CONTEXT

Hey Manuel.

We are in Genesis chapter 5 and this is I know you've been just dying to get the chapter five cuz who doesn't love a good genealogy. I want to read the whole chapter. This is the book of the generations of Adam when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God male and female. He created them and blessed them and name them mankind human when they were created when Adam had lived 130 years. He fathered a son in his own likeness after his image and named him the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years and he had Sons and Daughters. That's all the days that Adam lived 930 years and he died. What's traffic like 205 years he fathered enosh deathly battery father Tinashe 807 years and had other Sons and Daughters us all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. An exciting right? We need answers live 90 years. He fathered Keenan in Oshawa. 313 and 815 years and had other Sons and Daughters. That's all the days of enosh were 905 years and he died when Keenan's live seventy years. He fathered mahalalel. Tnlottery fathered mahalalel 840 years and had other Sons and Daughters. That's all the days of Keenan where 910 years and he died. When the Halliwell had live 65 years, he fathered Jared mahalalel lived every father Jared 830 years had other Sons and Daughters us all the days of mahalalel where 895 years and he died when Jared had lived a hundred 62 years. He fathered Enoch Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other Sons and Daughters. That's all the days of Jared where 962 years and he died. When he knocked Head Live 65 years, he fathered Methuselah Enoch walked with God after he fathered. Missy was a lot 300 years and had other Sons and Daughters. That's all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. Winter Futsal 1187 yearsley Fatherland Methuselah lived at 3 father. They make 782 years had other sons and daughters has lower 969 years and he died. When I'm a cat live 282 years, he fathered a son and he called his name Noah saying out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one. She'll bring us relief from our work and from the painful boil of our hands 595 years and had other Sons and Daughters. That's all the days of lamech. We're 777 years and he died after Noah was 500 years old Noah fathered Shem ham and japheth. Maybe teaching more than preaching this morning. This is one of those texts that we really need to think critically and thoughtfully. Carefully about what the text is actually trying to say to us. You know as Americans we've earned a reputation internationally. That's not always favorable. There's a reputation of Americans in other places in the world that when we come we come with arrogance we come with high expectations and entitlements. There's this sense of entitlement that we've figured out how to do life and it's our way and therefore it's the right way and therefore everybody else should be like us So when you go to Great Britain and they're driving on another side of the road, we don't stay there driving on the other side of the road. We say they're driving on the wrong side of the road. Cuz we're right. And it if they're not doing it the way that we're doing it then there is a challenge this it's an ethnocentricity with we we were so caught up in in our understanding in our way of things that when we travel to other places and of course, there's exceptions that prove the rule that when we travel other places, we don't go there to learn to discover or we go there in a sense to judge and then we want them to adjust to us, even though we're going into their reality. A few years ago Mark. Can I store and I have the chance to go to India together. That was hope givers International. Dr. Thomas invited us and we were speaking at a conference and and we were staying at the the Bible College there and they have orphanages all across India. And in many of the orphans that were there at the Bible school that they would work in the in the school there and and they were there to help take care of us. And and so they they were helping with meals and transportation and all sorts of stuff and I've been India several times and I love it and I love Indian food. I mean, I love it. I love the spice aisle of the heat. I love everything about it. I know it's not for everybody, but I love it. When we got there and on the way to their we ate some amazing meals great food when we got to the actual Bible College and we were there to speak and do all this other stuff and they were feeding us at the college. You start feeding us this Bland American dishes hamburgers, and I love a good hamburger, but I could see all the workers and the other people they were sitting around eating the real Indian food and they're giving me this Bland American food in like

That's why I started trying to sound like why why don't we get that? Why are why are you serving us and he began to tell me stories, but we're almost hard to believe but not pastors and donors and Americans that had come over to support the mission to see what was going on. And when they stayed there they were served these Indian dishes and and they complained told me stories of a people throwing plates down on the ground of yelling and cursing at the the Kooks for making things too hot and and so they just decided it was just easier when dealing with Americans to give them boring bland food so that they didn't have to deal with that sense of entitlement. What's in a broke my heart? And I broke my heart.

I bring this up because I think that when it comes to reading the scriptures. We actually do the exact same thing. We're going into a foreign culture. We're entering into a different lands a different way of thinking but rather than going in with an openness to understand how they saw it or what they meant or how they live. We bring our presuppositions our way of life our way of thinking and we superimpose it upon the text. Dealing with a book like genesis or really any of the books in the Hebrew scriptures. We are entering into a foreign land before and way of thinking they're written in foreign languages. They have different understanding of life and reality different value structures different modes of communication different figures of speech they use language differently than we do. They write differently than we do they hear and read differently than we do. The far too often rather than entering into that reality and I've been saying throughout this whole series we have to remember the Bible is written for us, but it is not to us. Far too often rather than entering into that reality. What did the author mean when he wrote it? What did the original audience here when they read it rather than doing that we go. I know how literature supposed to work. And I know how genealogies are supposed to function and I know how communication should be and they're driving on the wrong side of the road. It's a we read the text according to the ways that we would communicate. And when we do that, we we create trouble for ourselves that we just don't need to. Conflicts and challenges with the text that we don't have to fight over.

Is evangelicals and Protestants we've fought for a literal interpretation of scripture.

The often we end up in what I call a wooden literalism a literalism that doesn't acknowledge the differences in cultural context. That require us to Aunt understand figures of speech as figures of speech. We end up fighting battles that we don't have to so we start in Genesis chapter 1. It's a work of poetry and we want to read it like a science textbook because if we were going to sit down and write a book about the beginnings, what we would care about is material stuff, where did the stuff to him about? What were the process is? How long did it take? We would want accuracy and precision. I'd love charts and graphs. Some people want a spreadsheet others. Would we want these details? That's how we would write it. And so that's how we tried to read it, but it's not written that way. It's poetry.

Poetry above all other types of literature is full of symbolism and metaphor and it's not giving us something precise and in end in 10, but it doesn't mean that it's not accurate. We read it and go 7 days. So, okay the Earth had to be created in 7 days. Then we get the chance to chapter five names and numbers their ages. And so the math Geeks Among Us figure out how old the Earth is. So we take Genesis and we start counting back and we subtract the ages when we go.

Now I'll be honest the Earth might be 6000 years old.

But the Bible doesn't say that it is. battle for the mighty but there are other ways of reading the texts that are more faithful to the context of what the author was intending what the audience would have heard. But take us out of these pervasive and ridiculous battles between faith and science between the Bible and scientific discovery. We argue about did everybody really come from two people.

Adam was the first man Eve was the first woman. They're the only ones that so we we read this and we go if I was writing a history of mankind, I would give a detailed explanation of who was born and where they were and how many people there were and that's how I would write it. So that's how I read it. But it's not written that with Poetics on Genesis. 1:27. God made mankind In His Image male and female. He created them just a blanket statement that Adam was actually the first person when we get to chapter 2, we have a different account. Creates Adam specifically for a purpose to be priest-king in the garden. That doesn't mean that Adam had to be the first person.

That doesn't mean he's not. Listen carefully to what I'm saying? It doesn't mean that he's not but it doesn't mean that he has to be which means we don't have to fight with the biologists and chemists who are saying that it's impossible for everybody and Humanity be traced back to two people. Funnily enough science is always changing when I started this series 12 weeks ago, 15 weeks ago the absolute conclusive scientific basis was that Humanity could not have come from two people on. So there was a major battle now in that 15 weeks. There's been two studies that have been released that are challenging and turning everything upside down in the scientific Community about how it actually happened. And here's here's what he really Christians. Do we jump on those studies and we go and prove it.

Just wait cuz they'll be another scientific study. And that's the way science cuz we're always discovering. The Bible is not a scientific document to answer materialistic questions. It's trying to give us a theological interpretation and understanding of God's movement in history. And that's how we need to learn to read it when we learn to read it. That way we we get out of a lot of these other fights and we actually begin to hear. What God is trying to say through the text this morning as we look at Genesis chapter 5? I want us to understand together that biblical authors used numbers symbolically. The youth numbers symbolically that's a challenge for many in the Evangelical world because we want a literal interpretation for almost everything and we're not used to using numbers symbolically at least not in our literature. We use number symbolically in our conversation all the time all the time if I say to you this morning, my wife is at 10. What am I saying? That's right. I'm a lucky man is what I'm saying. My wife is a 10 years old my wife on a scale of her if I say to you on the phone. Where are you going to be here about 5 minutes. Do you set your your stopwatch for exactly 5 minutes? Some of you do and that's an illness and I'm praying for you. Or do you understand it as a figure of speech my sound be there 5 minutes I'm saying I'm going to be there shortly. It might be 2 minutes. It might be 7 minutes. It's it's just an expression understand that.

I want to present an argument this morning walk you through the text to understand that that the biblical authors and those that lived in the ancient near Eastern World used and saw numbers way more symbolically, then literally And way more symbolically than we do and if we want to understand what Genesis five is trying to tell us. We need to try to enter into their world. They used numbers differently. We use a base 10 system. Right? Why cuz we got ten fingers right tens adjust. That's how we kind of do it. They didn't do that. They had a base 60 system. They stop their hand to butt off the fingers. So each finger has three two, three, four, five, six, seven eight nine 10, 11 12 thumb does account. I don't know why Mom doesn't count 12 times. The five is 60. That's how they did their math. That's how they did their development. Everything was based off of a base 60 ancient mathematician basic sea goddess the 360 degrees in a circle base 60 got them to be able to build the pyramids and do all sorts of amazing things. That kind of Boggle are mine, but they were able to do things because they had an understanding of mathematics and physics and how the world works. But they approached it radically differently than we do I bring this up because these names and this list of the Patriarchs and the ages that are given Milwaukee sushi in a second. They fit into a base 60 number system in a in a surprising way and I think trying to tell us is that it sees numbers. are given to get us a theological message not a chronological hereditary account of who lives how long I'm not saying they didn't live that long. It's possible to text is telling us Methuselah really live to be 969 years, but I am saying to you this morning. It doesn't have to mean that because it's you the numbers are used symbolically in the ancient culture Matrix. I know it's a little small. So forgive me, but we got Adam down to Noah with three different categories. We get their age when they fathered their first son the first are we get the remaining years that they lived in when we get there total life span. When you look at this number this list of numbers one of the things that people much smarter than I have noticed is that the vast majority of them all but nine or 10 of them are immediately divisible by five of those that are remaining if you subtract 7 from them, they become immediately divisible by 5. There's one last Methuselah if you if you subtract 7 twice from him if he comes to visible by five simply from a mathematical stand because the chances The chances of all of these ages ending write with a zero or two or five or seven or nine is 0000006 % possible. Radically different than many of the other genealogical list that we find in the scriptures when you get into Kings and Chronicles and you get these list of names and the other chronology every single number is President. Right right here in these early chapters of Genesis. They're coming from a Sumerian Babylonian standpoint. They use numbers differently and they primarily used numbers to make a point. a theology

I'll be honest. I don't know what all these numbers mean cuz we're a long way away from that ancient near Eastern culture. But what fascinates me about this is that when you sit down and you actually look at them and you trace the numbers and you look at what's happening amazing things numbers in the scripture, right? When you add up all the ages of the Patriarchs from Adam going past this all the way up to Abraham you end up with this number 1212 thousand six hundred which is a significant number in the Book of Revelation. As a number of there are amazing things happening with numbers in the text about the number 7. Just the number 7 Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. How many words does it have in Hebrew? 7 Genesis chapter 1 verse 2. How many words does it have in the Hebrew? You want to say 17, but it's not it's for it. It's 14. Write seven seven the word Adam Lind Genesis chapter one appears 35 times the word Elohim the word for God Appears 35 times in Genesis 1 and 2 the word Yahweh the name of God Appears. Exactly 35 * 7 * 5 literally there are hundreds of these types of numeric values and symbolic uses of words in the text. The authors of the text were brilliant and intentional and they were communicating in the way. They use words and the words they use and the numbers associated with those words to give us theological messages.

If we read this text, we read Genesis 5 like we're on ancestry.com. And we think it's a detailed list of specific names and dates and times. We're putting our worldview on an ancient world view texts. I don't think that's what it's trying to do it all. Moses at the author not only of Genesis, but of the pentateuch has a point he is trying to make in the entire work. Moses at the one that is to leave the nation of Israel into the promised land is doing what he can to connect the people of Israel who are God's son. What is real is called God's son and lead them into the promised land. He is writing to connect Israel is God's son going into the promised land to Adam as God's son who was in the Garden of Eden and the point of these genealogies is to not give us a detailed history of who lived when and how long they live. It's trying to tell us that in God's perfect timing there was order and completion and that God brought it about for his purposes

Matthew many of you familiar with Matthew's genealogy of Jesus

Matthew the terrible historian

even up his own scriptures. Matthew gives us this genealogy starts with Abraham gets us all the way to Jesus when you read it like in the first listing in between salmon, he was a fishy guy. In between salmon and Boaz 300 year Gap. There's a lot of other people in there. Matthew just goes over him. When we get to the second column there in between Isaiah and jotham. He leaves out three dudes amaziah to cyan a manager who we know from other genealogies in the Old Testament where they but he leaves them out. Same thing on it between Josiah and jeconiah at least not to hike him. Why did you do this? Did you come to know the scriptures like him you do it because he was a poor historian know he did it because he was a theologian not a historian.

If we wrote history like that, we be raked over the coals. That's not how we do history. He doesn't care. He doesn't know how we do history. He's doing history how they do history. They do it for you. Logically. He wants to make a point from Abraham to Jesus. There's a sense of purpose and Direction and completion. So what he does is he give us three sets of 14? Right from Abraham to David any reuse is David again to go from David to Josiah and then from jeconiah down to Jesus. Explain write three sets of 7 * 2/14 to show us this sense of completion. He's not a bad to store Ian. He's a good Jewish theologian. This is how the Old Testament scriptures communicated. They did it all the time. It does not mean the Bible is untrue. The Bible is untrustworthy or that these things are made up and not real. Make sure you two pictures. Hubble Telescope love me some Hubble Telescope. What's this a picture of

on the general site will just say it's a picture of the sky. Can we can we go to that picture of the night sky?

What's this?

Starry Night by Van Gogh. What's a picture of Which one's right?

Which one's true?

They're both true. They take a radically different approach one. We can say is scientific. It's get at you trying to get us the most accurate high definition picture possible. Then goes not trying to do that. He's giving us an impression. He's trying to convey some emotions and some other things in it. It's not that starry night is untrue and the Hubble telescope is true. It's at their approaching truth from radically different perspectives. So if I say to you that in Genesis chapter 5 maybe Methuselah didn't live to 969 years. I'm not saying that Methuselah didn't live. I'm not saying that it's untrue. I'm saying that they're using numbers symbol logically to tell us something other than how old he lived.

We do this all the time in the scriptures. If you want to be super super literal. You come to Psalms and it says that God is like a mother. Hen that wants to hold us and hide us underneath his wings. You got to believe that God is a great Cosmic chicken.

Realist and figure of speech and metaphor is like a mother. Hen that wants to hold us and hide us understand. God loves us. God wants to protect us. We are Stan's the metaphor the figure of speech. We're not as used to it when numbers are used as metaphor in figures of speech. But they are.

Not only is there all sorts of evidence historically that the Sumerians and the ancient near Eastern context that the ancient Hebrews and Israelites came out of use numbers to all of the Kings list of the Sumerians are in base 60 just like that chart that I showed you they just add several zeros to him. You look at the Ancient King list of the Sumerians, they lived hundreds of thousands of years, but they're all based 60 exactly like what we see in Genesis chapter 5, which is out of the ancient Sumerians contacts. This is how and they didn't to give a message.

But more than that, there's internal. evidence in the scriptures Zippy's numbers means something different Let me show you this Genesis chapter 25 verse 7 & 8 these are the days of the years of Abraham's life a hundred and seventy-five years. Abraham has lasted died in a good old age an old man in full of years and he was gathered to his people now you and I read that in 275. That sounds like a good run. Right. Here's what the author saying Abraham died at 175 as an old man. He had a good life. He had a good run. We take those names and numbers in Genesis chapter 5 and Genesis chapter 11, literally. It doesn't make any sense because when when he died at that time his great great great great great grandfather would have still been a lie.

In any way shape or form. Do you say Abraham died at a good old age of 175 when his great-great-grandfather still alive?

How about this one Genesis? 17:17 Abraham and laugh. Cuz God made him a promise never God came to him and said I know you and Sarah are you having able to have kids you been Barren? I'm going to give you a child and Abram laugh. But that's why he named his son Isaac Isaac means laughter. He laughed listen to what he says. She'll a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old. Shuffle Sarah who is 9 years old. They are a child.

What if we want to interpret those texts and those numbers right? That way Abraham's father didn't have him till he was 135 years old.

So, why would he find it incredulous that a man would have a child at a hundred years old? You see what I'm saying? We have to think critically about the pack listen to what is actually trying to tell us when God comes and says you can have a child ski last white cuz nobody have kids that are hunted.

But we just have these genealogist in priorities in Genesis chapter 5 in Genesis chapter 11. It said they had kids when they were 300 400 years old and they lived 900 years old seven hundred years old. So what are we going to do is the Bible and trustworthy is not to be trusted. Is it internally inconsistent? No. Those numbers are being used symbolically to give us a few logical message.

We see it consistently throughout. Genesis chapter 5 in Genesis chapter 11 When you read this genealogy, let me just ask you this. Do you assume that it's a complete list like you assume that it doesn't leave anybody out.

I mean, I think that's the normal assumption right? Cuz that's how we would do things. Like if you were to put together your family tree for a school assignment and you just left out some branches. IPad you get graded on that. Not so I know we all got branches. We'd like to cut off what's beyond that's not Because how would we do it? We would give a comprehensive detailed precise list. That is not how the scriptures give genealogy Genesis 5:2 list of pens from Adam to Noah 10 from Shem to Abram 10. The aim was never to pass on an exact chronology. The aim was to connect Israel back to Adam 4C logical and Covenant all reasons. We get a list of 10 generations going from Perez down to David. Interesting enough in between salmon and Boaz the fishing guy. Remember we got 300 years Gap. This is the time of judges. Just went just what Matthew did in his genealogy Ruth doesn't Ruth chapter 4 and tracing this connection everybody every Jewish person that read this understood there was a 300 your gaps. They didn't care. Cuz it was not trying to give a chronological list, and it was giving a few logical message.

So, I don't know. Maybe there is somebody in between mahalalel and Jared. maybe there's 10 Generations in between their the point is the author is giving us symbolic numeric list to tell us and show us God's faithfulness between Adam and the promise of the Seed of Abraham and then Moses and the Covenant at Sinai.

how to step back and see the forest Can't just get stuck on the trees.

I don't know what all of them mean, but there's some interesting thing so we think about this. Is Big cultural gap between us and the ancient Hebrews in ancient Babylonian and ancient Mesopotamian culture in the list? He's the one that stands out because he didn't die. He simply walked with God Enochs going to play an important role in Genesis chapter 6 when we start to dig into the flood and things that led up to the flood. but you know if he's given the 7th position in the tenants a place of Pride and honor he's given the number 365 When you see the number 365 what do you think of the year? Did the ancient Sumerians Babylonians know the year and 65 actually they did. They had a different system. They had a different system, but they made up for it. They understood when Enoch is given the 7th position in this list in that list. He's the only one that doesn't and his number is 365 in numeric number for a year. You start to pay attention.

Sense of completion or sense of wholeness and Enoch that's lacking lamech. 777 years. Remember Les Mack was the first polygamist. He was a murderer who boasted in his murder. He was an evil evil, dude. This way Mac is a descendant of Seth. I don't know what mrs. Was thinking we named him lamech. Why would you nobody names their kid Hitler?

What why is he named and lamon? I don't know. Why do they make live 777 years with you here last week. We saw a mc2 boasted pain was protected seven times. I'm protected 77 times now, we have a descendant of change, but upset that he lives 777 Year's Eve alarm bells are going off of theological messaging you're not paying attention.

Text the same thing. It's just not what we think it's saying.

The interesting thing about Genesis chapter 5 is that the past is not ideal. I

We do that don't we? You ever been to a funeral where you somebody said something mean about somebody? I want to see that someday. I do it be honest. We honestly get up in a eulogy and just

tell it like it was but that's not what we do. We idealize the past. They never said a bad word about anybody everybody. Love them. But if you go to funerals exclusively you would think that every person that dies. with a saint cuz we idealize the past. What's amazing and beautiful powerful to me about what Moses doesn't Jennifer he doesn't idealize the past. He's not idealizing it. All the past is not idealized. There's this downward progression of evil away from the gardens and away from God. The point is that a seed is needed.

Just chapter 5 where's the seed? From Adam Seth now. I know Keenan Methuselah and Les Mack. They thought Noah was going to be at When Noah was born they named him. He's the one that's going to take the cursed rounds and make it something amazing. Now, I know I'm jumping ahead to chapter 6 and 7 and 8 but is that what happened? It looked like it didn't it? It look like it know it was a righteous dude. In fact, he's the only righteous dude on the planet at the time. The only one that's a mind-boggling statement. Now. Preserves him. It looks like in his great redo. Maybe Noah is the promise Thief. Maybe he's the one that's going to make everything right in the first story. We could have no Us coupons for Vineyard gets loaded. He passes out naked something weird happens with one of his sons.

Noah

we need another speed.

Are we supposed to do with Genesis chapter 5? Okay, so maybe the Bible's using numbers symbology symbolically in and it's getting us to see lots of Imaging is connecting Adam to Moses and this this great plan of God. What does that mean for me?

Wrestling with that all week long. Here's here's what it means for me.

It means it doesn't matter who my daddy is.

I need Jesus. No matter who my daddy is. another my granddaddy is Does it matter if I'm from the lineage of Cain of the lineage of Seth they all blow it?

That's what's going to be the great redo. He's not going to blow it like Kane to Seth lineage. They all died. They all brought chaos at the end of it in the middle of an absolutely perverse and destructive Society. So much so that God regrets making them and wipes them out. What's the point of Genesis chapter 5 it doesn't matter who your daddy is?

Unless God becomes your father.

Is Genesis chapter 5 like genesis chapter 4? Play Genesis chapter 3 like genesis chapter 6.

Should make us hunger.

For someone that can actually get it, right. Should make us hunger and thirst for somebody that brings order instead of chaos life instead of death. Genesis chapter 5 like all the scriptures without using his name points to Jesus. Genesis chapter 5 shows us we need the promised seed. Cool, we'll do what we can't do for ourselves. We need Jesus. So we get to Galatians chapter 4 when the fullness of time had come.

got time tables just weird

different he doesn't lay it out in detail for us to give us glimpses and pictures and mist. But he's got a timetable in a plan. And when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born a woman. Why do you say that? Does Genesis 3 15? The woman who trusts the seat of serpent Humanity had to be rescued through Humanity. The images had to be Redeemed by an immature. The Messiah had to come from and threw a woman Jesus comes at the fullness of time Board of woman. Now, we're going past Genesis now to the law born under the law.

And listen to how I finish this it says to redeem those who were under the law, which is really to be under the curse. So that we might receive.

adoption at sons and daughter

What that sink in this morning?

Is matter of Abraham's your father out of these Stones I can raise up Abraham's children. Jesus said it doesn't matter what your lineage is because what matters in the kingdom is that when Jesus came he gave us the right to be called children of God not children born of Flesh or of the will of man, but born of God.

Johnson V like all The other scriptures leading up to Jesus demonstrates over and over and over again our inability and insufficiency. to be truly and fully human because of our innate capacity for rebellion and stem I want it looks like the seed has come.

knots that nah, Tina. I'm a Hollowell. It's not Noah. Not Abram.

First are we going to Abram what tells his wife to pretend? She's a sister.

Not David. After God's Own Heart kill the dude so I can sleep with his wife.

Not your mind. That's not Isaiah. Not the great Italian prophet milatchy.

until the fullness of time when Jesus comes to give us the right. To be adopted and accept it. at Sons and Daughters of God

whole point God has a plan. And he's working it about. Bring about the Redemption that we so desperately longed for and truly me. And that's Jesus. a man