was one of the few pieces that went with Grandma to her small apartment, and after her death it moved to my parents’ house where it stayed until they moved somewhere too small for it. And now it is back with us, one of the few pieces of her own work Bridget has been willing to hang up.

Family is important and understanding family connections can often help you understand a lot about the people involved, which is why people love family trees so much. We all know more about who we are when we know who we came from.

-proposition (principle/teaching of story) Today we are going to look at the family tree of the people we loosely call the family of God. I say loosely, because every individual gets to make their own choice about whether they accept their place in God’s family. Technically, we are all born into this particular tree, but not every person or branch will choose to thrive. As we read today, we’ll see sin eat away at this family until there is only one healthy branch left.

A Godly life is centered on a relationship with God, and there is often a vast difference between those who grow in their relationship with the LORD and those who don’t.

-purpose (application) That should encourage us all to focus on our relationships, both with God and with the other people around us.

-reference to text

Turn with me to Genesis 5, one of the most skipped over passages in scripture, but one that is important for us to know.

Before we start, I should take just a moment to talk about the book of Genesis. Here we’ve been studying it for a month, and I’ve only skimmed over its basics so far.

Genesis is the first book in the Bible, which is good, because it is the collected stories about the beginnings of things such as the universe, the earth, humankind, peoples relationships with God as Creator and Father, and the beginnings of sin and death in a world that had been created to reflect God’s grace and goodness.

The first eleven chapters are called the primeval narratives, stories about the time from creation to the flood. While the author is never identified in the text, Moses is traditionally said the be the writer of Genesis and the other four books that make up the Pentateuch – those first five books of what we call the Old Testament.

Genesis chapter 5 is the first of two extended genealogies in the primeval narratives. It follows the priestly line of descent from Adam through Noah, but it’s not a complete genealogy in the sense we use the word today. Now we think a comprehensive family tree needs to show the full family history of everyone. Back then, they used linear descriptions, which means they might skip one or more generations. They just put in enough details so you could see that one family becomes another family.

In this particular case, they gave just enough information to show that the Godly line leads from Adam, through Seth and Enoch, and on down to Noah. It shows us humankind from our birth in innocence to the shameful need for a cleansing flood to reset the damage we had wreaked in our self-centered disobedience.

The list in Genesis 5 emphasizes both the benefits of walking with God and the results of failing to.

This is part of Genesis you may never have heard someone preach about before. In fact, when people read this chapter, most only get a few lines in before they give up and turn to the next chapter. But I promise you, there is treasure in here for those of us who take the time to dig it out. I. 1st Part of Story

A. Narration

Genesis 5:1-2 This is the written account of the descendants of Adam. When God created human beings, he made them to be like himself. 2 He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them “human.” [1]

Or, if you would prefer, he named them people or humankind, all of which are equally valid translations If your translation says, “mankind,” grab a pen, cross it out, and write in “people” instead. That work is a little archaic and this is an inclusive passage.

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story)

One reason for ancient genealogies was to record important people in history. Another was to fill gaps. As the histories were passed on, they didn’t want to just jump from one thing to another, even if those things were far apart in time. Here in Genesis 5, among other things, we are filling in the gap between Adam and Noah. We are also reminded that in the beginning humankind was created in the image or likeness of God. What does that mean? We’ll talk about that in a moment.

C. Application

Before that, let me point out that this passage begins with a strong emphasis on relationships. It says it’s about Adam’s family line. It’s connecting how God created humans in his likeness, relating us to himself, so that everyone in the human family line has a Godly similarity. Let me explain.

My appearance and mannerisms have a similarity to those of my father and grandfather and my son’s appearance and mannerisms have a similarity to mine. Even as each of us is an individual, we share a certain look, a certain outlook, and a certain spirit.

Being created in God’s image or likeness is that. We share in some of God’s characteristics. For example, we all have a desire to create. How that is expressed varies, but it is there in every person. You may author poems or stories or paint paintings or work on cars or plant gardens or scrapbook or make up jokes or think of new and exciting ways to gross people out by putting things in your nose, but every one of us desires to create something beautiful which will somehow bless the lives of those around us.

This desire to create things of beauty is so much more than an animal instinct to procreate! It’s part of the drive and ability that God built into human beings. It is like his own creative drive which led to his making the world in the first place.

We are more than a collection of instincts and pre-programmed reactions and we are more than that because that’s what it means to be created in the likeness of God. And just like my likeness to my father grows more when I spend time with him, and my son’s likeness to me is more when he spends more time with me, so our likeness to God grows more as we spend more time with him.

A Godly life, one in which we grow in the likeness of God, is one centered on our relationship with him.

II. 2nd Part of Story

A. Narration

Let’s read on.

Genesis 5:3-5 3 When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son who was just like him—in his very image. He named his son Seth. 4 After the birth of Seth, Adam lived another 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Adam lived 930 years, and then he died. [2]

How many children did Adam have? We don’t know. And it wasn’t important to those who recorded this genealogy. They were just following the family line to fill in the gaps for us, remember. So, we’re told about Seth, who was considered to be a kind of replacement for Abel and who was the one who carried the family line because Cain had been banished. Cain’s branch stopped focusing on their relationship with God and even on their relationships with one another. But Seth was born in Adam’s own likeness. Adam was in the likeness of God and Seth was in the likeness of Adam. So, Seth was also in the likeness of God.

This was God’s intent in creation: That humankind should display the likeness of God. And we do, but at the same time, we don’t. Something is different. Because of the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that likeness was corrupted. So even though Adam is in the likeness of God, he is also not in the likeness of God. He is broken, twisted, and mortal.

What happened to Adam at the end of verse 5?

<He died!>

Why? Because of his sin. In this, even though we are all created in the likeness of God, we are all also created with a broken, twisted, and mortal existence because we are also created in the likeness of Adam. Because of sin, we too will die. That’s something that this genealogy makes clear! It is emphasized repeatedly.

Genesis 5:6-11 6 When Seth was 105 years old, he became the father of Enosh. 7 After the birth of Enosh, Seth lived another 807 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 8 Seth lived 912 years, and then he died.

9 When Enosh was 90 years old, he became the father of Kenan. 10 After the birth of Kenan, Enosh lived another 815 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 11 Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died. [3]

What happened to Seth in verse 8? <He died>

Something interesting happened during Enosh’s lifetime. Do you remember? We read about it in the last chapter…

Genesis 4:26 26 When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. At that time people first began to worship the Lord by name. [4]

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story) This is both a sad and a wonderful thing.

It’s sad, because the human race had lost that simple, innocent relationship with God that our first parents had in the Garden. When their relationship with God was broken by their choice to eat the fruit from the tree he warned them not to eat from, they ended up being cast out of the Garden. Their relationship with God became more distant, harder.

Have you ever noticed that as we become more interested in the things of the world, we spend less time with God and our relationship with him becomes less than it could be?

Hmm…

By the time of Enosh, there was no longer an easy relationship between humans and God. Oh, I’d say that a close and casual connection was still attainable then and that it’s still open to us now! But, like all relationships, it takes work. And people had, at least mostly, stopped doing that work. Because of what had been lost, the story of Enosh is sad.

But it’s wonderful too! At that time, in Enosh’s day, people began to call on the name of the LORD! Not all of them, but some realized what was missing and they began to work on rebuilding their relationship with God. Worship was born, and those who came to worship the LORD did so by calling on his name and praising him.

They recognized his presence, and his blessings, and they wanted to reclaim a relationship with him. They came together and called on the name of the LORD, just like Adam and Eve used to come together and walk with God in the cool of the day. Their life was centered on their relationship to God. The people of Enosh wanted that.

C. Application Wouldn’t it be great if we would all take some time each day and work on our relationship with God? Spending time in his Word, speaking to him about the things going on in our lives, walking with him in the cool of the day…

I guarantee that anyone who makes that time and does that work will see their relationship with God flourish!

III. 3rd Part of Story

A. Narration After 905 years, something happened to Enosh. What? <He died> Let’s see how his descendants fared.

Genesis 5:12-20 12 When Kenan was 70 years old, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 After the birth of Mahalalel, Kenan lived another 840 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 14 Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died.

15 When Mahalalel was 65 years old, he became the father of Jared. 16 After the birth of Jared, Mahalalel lived another 830 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 17 Mahalalel lived 895 years, and then he died.

18 When Jared was 162 years old, he became the father of Enoch. 19 After the birth of Enoch, Jared lived another 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 20 Jared lived 962 years, and then he died. [5]

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story) In the early 90s Time Magazine ran an article which said that people born in the year I was would live 425 years after medical breakthrough at the end of the century, and that anyone born after 1990 could expect a lifespan of at least 2,000 years. While most people discounted the issue as junk science, I have taken its promises to heart and fully expect to survive well into the 23rd or 24th Century. But what’s a mere 425 years in a list like this? These guys, even though they do die, all live a really, REALLY long time.

When people read this section, they usually hit those ages, throw up their hands, and decide to ignore them; or they figure that there’s some kind of a typo in the Bible; or assume that the whole thing is a myth, made up out of whole cloth. They may even find themselves questioning the rest of the Biblical account.

Well, fear not! There are several possible explanations, two of which are likely candidates for what is going on here, and one of those is almost certainly the truth.

The Sumerians created some of the oldest written records we’ve discovered. Their writings ALSO talk about humans with long lives. In fact, they said their kings had lived as long as 43,200 years. That seems like a long time, but the trick there is that they used a different math system – the sexagesimal system. It uses a base-sixty math system as opposed to our base ten system.

That’s one likely explanation: People at the time simply used a different kind of math that brought us to these higher numbers.

But once you adjust the Sumerian ages from their base-sixty math to the base-ten math used in our scriptures, those rulers are all suddenly credited with living about the same number of years as these guys on our genealogy: into their 900s. Which leads to the second and most likely explanation for these ages: That’s just how long people lived then.

In the Biblical record we don’t see lives really getting any shorter until after the days of Noah and the Flood. From a genetic standpoint, a cataclysmic flood would stir up a lot of junk and send it up into the air all at once. That sort of thing tends to hasten genetic degradations and introduce mutations which would shorten life spans.

C. Application

Which brings us to a good rule for Biblical interpretation: When in doubt, go with what it says.

It’s probably clear to you by now that I’m not a believer in blind faith. I think God wants us to test everything and see what is and isn’t true. And with the Bible, the 80 percent of it we can test through archaeological records and finds and through outside histories and by living out its teachings all proves to be true.

If you had a friend and for some reason you decided you needed to check out everything that friend said or did to establish what was true or not, and you could absolutely verify that 80% of everything was absolutely true, and you just couldn’t check the other 20%, would you trust that friend or not?

You’d trust them! It should be the same with the Bible. I’m not preaching that it’s an infallible book or that every word was carefully scripted by the LORD God himself – you can make up your own mind about what you believe. What I am saying is that everything anyone can verify out of this book has turned out to be true. People who have nit-picked at things that couldn’t be proven at the time have always ended up looking foolish when some new discovery or record is found, because the scriptures have always been upheld to be correct.

I guess what I’m saying is that I can’t prove or disprove that Jared lived 962 years, but I have no reason to disbelieve it other than the fact we don’t live that long now. The absence of evidence isn’t evidence one way or the other though.

In my relationship with God, I have come to realize that there are things I am just not going to understand. There are things he isn’t going to tell me – at least not now. My understanding isn’t needed, and everything I do understand tells me that I can trust in the LORD. So I do.

IV. 4th Part of Story

A. Narration

Moving on…

Genesis 5:21-24 21 When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived in close fellowship with God for another 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 23 Enoch lived 365 years, 24 walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared, because God took him. [6]

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story)

In the middle of this field of death, there is a surprise: Enoch walked with God and he did NOT die.

One can find life if one walks with God.

There is a way back into the Garden.

There is a way to leave death behind and embrace life instead! Walk with God. Reclaim the relationship we were created to have. Reclaim the life you were made to live. Walk with God.

This is a theme which scripture returns to again and again:

In the next chapter we will hear that Noah, too, walked with God.

When God established his covenant with Abraham, he told him, “Walk before me and be blameless.”

Moses tells the Israelites at the end of Deuteronomy, “Love the LORD your God, walk in his ways, and keep his commands.”

The authors of the Expositor’s Bible Commentary say that it is important to see that "walking with God" could not have meant keeping of a set of laws. These people who didn’t have had a set of "laws" are said to be "walking with God." The scripture shows there is a better way to live than legalistic adherence to a set rules. Instead, life is exemplified best in men like Enoch, who walked with God, Noah, who walked with God, and Abraham, who believed the Lord, and it was credited it to him by God as righteousness.

C. Application

What we see is that a Godly life is centered on our relationship with God and not anything else.

V. 5th Part of Story

A. Narration

Let’s conclude out time with two short passages that close this chapter.

Genesis 5:25-27 25 When Methuselah was 187 years old, he became the father of Lamech. 26 After the birth of Lamech, Methuselah lived another 782 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 27 Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died. [7]

Methuselah is the person with the longest recorded lifespan. And despite the example of his father, Enoch, he chose to walk with the world instead of walking with God.

Why do I say that? When you do the math, he died when God sent a great flood on the earth to wash away the evil which had grown to overtake it. When we get to Genesis 6, we will read that all the people of the earth at that time were corrupt, and that applies to those descended from Seth as well as those descended from Cain.

Genesis 5:28-32

28 When Lamech was 182 years old, he became the father of a son. 29 Lamech named his son Noah, for he said, “May he bring us relief from our work and the painful labor of farming this ground that the Lord has cursed.” 30 After the birth of Noah, Lamech lived another 595 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 31 Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died.

32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. [8]

B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story) The name Noah comes from the Hebrew word noach (know-ack) which means “rest” or “serenity”. His father, Lamech, wanted a break from farming land that he said God had cursed. He thought Noah would bring comfort. In a way, Noah did bring salvation, by the grace of God, but it wasn’t at all what Lamech would have expected or hoped for.

C. Application Conclusion

-reference to proposition (principle)

We are left at the end of this genealogy with the knowledge that death is the result of sin, but that true life is available to those who walk with God. A Godly life is centered on our relationship with the LORD.

-reference to purpose (application)

Knowing what we know, we should focus on building that relationship.

-altar call

If you believe yourself to be walking with God as completely as you can, bless you. The rest of us may have some work to do. I know I do.

Will you make time to work on what it means for you to walk with God? I can give you one simple thing to do which will help you strengthen your relationship with God. One simple thing which can change your life forever, if you let it, if you do it, if you trust yourself to God in this.

Here it is. It may sound obvious, but for most of us it is something we think about but don’t do:

We need to spend time with God. I don’t mean coming to church! It’s great to see you and I think we all need to be here, but this is more of a training session when what you really need is hands-on practice.

I want you to do this: Set a time every day when you will give God 15 minutes. 15 minutes where you aren’t reading some other book, working through a devotional lesson, or doing something else that is about you.

I get caught in that all the time: I set aside time for God but spend that time doing something that I think will benefit me.

Instead, I want us to empty 15 minutes of our lives each day for the next six days. During that 15 minutes, walk with God.

Actually walk. Seven minutes out and seven minutes back while you work on being open to sharing with God. That may mean telling him what’s weighing on your heart and it may mean just listening to the wind rustling through the branches while you hope to catch some rumble of God’s voice. Take a walk with God.

Then use that last minute to pray and thank him for walking with you in the cool of your day. Don’t pray to ask for stuff or for healing for your Aunt Martha or for anything else. Just thank the LORD for spending 15 minutes with you. The Creator of the entire universe will just have taken 15 minutes of his valuable time and spent them with you. If that’s not amazing, I don’t know what is.

Are you willing to try that?

Are you?

If you will take that on – 15 minutes each day for the next six days – let me ask you to stand up or raise your hand. Think of it as your pledge. If you’re willing to take this on, the rest of us should help you and the rest of you should help me – I’m standing, after all! When you see someone this week, just ask, “How’s your walk?” and we’ll all help remind one another to deepen our relationship with our God.

Close in prayer.

[1]Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ge 5:1–2). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers. [2]Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ge 5:3–5). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers. [3]Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ge 5:6–11). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers. [4]Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ge 4:26). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers. [5]Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ge 5:12–20). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers. [6]Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ge 5:21–24). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers. [7]Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ge 5:25–27). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers. [8]Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ge 5:28–32). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.