Life After the Fall (Genesis 5:1-32)
Life after the Fall
Genesis 5:1-32
December 29, 2013
Chapter 5 is another sobering chapter in the opening pages of the Bible.
I nearly just called this chapter “LIFE”
How many times growing up did I face a hardship and my mom say,
“Well, that’s just life”
We may not be sure of a lot of things, but one thing we are sure of:
• Life is not FAIR
• Life is not EASY
• Life is just Life
No book laments this reality more than the book of Ecclesiastes.
In that book the old preacher tells the young man
To take off his rose colored glasses and see that sometimes life just stinks.
Ecclesiastes 4:1-3 “Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them. So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 8:14-15 “There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility. So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.”
That old man has lived a while hasn’t he?
• He knows that bad things happen to good people.
• He knows that pains can last too long.
• He knows that life can deal a person misery.
The preacher knew that life wasn’t fair, and if you are waiting for life to get fair, you’re going to be disappointed.
Those realities lead us to the other reality of Ecclesiastes
That while life stinks you might as well find enjoyment in the little things.
Ecclesiastes 5:18 “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.”
Ecclesiastes 9:7-9 “Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.”
In other words, don’t set your hopes for something spectacular.
You’re better off learning to enjoy the little everyday things.
• Enjoy a job well done
• Enjoy a good meal
• Enjoy a clean garment
• Enjoy oil upon the head
• Enjoy your spouse
Don’t hold out hope for the exceptional life
Learn to appreciate the ordinary one.
Life rarely yields up the fantasy.
Today we would say, “Hollywood is not reality”
And the hardships are so real that at times the preacher says
It nearly drove him to the point of insanity.
SUCH IS LIFE AFTER THE FALL
And Genesis chapter 5 is a chapter
That also removes the rose colored glasses and deals with life.
At this point in the story we know why life is hard.
That answer is sin.
Life wasn’t hard before the fall, but it certainly is now.
Sin came in and wrecked God’s creation and now life is hard.
Chapter 5 begins to tell the story of humanity as they live this life.
Moses is taking Israel on a journey from Adam to Abraham
And there we see the response of man to this new life of toil.
The important thing is that you see that the hardships of this life
Serve a very important purpose.
Today’s hardships are meant to push man to seek the Savior,
And that is precisely what Genesis chapter 5 reveals.
There are four main things we see here.
#1 THE GIFT OF LIFE
Genesis 5:1-2
Moses actually recaps a little here in the first 2 verses.
It is always important that you understand how this whole thing started.
Regardless of how hard life is now,
You must know that it was not intended to be this way.
Make sure that when you view negative things
You do not allow those things to tarnish your opinion of God.
Life is hard, but God is good
And Moses wants you to understand from the beginning that
Life may be hard, but you wouldn’t even have it were it not for God
And so it is beneficial to recap this important reality.
Let me remind you of a few important truths here in these first two verses.
1) HIS MAKER
“This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man…”
Again we are reminded that God created man.
• Man did not evolve.
• His beginning was instant, static, definite.
• One instant there was nothing and the next, there was man.
Furthermore it reiterates God’s desire for a relationship with man.
IN A PAGAN WORLD, IT IS JUST THE OPPOSITE.
You have man creating god.
• It is man who wants companionship.
• It is man who wants a protector
• It is man who wants a provider
And so man creates a god to fill the void in his life.
The very semblance of that picture paints their god as
Far off, aloof, distant, and uninterested.
But that perversion is not reality.
Man did not create God, God created man.
God is the catalyst.
God is the originator.
God is the starter.
We didn’t start with man wanting God, we started with God wanting man.
AND THAT NEVER CHANGES.
God is always the catalyst for the relationship.
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Ephesians 2:1-7 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
The fact that God created man answers the question
As to whether He desires a relationship or not.
And because He created man, that answer is an emphatic yes.
James 4:5 “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?”
We see that God is the maker and pursuer of man.
2) HIS MOLD
“He made him in the likeness of God.”
We are reminded that man was made in the likeness of God.
And again, this doesn’t mean that man looks like God.
No one knows what God looks like.
Even during the incarnation, Jesus had to take the form of man,
Which indicates that He was not in that form previously.
Philippians 2:7 “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”
What this does indicate is that man was made
With the capacity to know God
And was created with the capacity to have similar attributes.
Like God, man can demonstrate love, patience, endurance, mercy, etc.
It is not the visual form, but our spiritual ability that makes us in God’s image.
That means that God-like-ness is the goal we are to pursue.
Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Ephesians 5:1 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;”
1 Peter 1:14-16 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”
We are made in the God’s mold and intended to fill that mold as we live.
Man’s Maker, Man’s Mold
3) HIS MATE
“He created them male and female”
Certainly that is a part of the story that I am thankful for.
God created man for a relationship,
But in some ways God could still see that man was alone.
God knew earthly fellowship was important in this life
And so God created a suitable helper for the man.
And this is a reminder that God intended for this life
To be filled with pleasure and fulfillment.
God did not intend for Adam’s life to be boring, or dull, or trying, or lonely
God specifically acted to bring fullness to the life of man
With the creation of woman.
4) HIS MERCY
“and He blessed them”
Perhaps mercy isn’t the best term here,
What we have is God graciously choosing to bless man.
Certainly creation and a companion should have been enough,
And yet God goes further by actually blessing man.
Specifically the blessing could be anything from THE DOMINION He gave man all the way to THE ABILITY FOR MAN TO MULTIPLY.
Genesis 1:28 “God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
In a very generic way we simply understand that God favors man.
God is like a father rooting for our success.
• He is for us.
• He longs to bless us.
• The mercy of that is that this desire did not change after the fall.
While it is true that at the fall we inherited a curse,
Mercy is seen in that we did not lose the blessing.
His Maker, His Mold, His Mate, His Mercy
5) HIS MERIT
“and named them Man in the day when they were created.”
The merit is seen in the fact that God named man.
Whereas the man named the animals (and even the woman),
God named the man.
Names are significant in Scripture (even the names of God)
• They revealed ones character
• They were often prophetic of one’s life (Jabez, Jesus)
• But even more than that, they showed value.
God’s naming the man indicates that the man had value to God.
I learned this lesson as a kid growing up.
When your dad is a horse trader, you learn not to get too attached to horses.
We didn’t name them unless we got to keep them.
Man holds merit as God’s treasured creation.
We aren’t valuable because of what we can do,
We are valuable because the Creator values us.
And so in the first two verses we see God’s gift of life.
It started glorious.
It began perfectly.
God intended for man to have a wonderful life.
However, in came the fall and you know what happened next.
The Gift of Life
#2 THE CURSE OF DEATH
Genesis 5:3-20
Now certainly we see Adam’s descendants listed.
And it is significant that a direct line can be traced from Adam all the way to Christ.
But really the truth that I want you to see
Is the reoccurring reality of these 18 verses.
Verse 1 started by saying, “This is the book of the generations of Adam”
Another way to say that is – THIS IS WHAT BECAME OF ADAM
If you want to know what became of Adam and his descendants.
It is stated 8 times in this chapter.
(5) “So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.”
(8) “So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died.”
(11) “So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years, and he died.”
(14) “So all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died.”
(17) “So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died.”
(20) “So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died.”
(27) “So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.”
(31) “So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died.”
Get the picture?
“and he died”
Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
Nothing reiterates that the curse is in full effect
Like the death of everyone on planet earth.
Romans 6:23 nailed it:
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…”
Man tried his best.
Methuselah even lasted 969 years,
But all man could do was delay death, they couldn’t defeat it.
They all died.
Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned”
Ecclesiastes 2:16 “For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the fool, inasmuch as in the coming days all will be forgotten. And how the wise man and the fool alike die!”
Ecclesiastes 9:2-3 “It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.”
James even taught us that this life is merely a vapor.
James 4:13-16 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”
This life is a vapor and there is absolutely no certainty
As to how long it will be.
You are not guaranteed 75 years, you are not guaranteed 50 years,
In our day you aren’t even guaranteed to make it out of the womb.
Life is fleeting.
Now the Bible does say that by honoring your father and mother
You are promised a long life, but not eternal life.
Death is a reality.
Someday people will gather at your funeral (unless you were a punk)
And people will walk by your casket and say, “he sure looks good”
But rest assured death is coming.
The Gift of Life, The Curse of Death
#3 THE HOPE OF VICTORY
Genesis 5:21-24
While death does continue to occur,
We are graciously given here a glimpse of hope.
Maybe there is a way to overcome death.
Maybe there is a way to conquer the grave.
After all, Enoch did.
Everyone before Enoch died
Everyone after Enoch died
Enoch stands out as the oddity of the chapter.
But we certainly want to know HOW he achieved it.
(24) “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.”
Do not underestimate the significance here.
God did give more humans to Adam for earthly fellowship,
But NONE of those humans WERE MEANT TO BE A SUBSTITUTE
For Adam’s relationship with God.
Man could enjoy man, but man still needs God.
Enoch proves that.
In a relationship with God is found
The secret to life and victory over death.
“Enoch walked with God” (i.e. “was dedicated to God”) for 300 years.
And because of Enoch’s faithfulness to God,
God spared him the agony of death.
Hebrews 11:5 “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.”
So we find that Enoch was pleasing to God.
The key in the word from Hebrews 11:5 is that
Enoch “obtained the witness…he was pleasing”
Enoch had an epic achievement.
• He didn’t create the longer lasting light bulb…
• He didn’t run a sub 4 minute mile…
• He didn’t even travel to the moon…
But Enoch did achieve a righteous reputation before God.
After 300 years of living, there was no longer a debate
As to whether or not Enoch loved God.
Everyone could see it.
Now was he sinless? No.
But he was faithful.
Jude 14-15 “It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Enoch was a man who stood against the culture
And preached a message of holiness to the people.
Enoch was faithful
And God saw in Enoch the opportunity to reveal
That death can be escaped through a true relationship with Him.
THIS ACT GAVE HOPE.
If man could be pleasing to God, he could skip death.
Enoch showed that there is value in forsaking sin.
Enoch showed that there is value in pursuing a relationship with God.
Enoch’s life was one of the greatest sermons ever preached.
Now that does not mean that we can live good enough to skip death.
What it does reveal is that righteousness
Is the means of overcoming death.
And we get our righteousness from Christ.
John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Through Jesus we obtain the status of Enoch.
But the point here is that God so values the righteous life,
That if a man obtains it, death can be defeated.
That was the first ray of hope this world saw since Adam left the garden.
Everything had continued on a downward spiral.
• Be born
• Fight the ground
• Die
But all of a sudden we see that death can be overcome.
The Gift of Life, The Curse of Sin, The Hope of Victory
#4 THE SEARCH FOR REST
Genesis 5:25-32
The life of Enoch opened the door
The life of Enoch gave hope that death may not be man’s only fate
About the time that people were accepting that there was nothing they could do about death, Enoch’s departure put a desire for something better.
However, Enoch wasn’t the norm.
Enoch was an example God used to instill a desire for righteousness.
We still know that on our own
The perfect righteousness of God is not attainable.
We heard Jesus respond to the Rich Young Ruler about how none is good but God alone, and we saw him walk away sad.
The disciples asked:
Matthew 19:25-26 “When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
So Enoch’s life was a very important illustration,
But we still know that achieving that is easier said than done.
So what is man to do?
He knows the goal – that is righteousness.
Now the question is how to get there.
And the answer is: MAN NEEDS HELP
And in these verses you see how desperate man is for it.
In fact after the lives of Methuselah, and Lamech,
Reality is setting in that they cannot achieve the righteous standard.
So they go looking for someone who is innocent
And hope that he can maintain that innocence and deliver them.
(28-29) “Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and became the father of a son. Now he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed.”
You can almost see Lamech holding his new born son,
Seeing him in perfect innocence, unstained by the moral failures of humanity.
And the hope is that this baby remains pure and serves as a deliverer.
It is hope for help.
“This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands”
It is Lamech saying, “Surely if I can raise Noah to be holy (like Enoch), then he can guide us to reverse the curse.”
And can’t you imagine the depth of Lamech’s desire?
I’ve had 36 years of the curse.
Some of you have had a few more years than that.
But Lamech had already fought the curse for 182 years.
Methuselah had already fought it around 365 years.
They were sick of the curse.
They wanted help.
They wanted deliverance.
Now fast forward to Moses and his congregation.
430 years of bondage
Now in the wilderness
AND WHAT WERE THEY SEEKING?
Deuteronomy 12:10 “When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security,”
The children of Israel were just like Lamech.
They had fought the curse far too long and they also wanted rest.
And in Genesis 5 Moses is revealing to the children of Israel
The real possibility of rest.
Sure life is hard
• Take off your rose colored glasses
• Bad things happen to good people
• Bad things happen to God’s people
There is much suffering to endure
But rest in the middle of it is possible.
• Enoch achieved it.
• Lamech hoped for it.
Now Moses was offering it to the children of Israel.
The same rest Lamech wanted was the rest Moses was offering the children of Israel.
Their path to achieving it was through obedience to God
(i.e walking with Him)
If the children of Israel would simply follow God’s commandments,
They too would have rest, living in a land flowing with milk & honey.
Now, the tragedy is that we know the story.
Israel never entered that rest.
They grumbled and complained and failed to trust and failed to obey,
And even failed to enter the land.
• God caused them to wander for 40 years in the wilderness without rest.
• Even when the next generation did enter, they failed to fully obey and drive out all the inhabitants of the land.
And those remaining inhabitants became thorns in the side of Israel, and led them away from the Lord and caused Israel to fail to achieve God’s rest.
• In fact Israel would eventually be removed from her promised land because of her disobedience.
Yes they would come back, but rest was still not achieved.
• We have stories of Sanballat oppressing Israel as they seek to rebuild.
• We know about the war with Greece
• We know about the occupation of Rome
And we realize that the rest Lamech had desired
Managed to allude Israel throughout her entire history.
UNTIL…
God became flesh and dwelt among us.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
There it was!
The rest we had been seeking!
The One to grant us rest in the midst of this toilsome life!
Life is hard, but Jesus is offering rest.
And all we can say to that is to remind you that rest is still available.
• Have you been battling the curse?
• Are the brutal realities of life smashing you in the face?
Well, such is life.
But rest is available.
Hebrews 4:9 “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”
I’ve heard it thousands of times:
Someone visits a hospital…
Someone visits someone in need…
And before they leave you commonly hear the phrase:
“Well, get some rest”
That’s good advice, but aren’t just talking about sleep.
We are talking about help.
We are talking about Jesus entering your situation
And helping you through it or even out of it.
This is the new reality of humanity.
Life is hard
Death is real
Rest is possible
And Jesus can give it.
