The Descendants
Genesis • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Robert Frost has written some of my favorite poems. Maybe it’s because he was an American poet, or maybe its because he was first published in England. Or maybe its his plain, thoughtful, and almost melodic way of writing.
Even if you’re not familiar with Robert Frost, you are likely familiar with one of his poems called:
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
When I was a teenager I made every excuse possible to drive my parent’s truck. It was an older beater truck they paid $300 for. The man who owned it before us hauled fire wood in it, and the sides of the truck bore the marks of many pieces of wood that didn’t quite make it into the truck bed. It was an old, green, Dodge truck. Rear wheel drive. With a column mounted, three speed, stick shift. The linkage that connected the gear shift to the transmission was extremely worn. you had to be careful when shifting from first to second or else the linkage would slip and you’d be stuck in first. Many times I got that truck stuck in first while driving to church. I got good enough at realigning the linkage that I could open the hood, hang over the side of the truck, and fix the problem without getting my church clothes dirty. Well, at least not too dirty.
One place I loved to drive the truck was in the already mined areas of the Peabody strip mines. It wasn’t too difficult to drive around the gates, or open a gate that others had broken open before me. Once inside the mines there were miles of gravel roads to explore. One day, I hopped in the truck with my friend and we took off for the mines. As we wandered around the hills and valleys made by the huge mining equipment I noticed a well-worn dirt track up the side of a pretty steep hill. I pointed our 2-wheel drive, bald tired truck between the deep ruts and gunned it. We jerked forward, the tires spun, we slid sideways, and then the whole truck dropped a foot and jolted to a stop. I had high-centered the truck.
No cell phones. No one around for miles. No other vehicles at home to help get me out of the situation. And I wasn’t exactly suppose to be driving around back there. The Peabody mine wouldn’t want me driving back there. And I’m pretty sure my mom didn’t give me permission to be there.
Two roads. The road with lines, and markers and speed limits and defined directions. Or the road that was “less traveled by.” The road that was an experiment in self determination. I chose the road less traveled by. And, it made all the difference. My truck was stuck. It took me the better part of two hours to jack up my truck and walk it inch by inch out of the ruts.
When we read Robert Frost’s poem, we’re likely to think that taking the road that is “less traveled” is the nobler, even the righteous, choice. But that’s not Frost’s point. He’s not giving a moral argument for taking one or the other road. He’s just saying that the choice he made set him on the path he is on.
And that’s sort of the truth.
Two paths do exist.
One path is the path of God.
Listen to these familiar Psalms:
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
God has a path for us.
Proverbs tells us:
Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
The Bible tells us that God’s path is a good way, and that we find peace and rest for our souls in it. It tells us that God’s path is narrow, but straight and level so that there is no cause to stumble in it.
But there is another path. The path of self determination.
Adam and Eve started life in God’s path, so to speak. He planted a garden, and gave them everything they needed for a happy, fulfilled, and productive life. He only asked that they not eat the fruit from one particular tree. His path. The path of obedience, was a path filled with good things and bordered by a simple fence—a law to protect them. A law of love.
Adam and Eve saw God’s path, they saw the fence there, and metaphorically they drove around the gate to find their own path. A path of self determination.
Ever since Adam and Eve, humans have been taking the “path less traveled by.” We’ve been making our own way in the world. It’s so common that we find a certain pride in being our own person, and making our own way.
The Sons of Men
The Sons of Men
As soon as Adam and Eve started making babies they saw the results of their path of self determination.
Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!” Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.
When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground.
These two young men were made by the same people. They both learned about sin from Adam and Eve. They both saw the angels guarding the gates to Eden. They both experienced the training of their parents in confession and repentance and sacrifice. One of them chose the path of God and the other the path of self determination. It wasn’t their choice of work—both sheepherding and gardening are noble, God-ordained, professions. The problem was a deeper issue that touched on the deep problem that Adam and Eve had thrust humanity:
When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.
God had outlined a path. A way for Adam and Eve and all their children to worship and receive the gift of God’s grace. That way was through the sacrifice of a lamb. Every sacrifice was an act of faith in what God would one day do through Jesus. Every time they brought a lamb to the altar they were affirming their trust in God’s path of salvation.
But Cain decided there was a better way—the road less traveled. He decided to make his own path. He still brought God an offering, but not one that demonstrated his faith in the promise of a Messiah. He brought an offering of his own hard work. Like a good Buddhist might do, Cain brought a bunch of food to God, as if he could avert God’s judgment by showing off his diligent effort.
“I’m a good guy, God. See how hard I work? I’m doing what you said, I’m producing food through sweat and hard work. You should be pleased with me.”
But the Lord did not accept Cain’s offering. He was not pleased. And neither was Cain. Cain got angry. Very angry.
This same scenario had played out before with Cain’s parents. God had given them a path, and they chose the path of self-determination. Immediately they knew something was wrong. They were filled with shame. They ran to hide from God as he looked for them in the woods and called after them.
This time it played out very similarly. God called out to Cain in his anger, “why are you so angry? Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right then watch out!” (Gen 4:6-7)
In love, God has laid out a path that will fulfill us, provide us with joy, enable loving relationships, and ennoble our characters. It’s the path of peace, and hope, and pleasure forevermore. And still we choose our own way. A way that’s riddled with potholes and ruts. Our road is windy and dangerous. Our road leads to our own destruction and harm to others. God was right to tell Cain, “Watch out!”
But Cain didn’t listen.
Instead, He planned and carried out the first murder—the first human death the universe had ever known.
Even after that terrible murder, God came to Cain and called out to him again. “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!” (Gen 4:10)
Something had to be done, so God sent Cain away from Adam and Eve’s home with a mark on him to identify him as the one who had rebelled against God, and to let people know that his judgment was in God’s hands, not theirs.
These words from Genesis 4:16 are close to the saddest words in the Bible:
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
He could have repented. He could have brought the lamb. He could have left his own path and followed God again. But he didn’t. Instead, he left the presence of the Lord.
The next several verses list some of the descendents of Cain. They were noble people with great skill and artistry. But they followed Cain’s example and stayed away from the presence of God. One of his descendants, Lamech, prided himself in being worse than Cain. One day he called his two wives into the house and told them,
One day Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
listen to me, you wives of Lamech.
I have killed a man who attacked me,
a young man who wounded me.
If someone who kills Cain is punished seven times,
then the one who kills me will be punished seventy-seven times!”
This is the first record of polygamy in the Bible, and the second recorded murder. Do you hear his arrogance? The theme of his prideful poem is “I’ve got this. I’m the best. I’m unique among men. I choose my own path.”
The Bible doesn’t dwell much on Cain’s descendents—just enough to show us they were on the wrong path. Let’s call this the path of men. Cain was a son of Adam, a son of man. According to what we know, all his children followed that same human-designed path.
The Sons of God
The Sons of God
In Genesis 4:25 the story switches back to Adam and Eve and their home just outside the gates of Eden.
Adam had sexual relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to another son. She named him Seth, for she said, “God has granted me another son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.”
What follows is a long list of descendants.
This is the written account of the descendants of Adam. When God created human beings, he made them to be like himself. He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them “human.”
Luke says this same thing in a little different way when he gives a written account of the descendents of Adam.
Kenan was the son of Enosh.
Enosh was the son of Seth.
Seth was the son of Adam.
Adam was the son of God.
God had designed humans to be His children. Adam was His son. He formed him and created him. There is no other truer father than the God of creation. Adam’s children should have been known as the children of God, not the children of Adam. But not every descendant of Adam chose God’s path. Every one who chose the path of self-determination was known as a son of man. Those who followed the repentance of Adam back to the path of God were known as the sons of God.
Genesis 4:26 records the birth of Seth and Seth’s son, Enosh. And here are recorded some of the most beautiful words in all the Bible:
To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Cain gets the notoriety of having descendents who have left the presence of the Lord to practice bigamy, pride, arrogance, and murder.
Seth has the distinction of descendents who call on the name of the Lord.
Adam’s descendents continue in chapter 5 with Kenan and Mahalalel and Jared who is the father of Enoch. And, as if to underscore the generational transmission of the worship of God, the Bible tells us that
Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
It’s not a long statement, but it does tell us something important—the path of God leads us back into the presence of God. Enoch is literally living proof.
The record goes on to tell us of Methuselah, a man whose name seems to have been a prophecy. The two root words that make up Methuselah’s name mean “death” and “to send, or let fall.” Methuselah died the year the flood waters fell.
Then there was Lamech who was the father of Noah, a name which means, “may he bring us relief from our work and painful labor...”
The Bible only hints at what was going on in the background of this geneology. It doesn’t tell us the nuances of government, or the behaviors of the people.
The only things we know about this time are the two places where Enoch’s story is told:
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
and
It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
From Hebrews its clear that Enoch was walking in God’s path. He had faith in the coming Messiah, and trusted God to save him.
From Jude we see a little bit of culture of His time. we find that Enoch was a prophet who told people that there would be a judgment, that God was coming to deliver the faithful and to bring judgment on everyone who followed their own path. Obviously, Cain’s descendents were really doing a number on the earth by the time of Enoch. And, it seems that by his day, even the sons of God had doubts about what God had promised. Why else would he have to remind them that God promised judgment on evil and deliverance for those who have faith in Him?
The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men
The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men
Genesis 6 looks for the briefest moment at those turbulent times.
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
Do you see what’s going on in this passage?
Some people would like you to believe that the sons of God are angels who corrupted themselves by mingling with beautiful women and their offspring were giants. But that’s not remotely close to the truth. Jesus makes it clear that Angels can’t procreate. No, the sons of God in this verse refers to Jerad’s kids, and Enoch’s kids, and Methuselah’s kids. These are the noble men and women who were following God’s path, until they decided to go their own way. The verse says it plain as day, “and they took as their wives any they chose.”
They chose their own path.
Just like Adam and Eve.
Just like Cain.
Seth’s children started to choose their own path. How could they continue to be sons of God if they had left the path of God? Not only did they choose their own path by marrying the descendants of Cain, they also adopted all their evil practices.
Because they lived so long, the influence of one person’s skepticism and doubt and self-determination was impacting the entire world. So God cut back on the life-span of humans; dropping the average age from 900 to 120.
The Bible says that in those days there were giants in the land.
In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.
There are two ways to interpret this verse. First, that the result of the sons of God and daughters of men intermarrying was a race of giant warriors. That’s a little sci-fi for me.
The second way to interpret this is that the noble race of humans who lived before the flood were giants. Remember, this book of Genesis was written by Moses to the people of Isreal. In just a few short years they would be going into the land of Canaan where there were giants living—angry, powerful people who had no interest in Israel occupying their land. But that story of faith is a story for another time. Even later than that, we find David fighting a giant of a man called Goliath who the Bible says was 9 feet tall.
So, where did the giants come from and where did they go? The Bible proposes that people have been the subject of entropy. We started out Godly and became self-absorbed. We were designed to be giants, but grew into midgets compared with our ancestors before the flood. We lived hundreds of years, but now only live a few dozen years before our bodies give way to disease and death.
This is yet another example that demonstrates the truth of our message today—there are two paths that we can choose and the path we naturally choose leads to sin and destruction and death.
The words that wrap up this section of Genesis are hauntingly familiar to the culture and times we are living in today:
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Conclusion: From children of men to Children of God
Conclusion: From children of men to Children of God
We have two paths.
The path of self-determination leads to certain death. No matter how good it looks, no matter how much pleasure you get from it, no matter how religious you appear, the path of your own choosing is a path of destruction.
The path of God is the path of surrender and faith, the path of peace and salvation.
Have you been determining the course of your life?
The way that you’ll spend your money, or your time. The friends that you’ll entertain? The person you’ll marry? The Pleasures you’ll indulge in? The work that you’ll do? The school that you’ll attend? Where you’ll go for vacation?
We have a choice: we can determine our own life-path, or we can surrender ourselves to God’s path.
What if you’ve been on that barren, hopeless road of self-determination? Is there a way back to the path of God? Is it possible to go from being a son or daughter of men, and get back to being a child of God?
Yes.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
Maybe your life has been a spiritual desert. Examine yourself and ask if you’ve been headed down your own path. Maybe, like my old truck, you’re high centered between two deep ruts and there’s no way for you to get yourself out of the mess you’re in. Jesus’ promise i that he will make a “way” in the wilderness and make a river spring up in the desert.
in the New Testament Jesus reminds us that He has always been the way. He is the path of God. He is the lamb that pointed Adam and Eve to have faith in the Messiah. He is the path for all God’s children.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
This idea of following God’s path was so engrained in the early Christians church that they are known as the “followers of the way.” (Acts 9:2)
God’s way is the only path to eternal life.
His way is the only path to fulfillment and peace.
Are you following your own path of self determination? God invites us:
Proverbs 3:5–6 (NKJV): Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
He has a path for each one of us, and for us as a church.
About a year ago we went through a period of prayer and exploration to find God’s path for this church. We outlined several key points that we believe to be part of God’s design for this group of Christian in Bonners Ferry. They include things like discipleship, being good neighbors and sharing the gospel with our community. We envisioned a church where everyone is welcome, and where the gospel of Jesus is boldly shared through all of us, not just the pastor. We envisioned a variety of small groups meeting all around Boundary county to disciple members and new believers. We saw you and young adults being made a priority—just like Jesus who said, “let the little children come to me… for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” We saw a church contributing to the well being of the community in significant ways. And possibly most importantly, we saw a church that was humbly and diligently praying.
Our vision may not have been perfectly clear. We may have gotten a tiny point wrong or missed an emphasis that God wants us to add. But we saw the path of God for our church. A path of faith and surrender. A path of loving relationship. A path of gospel labor.
This is God’s path, and it’s a path I’d like you to recommit yourselves to following.