PRESERVING LIFE IN THE DARK VALLEYS


A Sermon On:

GENESIS 5.1 - 6.4



PREPARED BY

KEN GEHRELS

PASTOR

CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

NEPEAN, ONTARIO



It seemed like a simple job. After all, only a toaster. So, rather than spend the money on a repairman, he thought he'd do it himself. No problem.... till he snapped the tip on his first screwdriver trying to pry a part loose..... and till he just about decapitated his wife when a heating element, spring mounted sort, whizzed across the kitchen. In his hurry to apologize, he tripped. And the best of tool time became real life. Parts everywhere. He sprawled across the floor. She headed to Zellers for a new toaster.

Have you had those sorts of moments? You know, the sort where you figure you can sort a small problem out, but the more you try, the deeper in you sink. Maybe with repair. Maybe with trying to explain something embarrassing you've said. Maybe something on the job. But something.
And what looked maybe sort of bad at the beginning, becomes a rather major problem. So you become more desperate. And it still gets worse. And worse. Then maybe a moment comes where it seems as though there's hope. But no sooner does that show up then -- whoomp -- it disappears again.

Now if it's a toaster, no big deal. But if we're talking about the state of your marriage, or your employment, or your health, or -- well, you think of the situation. But sometimes the stakes are incredibly high and the sense of doom that settles over a person can be overwhelming.

If you can feel that kind of dynamic, perhaps you've been there, or maybe in some way - big or small - you're there now if that's you, then you'll be able to relate with the sense that is evoked from the chapter we're about to read from the bible.
In the last two weeks we've been working our way through Genesis. We're focusing on sections that begin with "This is the written account of...." As I mentioned last week, it's a phrase used 10X in Genesis and means: "This is the story of what becomes of......". Today we'll read the "written account of Adam's line" or "The story of what becomes of Adam's descendants."
It's a story that begins in the light, descends into darkness, has a momentary glimpse where it looks like things will get better, plunges back into deeper darkness, leaving the reader who understands what's happening filled with growing despair, wondering if there can be any hope for those who count Adam as their forefather.
Let's read it together and then meditate on the passage:
Genesis 5.1 - 6.8

Our account begins with some honest goodness: v.1,2.
Humanity is made in the likeness of God - like God, imagine.
And blessed by Him.

That likeness, that image, that taking after God continues down from Adam. We read of a son he has - Seth. And then, then, then after a time Adam dies. And there is the first sign of trouble. Death. Something not created by God. Not blessed by Him. Not something in the heavenly image. Death is foreign. An intruder. It is creation gone wrong. The darkness of sin's curse has settled clearly on the earth.
We are faced with the echoes of God's words to Adam in ch.3, "In the day that you eat from the tree I tell you to not eat from, in that day you shall die." Die -- when life ends.
In one awful way it ended for Adam on that very first day, the day that he and his wife rebelled and figured they knew better than God. Life ended because right then and there humanity was separated from the God in whose likeness they were made. They were chased out of paradise. And that was the end.
Oh, life went on, but at best it was a limping along.
There was a continuity - by God's grace not everything came to a thundering, crashing halt that fateful day. And if there's any good news in ch.5, that's it.
And so the generations continue - born, having children, dying. The cycle of life. Not much more is said. All we're given are the generations as touchstones along the road of history to show continuity. Scholars, by looking at other documents from the same time period as when Genesis was written, and by comparing it to other biblical passages, seem to think that what we're dealing with here is not a full and complete family tree as you and I are used to seeing in 20th century documents. Instead, it is what we could call a "representative sampling." It provides milestones along time. So and so having children that were in the family line of the next one, who had children that began the family line of still another --- that sort of thing.

History - and yet, for all the time and for all the experiences that must have been endured through the centuries, all we read is "They were born. they had children. They died." The curse of death overtakes them all. The only exception is Enoch, who seemed to have a special relationship with God. Somehow he was grabbed from the clutches of death and brought to heaven untouched by its clammy hands. But then, as soon as we get our hopes up that possibly things are looking up, just as quickly we're back down into the cycle of birth, begetting, death. Did you find that the reading of this chapter becomes monotonous? A dull drone of reading? Precisely. That's exactly the picture it means to pain. Life - dull, dreary, nowhere near the Paradise originally intended for earth and humanity.

Lamech, a different Lamech by the way from the one listed in ch.4, gives voice to the dreariness and despair with his hope filled statement at the birth of Noah - "He will comfort us in the labour and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed." (v.29).

Comfort?
Really? Is this some prophetic statement? Is there light in this mucky darkness?
Well - don't get your hopes up. Quickly we're dropped into the first verses of ch.6.

And there, in the first 8 verses, we have some of the most mysterious and least understood words of the entire bible. Stuff about "sons of God" and "daughters of men" intermarrying. Nephelim, traditionally understood to be giants or super-strong men of some sort.
I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. But quickly, while nobody has the definitive word, here are two most common understandings that have come down to us through the ages.

The first suggests that "sons of God" refers to the descendants of the god-fearing son of Adam - Seth. "Daughters of man" is then code-words for the descendants of the godless Cain. What we're seeing here in Gen 6 is the intermarriage of these two lines. The purity of the God-fearing line, the line out of which would hopefully come the one who would make real the promise of salvation that God made to Adam and Eve in the garden -- the purity is poisoned. The light is darkened. And any hope that maybe out of Seth, born to Adam & Eve as a replacement for murdered Abel, that maybe out of Seth good would come ---- that hope is shattered.
The other view takes the most natural reading, and the reading that is most commonly used for "sons of God" as meaning angelic beings. "Daughters of men" means human beings. What we're seeing here is some sort of intermingling in twisted ways between spirit beings and humanity. Those who hold to this view say that here is the true origin of so many of the strange mythologies of ancient religions of marriages between gods and people. Again - the bottom line of this interpretation is that the human race is pulled even further down.

There are sincere evangelical, bible-believing scholars all through time on both sides of the interpretative fence. I'm in no position here to push you in one direction or the other. Because it's sheer speculation. God has left it vague. And then, perhaps, so should we.

The bottom line, however, is clear. Humanity is poisoned and dragged even lower than it was before.
We thought there was light, hope again for humanity, with Enoch. But no - things went right back.
And then, with Lamech, we hope that with the birth of Noah things would begin to improve. Again -- no. We are confronted with these strange, dark verses. And God brings down judgement - limiting the life of humanity to 120 years, max. The darkness, the pain, the corruption is too great to let them carry on any longer than that.

Even more than that, the Lord is grieved at the horrible darkness and evil He sees in humanity and resolves to wipe them from the earth -- to get rid of them the way someone washes a bowl, turns it over, shakes it, and wipes all the water out of it.God is grieved at sin.
So much for the idea of a meek grandfatherly figure who merely winks when someone does what is wrong.
And so we're left with terrible despair. Not an ounce of good news......
Not an ounce -- until the very last verse of this account of the family of Adam. For there we read, "But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord."
Favour.
Or, as translated in other versions - grace.

And there we finally latch onto something truly solid.
Even in the face of dull drudgery in life.
Even in the face of the monotonous cycle of birth, begetting, death.
Even in the face of decaying human standards.
Even there -- the grace of God still comes through.

Doesn't mean that God won't act in judgement.
The impending story of the flood makes that clear.
But grace -- there is grace.
When humanity is caught thoroughly in a bind and can do absolutely nothing,
grace -- sheer, complete grace is still there.
Divine grace.
God's life-giving grace.

Noah reaches out -- and finds the hand of God ever eager to grasp his, to grasp and pull -- to lift Noah out of the mire of human despair and to give him a future.

It was the favour of God shown to this man caught in the midst of seemingly unsolvable despair that allowed Noah to survive the flood with his family. It kept the human race alive. And the promise.
The promise stayed alive.
And in due time a descendant of Noah was born -- Jesus.
Through Jesus the favour, the grace of God was shown in fullest form as a permanent way out of this dull, hopeless, despair-filled cycle of life was found. The way of the cross.
The way of the empty tomb.
The way to eternity with Christ.
The way to reunion with our Creator Lord.
Salvation.

Oh - we only see the faintest beginnings here in Genesis 5 & 6. But it's there. And we need to grab hold of it.
For there will be times for all of us when we'll be able to identify very closely with the darkness of these chapters. We'll wonder why we bother trying at this game of life at all. It seems so pointless.

We'll cry ourselves to sleep because things just seem to go from bad to worse - perhaps in our lives, perhaps in the lives of those we know and love dearly. And there seems no escape.

Or we'll look at little ones like Zachary and wonder, "Poor kid. Has to be born in a world like this? What future can he have?"

And were it not for the words of grace -- that can pierce through the thickest darkness, we would only be able to shake our heads in despair.

But grace, God's great grace does come through. It pierced the darkness and found Noah. It pierced the greatest darkness of the grave and brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus. And it shined here today. We saw it shine in baptism --God speaking saying "Zachary belongs to me. Congregation, you belong to me. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I'm making covenant with you." That's grace! Having the final word!

And that we celebrate.
In that we take hope.
And with that we can once more face life. Realistically.
Aware of the pain. Grieved, as God is, by the darkness and sin.

But confident, nevertheless.
Knowing that He'll see us through.
And that until the day He brings us home His grace, the grace that found Noah, that grace -- for you and me, our loved ones, and little Zachary,That grace will be sufficient.... and more. (2 Cor 12.9)