Good afternoon everyone, I'm Ian. Well done Jonathan and Corey. When you're asked to read, I think that's probably the last passage that you want, but beautifully done, thank you.
The world is changing at a pace that's never been seen before.
Urbanisation and ease of transport and travel mean that there's a lot more connected than there's ever been.
Humans are harnessing the power of nature to make their lives better.
The arts are flourishing. Technology is bringing about an ease of life that previous generations could hardly have dreamed of.
And yet, marriage is being devalued.
Anger and violence and pride are rife.
Human life is valued cheaply.
And the world's heading towards a climate catastrophe.
Welcome to Genesis 4.
Now I've tried to make it sound fairly modern, and obviously it's not.
We're talking early Iron Age here.
And yet many of the themes of what we see here are still very relevant today.
And this passage, these two chapters that look full of names and genealogies, I think still have quite a lot to teach us and to help us to understand how God wants us to live in our day.
Some theologians call the period that goes broadly from Adam to Noah as the dispensation of conscience.
Now whether you agree with that theology or not, I think it's actually a helpful description.
Because what's happening in this period is that by and large, human beings have very little knowledge of God.
The law hasn't been given.
The covenant promises through Noah and Abraham are still in the future.
And largely, men and women are living by conscience of what we'd call today their moral compass.
And we know, of course, that human conscience is flawed.
It does not always get things right.
I think that is very much a link with where we are today.
By and large, people around us, even the people who are making our laws, don't really take God into account when they do it.
They're going by what they want to think is right.
But actually, very often, it's not in accordance with the Bible.
And that, I think, brings Genesis 4 very much into the kind of territory we're in today.
The title of Given Who Do You Think You Are, of course, is taken from the BBC genealogy program.
But it may be relevant to what God thinks and what God thought in Genesis 4 about humans.
Who do you think you are that you can go your own way and you can forget about my instructions?
And in Genesis 4, it is personified in this family of Lamech.
I think we could describe it as a very dysfunctional family in many ways, and yet a family of high achievers.
And again, that's something that maybe is quite current in our day.
That often the families where the people are the greatest achievers in the terms of this world they do the most,
actually behind the scenes there are all sorts of problems.
Sometimes they come out, sometimes they don't.
But Lamech and his family, I think, really helpfully bring out the contrast in Genesis 4.
I've called it civilization question mark.
So on the one hand, you can see that mankind is progressing.
That things are, from that point of view, getting better.
So at the start of our reading, we had the first city being built, the start of urbanization.
We then have this man, Jabal, the first of Lamech's sons.
It says he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock.
Now in his own way, living in tents was probably almost as significant as building cities.
Building cities meant you could group together and people could live together and help each other.
But building, having tents meant they could move around and they could go to the best places,
in this case the best places for pasture for their flocks.
Lamech also was the one who started farming, systematic farming,
rather than just having lots of beasts breeding and so on, seemed to go back to him.
Then the second son, Jubal, who was the musician.
I don't think it was violins and trumpets, but to get the idea.
He was the one who first started making music and seeing that as part of human life
and something that people could enjoy and benefit from.
And then the third son was Jubal Cain, and he was the one who made tools.
He got bronze and he got iron, and he made things that would make life easier.
And all of these things are presented to us as mankind, humankind, really progressing.
Civilization is growing and developing, and that's a good thing.
But at the same time, we're told a number of things about Lamech that would make us pause
and think, well, perhaps it's not all good.
The first thing we see is that he had two wives.
Now, it's not uncommon in the Old Testament to have more than one wife.
Many of the leading characters in the Old Testament, like David, indeed did.
But this is beginning to get away from God's plan for marriage.
Remember God's plan for marriage?
One husband, one wife, they become one flesh.
And as soon as you introduce the third person into that, it's kind of going.
You don't have the same value being placed on marriage and on the intimacy of relationship,
which is a one-to-one thing.
And then in Lamech, you have violence.
Violence like you had with Cain, and perhaps in some ways even worse.
Now, the poem that Lamech gives us in the passage is quite interesting.
I've killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech 77 times.
What's he saying?
On the surface, I think maybe he's saying,
my crime is not as bad as Cain's crime.
Cain killed Abel in cold blood, if you like.
It was murder.
Lamech is saying, well, it wasn't murder in my case.
Someone came and attacked me.
I defended myself, and I killed them.
And if Cain has God's protection seven times,
then I deserve even more.
I deserve 77 times.
But of course, in it all, he is really just boasting in himself and in his power.
He has no concern for the young man he killed.
Doesn't sound like that young man had done him great harm.
Maybe had some kind of feud with him.
He'd come and attacked him.
And Lamech had responded.
He over-responded.
And he had ended up killing the man.
And he thinks, well, that's okay.
If someone comes up against me and does things I don't like
and hurts me in some kind of way,
I'll get back at them,
and I'll do it much worse than they did to me.
Sound familiar?
In our day, that kind of thing happens as well.
And this thing of seven times and 77 times is interesting as well.
So Lamech is saying, I deserve extra protection compared with Cain.
Now, actually, Cain received God's grace,
which he didn't deserve as a murderer.
However, Lamech is assuming that he can have the same grace
and that he in some way deserves it.
He has totally misunderstood a God
and the kind of relationship we should have with him.
And it's interesting also because the Lord Jesus picks up on it
in the New Testament.
Jesus has a conversation with Peter
where Peter says, well, how often should I forgive somebody?
Should I forgive them as many as seven times?
Peter's thinking, this is really good.
I'm showing him a really good follower of Jesus.
I'm willing to forgive even up to seven times.
And Jesus says, no, not seven times, but 77 times,
or perhaps it's 70 times seven times
that people disagree on that.
But I'm sure he was echoing what Lamech said.
But instead of talking about vengeance and about getting revenge,
Jesus is talking about the love that we should show
and the forgiveness that we should offer.
So the world under Lamech is regressing.
It's going backwards because although technology
and everything else is doing fine,
in the human heart, things are getting worse
and the pride of life and the desire to have more for ourselves
and to do whatever we need to to other people
is greater and greater.
So what's the application for today?
Well, the first thing I think is
we should celebrate the achievements of our generation.
We should celebrate the fact that in most of our lifetimes,
man has made so much progress
in understanding our environment,
in using it for our good,
in developing technology,
that even 20 years ago,
certainly 50, 100 years ago,
people could hardly have dreamed of.
And we should celebrate it
because we're using the talents that God has given us
to find out more about his world
and about his universe.
As someone said,
we're thinking God's thoughts after him.
And we shouldn't despise technology
or the arts
or the way man harnesses the world
as long as it's done in a positive way.
That is something to be celebrated
and to be enjoyed.
It's something that God wants us
to rejoice in
and to benefit from
and to give him the glory for
because he has given us the minds,
the mental capacity
to be able to do these things
and to appreciate them.
So there definitely is an element
as we look at this
that we should rejoice in God
and rejoice in what is happening,
that his universe is so marvellous
and we're just now finding out
what's always been there
and which is beyond our comprehension
in many ways.
But at the same time,
we need to recognise
that we're living in a world
which is in many ways
regressing.
Marriage.
I don't think bigamy
is a big issue
in this country
in our day.
But perhaps that's because
people don't think
you need to bother
to get married
if you want to have
an intimate relationship
with someone.
You can have two women
or you can have two men
and that's okay.
You don't have to tie the knot
for that.
And just one example
of the way in which marriage
is being devalued
and we're getting further
and further away
from God's plan for us.
And then you look at attitudes.
And you see in many ways
a real pride
and arrogance
about many people.
We see it in our leaders.
We see it perhaps also
in ourselves
and those we come into contact with.
And some of the great things
that we're finding
that we're inventing
are also doing great harm.
So the internet is wonderful.
The way that we have access
to information
that no one in any generation
before has ever had.
I want to find something out.
I go into Google.
I go into Wikipedia
or somewhere
and it's there
and it's great.
And yet the internet
has fuelled
the rise in pornography
and in people
interacting with their computers
rather than
with one another.
Mobile phones are great.
We are more connected
with each other
than ever before.
Even if we're out and about
we can easily talk
to each other by phone
or we can text each other
or we can use social media
or whatever.
And yet how often
is social media
used in a way
that's inappropriate?
That's intemperate.
We've seen the example
of that in our own country
this week.
We could go to America
and some of the things
the president there
has said on social media
and we look at it
and say
yes, social media
is a great thing
but man is not using it
in the way
that we should.
Our world is
in many ways
regressing
even as it is
progressing.
What shall response be
to that?
Well right at the end
of Genesis 4
in this chapter
full of names
and this family
which has so many problems
we have the birth
of another child
a man named Seth
and then his son
Enosh
and at the end it says
at that time
people began to call
on the name
of the Lord.
Even in this world
where God was
largely forgotten about
and was glorying
in his developments
and in his power
rather than
in God.
There were people
who recognized
that they couldn't do
without God.
The name of the Lord
that's used here
if you've got a Bible
in front of you
you'll see it's in
capital letters.
It's the covenant name
of God
later in the Old Testament
Yahweh.
Not sure how much
the people then
would have understood
exactly what that meant.
But it is calling
on the God
who is personal
and the God
who is interested.
And there were some people
perhaps not many
who recognized
the importance
of that.
And for us today
if we're Christians
we call on the name
of the Lord.
And we give thanks
for all the great things
that are happening
in his wonderful world.
But we should also
be on our knees
as we see around us
that people are getting
further and further
away from God
and from his standards.
We are called
to call upon
the name
of the Lord.
So that's Genesis 4.
What do we make
of Genesis 5
which is even more
a long list
of names
and of dates.
Well genealogies
in the Bible
are quite important.
And this particular
genealogy
is the introduction
to a new section
in Genesis
which runs
basically through
the account of Noah.
So we finish off
in chapter 4
essentially
the creation narrative
and we're now
coming on to
the Noah narrative.
And as a link
in that
the writer positions
where the two
sit together.
So it takes us
from Adam
down to Noah.
If we keep going
through the Bible
we can get that list
taken right down
and it ends up
with Jesus.
The key genealogy
in the Bible
starts with Adam
or starts actually
with God
if you read it
in Luke's Gospel
and it ends
with Jesus.
The writer is
positioning here
where Adam
and Noah
sit together.
But I think
there's more to it
than that.
Quite a lot of people
are into family history
I am myself
and it can be
quite fascinating.
Now when you do
family history
you have two things
that you look at.
One is
you get a long list
of names
and of dates.
So you go through
your ancestors
you go through
the record office
and the birth
and marriage
and death certificates
and the censuses
and everything else
that's available
and you end up
with a big chart
which has lots
of names of people
and lots of ages
or dates on it.
And that in a sense
is the core
of doing
your family tree.
It is looking
at the lives
of ordinary people
but actually
just looking at
their names
and a small amount
of information
about them.
But when you do
family history
very often
you find someone
you think
that person
looks interesting.
Perhaps I can find
out a little bit
more about them.
Now in my family tree
there's no one
who's particularly famous.
I don't think
there's anyone
you could Google
and find much
information about them
before my grandfather.
Previous generations
largely forgotten.
But there are
interesting people.
There are some
very strong women.
There are some
families which went
through really
difficult times.
And there are
some people
who think
well it would be
good to find
out a bit more
about them.
They look
quite interesting.
And that's what
the writer does
in this chapter.
There's a long
list of what I've
called ordinary
lives.
And then he has
a couple of
examples of what
we might call
extraordinary lives.
lives.
So I've called
this one
lives well lived.
As I said
there are
ordinary lives
and there are
extraordinary lives.
Now you might
look at Genesis 5
and say there are
no ordinary lives
here.
Almost everyone
on this list
lived to be
over 900 years
old.
That's kind of
not normal
in our day.
So let's just
deal with that
one quickly
before we look
in more detail
at the genealogy.
There are a number
of different views
about what
the ages here
mean.
Some people
think it could
be dynasties
that are being
talked about.
So when it
talks about Adam
or it talks
about Methuselah
whoever,
it's not talking
about an
individual,
it's talking
about a
dynasty was
started with
that person.
And so having
dynasties for
900 odd years
isn't out of
the question.
The problem
with that is
at least a
couple of
people on
this list
are definitely
presented as
being real
individuals.
They're not
just a dynasty,
they are real
people who
had real
lives.
So that is
slightly difficult.
Second possibility
is it says
years.
Actually does it
mean months
or does it
mean something
different?
So is the
time period
the same
as ours?
Again quite
difficult because
if you look at
the ages of
the people
when they had
children and
when they
died,
if they had
kind of normal
lifespans we
think of today,
there were things
like they became
a father when
they were seven
years old and
that really
doesn't work.
There's
genealogy a few
chapters on where
it says people
had children
that kind of
what we think
were normal
ages like
30 and so
on but not
in this one
and I think
it is difficult
to think that
it could just
be months
rather than
years.
So could it
be really
people living
for that
long?
Well maybe
it could.
We are pre-flood
and we are in
a different
environment from
what we have
now.
Perhaps some
remnant of the
tree of life
that Adam
and Eve
had originally
eaten from
before they
were thrown
out of the
garden of
Eden.
Perhaps that
was still
affecting things.
Maybe they
had a very
long life.
That has its
own difficulties.
Why would
you wait
hundreds of
years before
you had
your first
child?
Things like
that.
But maybe
it's the
best explanation.
I don't
know.
I'll leave
that to
you.
But actually
although the
writer undoubtedly
means us to
notice the
ages,
they're not
the key
point of
this passage.
The key
thing in
this chapter
is that
people were
born,
they had
children,
and they
died.
They were
born,
they had
children,
they died
generation
after generation.
That is
ordinary
life.
You're
born,
you may
not have
family,
and you
die.
That for
virtually every
human who
has ever
lived,
that is the
pattern of
life.
That is the
pattern of
our lives
unless the
Lord should
return before
we die.
And the
writer is
saying to
us,
this is the
curse that
came on
Adam,
the death
that came
through
Adam,
this is
it in
practice.
People were
born,
they lived,
they perhaps
had families,
and then they
died,
and they
were gone.
They had
ordinary
lives.
And then
in the
middle of
that,
there are
a couple
of
extraordinary
lives.
Now we
have at the
beginning,
Seth, I'm
not going to
talk in
any detail
about Seth,
notice Seth
in the
likeness of
Adam,
Adam in
the likeness
of God.
Does that
mean Seth
in the
likeness of
God?
To some
extent,
yes,
but also
affected by
the fall.
But the
two are
really
interesting,
Enoch
and Noah.
And these
are the
two men in
the Old
Testament where
it says they
walked with
God or
they walked
faithfully
with God.
Noah, that
is mentioned
in chapter
six.
Enoch is
before us
in this
chapter.
And these
are held
up to us
as examples
of people
who were
different.
They weren't
just ordinary,
lived, had
family, died.
They were
people in
their lives
lived
differently
and behaved
differently.
And so
at the
end, they
were treated
differently.
Enoch, it
says, never
died.
God took
him.
Noah was
saved from
the flood.
And both
of them, when
we come to
the New
Testament, are
seen as
important
characters.
Particularly in
Hebrews chapter
11, we have
that great list
of men of
faith.
Then prominent
among them
are Enoch
and Noah.
and a
reminder in
that chapter
that these
were men
who trusted
in God
and who
sought to
live their
lives for
God.
Enoch, the
shortest lived
of all the
people in
this chapter,
but only
because God
took him.
Noah, the
one who
out-survived
all the
others, he
was the
only one
in the
list who
came through
the flood.
Methuselah,
just passing
aside, Methuselah
died in the
year of the
flood, if you
count up the
number of
years.
Noah was
the only
one who
came through
the flood.
And Noah
is presented,
and we're
going to look
at Noah
over the
next couple
of weeks
in more
detail, he
is presented
by his
father as
someone, he
says, who
will comfort
us in
labour and
painful toil
of our
hands caused
by the
ground God
has cursed.
Now you
wouldn't think
of Noah and
comfort necessarily
together.
Noah was the
preacher of
doom.
He was the
one who
alone with
his family
was saved
when the
world was
destroyed.
But if we
jump forward
to Genesis
chapter 8,
in Genesis
chapter 8,
God does
give us that
comfort through
Noah as
he sends
Noah out
to manage
the earth
and as he
promises there
will never be
another flood.
But what do we
make of Enoch
and Noah?
They are important
characters in
their own right,
but a lot
of their
significance is
that they
point forward
to Jesus.
There are
people in
the Old
Testament who
displayed the
kind of
characteristics
that we
look for
from Jesus
in the
New Testament.
Enoch
walked with
God.
And Jesus
walked with
God.
In his life
on earth,
he was
completely
obedient to
God his
father,
and he
was dependent
on God
his father.
And he
had that
intimate
relationship,
but he
knew his
father's
will and
was able
to pass
it on to
others and
to live
a perfect
life.
Jesus
walked
with God.
I know
in the Old
Testament it
is a picture
of Jesus
as one
who is
able to
save.
He is
saved by
God,
but a
picture of
God's
salvation.
As God
in his
mercy
spares
this
small
family
and takes
them
through
the
flood
and
brings
them
out
the
other
side.
And
knowing
that
gives us
a picture
of what
happens
with
Jesus.
Those who
are willing
to believe
the message
that Jesus
brings us,
those who
are willing
to put
their trust
in him,
are saved
from their
sin and
from all
the filth
that is in
our lives,
the things
we were
talking about
earlier,
through the
death of
the Lord
Jesus,
we are
able to
be brought
into a
relationship
with God.
So Enoch
and Noah
pictures
of Jesus.
But what
does it
mean to
walk
with God?
Let me
just bring
you three
verses from
the New
Testament that
I think
will help
us with
that.
Hebrews
chapter 11
is the
passage about
Enoch,
and it
says that
faith means
you believe
that God
exists and
that he
rewards those
who earnestly
seek him.
So the
first thing
of walking
with God,
what we
learn from
Enoch,
is we
need to
seek God,
we need
to look
to do
his will,
we need
to have
a faith
in him.
We need
to know
God and
to know
him in
our lives.
The Old
Testament book
of Micah,
it says,
what does
the Lord
require of
you?
To act
justly and
to love
mercy and
to walk
humbly
with your
God.
Very significant
word there,
humbly.
If we walk
with God,
we need to
recognize how
great he is
and how
insignificant by
comparison we
are.
As we see
our great
God, that
should be
something that
humbles us
and helps us
to understand
how much
greater he
is than
we could
ever think
or imagine
and by
comparison how
insignificant we
are but
still in our
insignificance
loved by
God.
And then
the Apostle
John, in
his first
letter, he
says, if we
walk in the
light as he,
that is Jesus,
is in the
light, God
is in the
light, we
have fellowship
with one
another and
the blood of
Jesus, his
son, purifies
us from
all sin.
So walking
means walking
in the
light.
It means
trying to
do the
things that
are right
and to
recognize what
God's pattern
for life is
and not to
walk in the
darkness, ignoring
God as all
these people in
Genesis 4 seem
to have done,
but to walk
with him and
to seek to
be obedient
to him.
Faith,
humility,
light.
these are
things that
should
characterize
our walk
with God.
So, who
do you
think you
are?
I hope
from what
we've seen
that for
most of
us, we
are going
to be, in
this world's
terms, pretty
insignificant.
I might
think my
life is
important just
now, give
it a hundred
years, and
I'll be doing
well if anyone
remembers me as
more than a
name.
In this
world, all
of us
ultimately are
fairly
insignificant,
and we
will be,
whether we
like it or
not, we
will be
largely
forgotten
very soon
after our
death.
And yet
the Bible
would tell
us that
although that
is absolutely
true, we
also have a
wonderful
status before
God.
Who do you
think you
are?
Who do I
think I
am?
I am a
child of
God.
I'm a
sinner.
I don't
deserve
anything, but
because of
God's grace, I
have this
wonderful status
of being his
child, and
because of my
faith in
Jesus, being
able to look
forward and
to know that
one day I'll
go to be
with him
forever.
And when you
think of that,
what happens
in this world,
and what people
might think of
me when I'm
gone, actually
doesn't matter
that much.
What matters
is the
relationship I
have with
God and
the confidence
I can have
in him,
knowing that
I matter to
him, and
if my trust
is in him,
in the
Lord Jesus,
then my
future is
secure.
And I'm
not looking
at 70,
80,
90,
maybe even
100 years
in this
world.
I'm looking
at an
eternity spent
with Jesus
and enjoying
his presence
and understanding
more of his
greatness and
the wonderful
world he's
made and
the wonderful
grace that
he has shown
in dying
for me on
that cross
and giving
me my
relationship
with God.
So we should
go away this
morning perhaps
reflecting on
the world
round about
us, on
the great
advances that
are being
made, but
also the
issues that
we see
everywhere we
look, reflecting
perhaps on
our own
sinfulness, our
own failure, our
own insignificance.
But knowing
that in God's
sight we're
important, we
matter, and
he wants all
of us to
have a real
relationship with
him as we
walk with
him, as we
call on him,
as we know
him as our
father.
If you're not
in that position
yet, I'd
urge you to
think about
your relationship
with God, the
things that
really matter
in life.
And if you
are, let's
go out, let's
pray for our
world, let's
walk the way
that Jesus
walked, let's
be God's
people in
our generation,
not just
ordinary lives,
but extraordinary
lives, because
they're lived
for God.
Let's pray
together.
Father, we
thank you for
your word.
We thank you
for this rather
obscure passage,
which nevertheless
has so much
to teach us.
We thank you
that you are a
great God, and
when we see all
that man is
able to achieve
now, we
should recognize
that all he is
doing is
thinking your
thoughts after
you, uncovering,
unraveling some
of the marvelous
intricacies of
your creation.
But we do
grieve for the
world around us.
We grieve for the
sin, for the
devaluing of
marriage, for
the way that
pride affects
all of our
lives, for the
conflict that
there is, for
the things that
are done that
are wrong.
Help us to be
in prayer to
you about
them.
But help us
above all, each
of us, to make
sure that we are
in a living
relationship with
you and with
the Lord Jesus,
and that in our
lives we seek to
walk with God
so that we
become not
ordinary lives,
but extraordinary
lives as
children of God
shining as
lights in our
world.
We give you
thanks and we
commit ourselves
to you in the
name of the
Lord Jesus.
Amen.