Genesis 11: Let Us Make a Name for Ourselves

Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." (Gen 11:4 ESV)

"Let us make a name for ourselves." The people of Babel wanted to make a name for themselves. They wanted to be famous, and they were not the first with this designation. Back in Genesis 6:4, in the verses leading up to the Noah story, Scripture tells us of "the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown." Literally, "renown" is "men of the name." They were men who had made a name for themselves. This was in the era where things had gotten so bad that God determined that the earth was so corrupt that he would destroy the whole world. Now here, again, after the flood, people were saying, let's make a name for ourselves. Let's be like the men of old who had been famous. 

But God had made a covenant with Noah. The people at the time of Babel were among the seed of Noah and they were within that covenant relationship. God would not destroy them. He would be faithful to his covenant. Yet he would bring about a judgment mingled with grace. He knew that it would be bad for humanity if they were able to do anything they purposed in their hearts. He came down and confused the language of the people to prevent them from becoming self sufficient. If they remained unified in their plans they would not have seen their need for Him, and the line of the "seed of the woman" would have become indistinguishable from those around. They had to divide into nations so that the messianic seed would be preserved. 

And what is ironic is that God gave them what they wanted. They wanted to make a name for themselves, and God gave them a name--Babel--Confusion. Forever they would be famous. They would be remembered as the place where God confused the languages. God made a name for them.

Yet the story is not over here. In the very next chapter, Genesis 12:2 contains a promise to Abraham about a name. "And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." There is a contrast here. the people of Babel wanted to make a name for themselves so they worked in their own effort, and God made a name for Abraham because of his faith and apart from works. 

Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth. (Gen 11:9 ESV)

Genesis 10: Another Genealogy?

“These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.” Genesis 10:32

Genealogies! Why is it that the Bible has so many genealogies? As modern western people they drive us crazy. Nothing could be more boring than a genealogy. It’s like reading through names of a phonebook. Or is it? We’ve already looked at Genesis 5 and the genealogy of Seth, and we saw some very significant truths embedded within the passage. Will Genesis 10 be a repeat of the same? No. Genesis 10 is a different kind of genealogy, and it has some similar but substantively different lessons to teach us. 

Genesis 5 was a very formulaic genealogy. It repeated the same pattern over and over again, and there were three significant breaks from the pattern that we looked at. Genesis  was also a linear genealogy in which it passed from one generation to the next following one family line from father to son. Genesis 10 is different. This chapter is not linear in progression. It first traces the line of Japheth; however, instead of just listing one son, it lists all of them and traces each of their lineages. Then, comes the lineage of Ham—again tracing through each of his sons. The chapter ends with a genealogy of Shem. There are two significant facts about this genealogy which help us to grasp its meaning. First, at the end of each section of the genealogy it mentions that they were listed by their land, language, clan, and nation. Also, the chapter ends by giving the main point. Each of the sons represented in this genealogy was the father of a nation as humanity spread out from Noah’s sons. In fact, many of the names represented are actual names of nations. For example, Egypt is listed as one of the sons of Ham. While some translations just transliterate the name as Mitzraim, this is the word used for Egypt throughout the rest of the Bible. Cush is another nation and we know it as Ethiopia. Canaan, of course is a nation that had many interactions with Israel. Not only are character names equivalent with the names of nations, but the text also explains that these men were fathers of specific nations that we read about throughout the Bible. We know that Israel had many dealings with peoples like the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites. We see that Nimrod built cities like Babylon, and Niniveh. Elam and Ashur are also listed as sons of Shem. From these names we get the Elamites and the Assyrians. Probably one of the most significant, but maybe not the most recognizable is the name of Eber. The name Eber is formed with the same letters as the word Hebrew, and that is the line which Abraham came from. It is likely that the Hebrews derive their name from this ancestor.

There are other names that could be linked to peoples known from within the Bible, but my aim isn't to meticulously point each of them out. Rather, I think we should see that the point the author is making is that "all the families of the earth" come from Noah and his sons. We are connected in a biological solidarity. This becomes even more significant just 2 chapters later. In Genesis 12:3, God promises Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." The families that are listed in Genesis 10 are the families that will be blessed in the seed of Abraham.

The Blessing of Noah and the Curse on Canaan

And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, 

"I will never again curse the ground because of man, 

for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, 

summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:21-22 ESV)

Following the flood, the next part of the narrative of Genesis contains back to back accounts of blessing and curses. Genesis 8:20-9:17 records blessing. Noah offers a sacrifice to the LORD, and God says to himself that he will not destroy the earth with a flood again. God commands Noah's family with a re-institution of the same instruction that he gave to Adam and Eve--to be fruitful and multiply. God gave humanity the animals for food in the same way that green plants had been from the beginning. God reminds Noah that human beings are created in the image of God and of inestimable value. God makes a "covenant" with Noah--a promise never to destroy the earth by flood again, and he seals the covenant with a sign of the rainbow as an eternal reminder of God's faithfulness. However, Genesis 9:18-29 records a curse. It begins with Noah getting drunk and laying naked in his tent. In some mysterious way that is ambiguous in the text, Noah's son Ham dishonors him while his nakedness was uncovered in the tent. When Noah awoke, he cursed Canaan--Ham's son. The passage ends in an echo of chapter 5. "After the flood Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. 

God's word is revealed in a way that we often see patterns. What we see in this passage follows the same pattern of Genesis 1-3. Chapters 1-2 tell us an amazing story of God's blessing in creation. God has been good in providing all things good for Adam and Eve in the Garden, and he gives them a job to do. In the first part of our text, the same thing happens for Noah. God graciously gives Noah animals for food and he pledges his faithful sustaining power over the earth. He also commands Noah's family to be fruitful and multiply. Adam was a man who worked the soil--just like Noah. However, in Genesis 3 Adam partakes of a fruit, his nakedness is revealed, and he plunges the earth into a curse. Similarly, Noah partakes in a fruit, his nakedness is revealed, and a member of his own family is cursed. 

What does this teach us? On the other side of the flood, sin's consequences still hold sway. While Noah saved the human race in his obedience, he was not the seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3:15. The serpent was still at enmity with man, and death still reigned. While we can be thankful that man retains the image of God, we are reminded that we are still frail sinners, and prone to commit the worst of sins--even against our own family members. 

Yet in the same way that the curse of Genesis 3 contains a promise, so does Noah's curse. "He also said, 'Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem: and let Canaan be his servant.'" It was through the line of Shem, as we trace the genealogy, that Abraham was to come--and thus the messianic seed continued on. Canaan in the end was conquered by the generation of Israelites that Moses was writing to when he recorded this story. Moses's intention as the author must have been to show that God's giving them the land of Canaan was in continuation of the promises that he had made concerning the messianic seed.

What's the point here? How does this apply to us? Massively! This is at the core of our faith. Even though mankind is "evil from his youth," and even though the very people who God saved on the ark fell into sin again, God will be faithful to his covenant promises. So when we fall into sin, when we face the darkness of death, and when we find ourselves experiencing the discipline of a Father, we can know that God is faithful to us because he will keep his covenant promises. He will keep his promises to his people and to his Son.

Noah and the Preservation of the Promise

"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.' But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD" Genesis 6:7-8

The story of Noah does not happen in a vacuum. It is not a disconnected story with no relation to what has come before or after. The story of Noah comes at the end of a genealogy which connects it to the preceding narrative. The story begins with a perfect creation--Man and Woman created to live together in harmony in the Garden of Eden. Conflict is introduced--Man and Woman sin by eating of the forbidden fruit and introducing death to mankind. The plot is developed--God promises a hero would come to defeat man's enemy and restore the blessing of creation. The story progresses--the next generation continues in sinful patterns and escalates the violence of sin. Cain murdered his own brother, and every generation from Adam to Noah dies with one notable exception--Enoch, the one who walked with God. 

Now we come to Noah. By this time we are told that the earth was filled with violence. Mankind's thoughts were "only evil continually." The conflict of chapter 3 has escalated to the point that it is almost time to scrap the whole thing and start over. However, God will be faithful to his promise. God promised a hero who would be one of the descendants of Eve. If he destroys everyone and starts over he would be breaking his promise. So, instead, he has favor on one man and his family--Noah. 

Noah was a good man. He was "righteous in his generation." He wasn't sinless, but he "walked with God." God warns Noah that he is sending a flood, and he gives Noah instructions on how to be saved from the wrath to come. He gives Noah precise instructions that he is to follow exactly--and his life depends on it. Noah faithfully builds an ark according to God's design and he, his family, and all of the animals on the earth are saved, while everyone and everything outside of this boat is killed. God promised judgement and it came with certainty. Just as his judgement is certain, so is his promise. Though the earth was destroyed in the flood waters, God remembered Noah, and he remembered his promise to Eve. The flood waters receded, and the ark came to rest upon a mountain. At the end of the flood narrative we see Noah and and his family exit the ark along with all of the animals, birds, and creeping things--they came out of the ark "by families." This is similar to how the children of Israel exited Egypt, and marched in the wilderness, and took the land, arranged by families. 

This is the pattern that God uses throughout the Bible--salvation through judgement. God brings judgement on sin, yet he brings salvation to his people to preserve a messianic seed and to preserve a remnant who will bring him glory. We see the same in the Exodus. God judges Egypt and brings his people out. We see the same in the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego--they went through the fire and were saved without even smelling like smoke. We see it in the exile--Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were scattered but God preserved a remnant to be faithful to his covenant promises. We see it in the cross. God's judgement on sinners is poured out on Jesus for us and all who have faith in him are saved. 

The story of Noah teaches us some things that we see all throughout the Bible and which are essential components to the gospel. Judgement is real and certain and coming, and God has provided salvation through is appointed means. The same things are true for us. First, he is going to come in judgement--that is certain. We will all stand before his judgement seat one day and we will answer for everything we have ever done--even any careless word that we have spoken. Second, He has provided a way of salvation such than anyone who believes upon him will be saved from eternal destruction. That way of salvation is through the cross of Christ. Christ has come into the world and died as a substitute for the judgement we deserved for our sin. He is our ark and there is no other way of salvation outside of him. 

"But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided." Genesis 8:1

How Am I Going to Preach a Genealogy? Part 2

In the last blog post on this I treated how to interpret the text. What is the theological message that we should get from this genealogy in Genesis 5? In this post, I'm going to try to answer the question, "so what?"

Let's review the theological concepts of Genesis 5:

1. Humanity after Adam is still created in the image of God. Seth was created after the image and likeness of Adam who was created in the image of God.
2. Humanity has been broken and experiences death and the painful toil of labor. Every person listed in the genealogy except for Enoch experienced death, and Lamech acknowledges the desire for relief from the pain.
3. There is hope for eternal life and communion with God. Enoch was the grand exception to the pattern of death because he walked with God.
4. There is a Messiah who would reverse the curse, crush the Serpent, and bring relief to our pain. Lamech expected Noah to give rest to humanity from the curse upon the ground.

 Now how does that affect us today? I'll name two ways that affect us at Woburn Baptist Church this week. First, Dorothy, our piano player is in the hospital right now after having knee surgery. Second, another member, Jerry, lost his house to a fire this week. The concepts we see in this text connect to our current experience in this way. Why do human bodies wear out and experience pain? Because of the curse. We can do many things to try to relieve our pain. We can go to doctors. We can take pain pills. We can have surgery, but ultimately the curse of death that we have all inherited in Adam will take its toll. We will all one day die and after that face the judgement. This is one of the fundamental universal experiences of all humanity. We all want relief from this problem. The other problem is the futility of work. Solomon wrote of this experience. You work for a lifetime acquiring stuff, and you come to the end of your life and you leave it all to someone who didn't work for it. Jesus told a story of a man who horded wealth and didn't know that in that very night his life would be required. In an instant, we can loose everything. This is another consequence of the curse on the ground. Our labor will be futile. We can work and work all our lives, and in the end what we have can all be gone in a moment. This is another fundamental problem of human existence.

Lamech expected an answer to this problem. He was hoping in the promise that a seed of the woman would crush the head of our enemy and reverse this curse. He was trusting that God's provision would set all the wrong things right again. In this hope, he named his son Rest (Noah). In a sense, Lamech was right. Noah would be a man who saved the world. Noah was a type of Christ. Just as all those who were in the ark were saved from the flood waters, 1 Peter 3 says that all who are in Christ will be saved from death in Christ.

Jesus is relevant to our problem with sin's curse both in the next life and this one. We will be saved from death when we are resurrected at his coming, but we have hope in the midst of our painful toil now as well. We know that our labor is not in vain, in the LORD. God is working all things together for our good, so when our house burns down or when we are sitting in a hospital bed, we will know that our greatest treasure is Jesus, and while our outer man is wasting away our inner man is being renewed in Christ every day.

The message of the genealogy in Genesis 5 is a message of hope in the Messiah to bring healing to a broken world.

How Am I Going to Preach a Genealogy?

This is the book of the generations of Adam. (Genesis 5:1a)

I'm currently preaching through Genesis. We started with Genesis a few months ago and I felt like after completing chapter 3 we were at a good stopping point to do something different for a while. Last week I returned to Genesis 4 and I intend to preach up through chapter 11 before taking another excursion into something different. While I want to bring variety to the preaching diet, I also want to have the consistency of regularly systematically going through the biblical books. One of the reasons for this commitment is that I don't want to give into the temptation to skip over hard texts. This week is one of those weeks. In Genesis 5 we will look at the Genealogy of Adam through Seth's line. Genealogies are often looked at as boring and monotonous. However, because of my commitments, I'm not going to skip it. So, how will I preach it?

Options

There are basically three options I can think of for doing this. Two of these options are ones that I would not advocate, and one is the one I will be putting to practice. 

First, a preacher could preach through a genealogy going through and looking at the meaning of the names of each character presented. I would say that this is a mystical approach. The idea is that there is a hidden meaning in the names of the people in the genealogy and that knowledge of the original languages will reveal a hidden meaning of the text that isn't obvious to anyone else. While I'm definitely a proponent of the use of the biblical languages, I think this method falls short of faithfulness to the text. It falls into what is called the "word study fallacy." The problem with it is that texts have their meaning as words are put together into sentences. Looking at a word by itself will give you information about the language, but it's missing the forest for the trees! The meaning of the words is determined by the way that they are used, not their etymology, and not necessarily by combining all their lexical possibilities. While I've heard of people using this method before and church members being impressed, I think it misses the point. 

Second, a preacher could create a chart with all the lengths of the lives of all the people in the genealogy to try to show how old the world is. 

While I've seen this done before by people I love and respect, I think this misses the point as well. I am a six day young earth creationist, and I actually think there are a few things we can gain from this kind of exercise, but I don't believe this is the point. God didn't reveal these things to us to satisfy our curiosity about the age of the earth. I believe he had something much more deeply theological for us to understand. 

Finally, I advocate a literary approach. There are two principles that I will keep in mind as I describe this literary approach. First, the genealogies in the biblical text function as a bridge between narratives. Before this genealogy we see the narratives of creation, the Fall, the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, and a brief story about Cain's descendant, Lamech. The next major story in the narrative will be the Flood. The genealogy functions as a literary bridge from what has happened already to what is coming next in the narrative. It is showing us that all of these things are happening are connected. It is giving us a framework for the Pauline theology that all human beings are all descended from Adam and that the events that happened in the Flood narrative are further consequences of the Fall that had happened earlier.  Second, if we want to know what is significant in the genealogy, then we must look for the items which break the normal pattern. The emphasized points will be found in the variations.

Variations

The genealogy of Genesis 5 follows a distinct pattern. It goes like this: 

When (X) had lived (Y) years, he fathered (Z). (X) lived after he fathered (Z) (W) years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of (X) were (V), and he died. 

 There are three significant variations from this pattern that I see. 

1. Adam varies from the pattern. Instead of saying "When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered Seth," it says "When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth." This is significant for a few reasons. It shows us that the image of God from the creation narrative was passed on through successive generations. It shows us that even though sin had drastic consequences for humanity and introduced death, human beings are still image bearers of God. This variation in the pattern also does one more thing. It links Seth to Noah. It says "he fathered a son...and named him...." This is something we don't see in any of the following generations until you get to Noah, and it will be mentioned again later. 
2. Enoch varies from the pattern as well. It says, "When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he had fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.... Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." This break in the pattern does two things. It highlights an important part of the pattern. Everyone died! Every generation in the list ends with the words "and he died" except Enoch. From this we should see that the genealogy intends to show us that death came to all men through Adam--just as we read in Paul. However, Enoch is a significant break in this pattern. What does this mean? What does it mean that he walked with God? What does it mean that "he was not?" What does it mean that "God took him?" Each of those ideas are ambiguous in the text. It is hard to say with certainty. It has been traditionally understood that Enoch never physically died and that he was taken directly into Heaven just as Elijah was taken in a fiery chariot. Why didn't Enoch die? It can be assumed that it was because he walked with God. Enoch apparently had a close personal walk with God. We don't have any details telling us what this means. I do not think that it means that Enoch was sinless. Rather, Enoch walked in reliance on God. He trusted in God. I would guess that it means that he lived a life of faith in God. Unfortunately, we aren't given much information. Jewish apocalyptic literature abounded with curiosity and speculations as to what happened to Enoch, but as for the biblical record, we don't have much to go on. 
3. Lamech also varies from this pattern. Lamech was Noah's father, and he was also the last person in this genealogy to die. His record says "When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son, and called his name Noah, saying, "Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands." Just as I mentioned before, the only other person of which it is said, "he fathered a son, and [called his] name" was Adam. This begins and ends the genealogy with the same break in the pattern. Then it gives a reason for Noah's name. "He will give us relief." The word for "relief" or rest is built off the same word as Noah's name. So Lamech named his son "Rest." What would Noah give humanity rest from? Noah was expected to give relief from "our work" and from "the painful toil of our hands" because of "the ground which the LORD has cursed." These are all references to Genesis 3. The "painful toil" that Noah was to give relief from was the painful toil mentioned in the pain of childbearing from 3:16 and the pain of man's labor in 3:17-19. The vocabulary links these passages, but so does the author's explicit reference to the LORD's curse on the ground. In short, I believe that Lamech expected Noah to be the seed of the woman who would reverse the curse and crush the serpent's head. It is on this basis that I believe it is legitimate to preach Jesus from the genealogy here in Genesis 5.  

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, "Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands." (Gen 5:28-29 ESV)

 

A Fallen World

God created the world in six days. He created man and woman and placed them in a perfect garden paradise. Everything was good. There was perfect harmony between God and humanity, between man and woman, and between man and nature. God provided everything man needed and it was very good.

Then came the Fall. A crafty serpent spoke to Eve and convinced her that God was withholding something good. She believed the lie that she could achieve wisdom, a good gift of God, on her own. Seeking to become wise, she, and Adam, and all of humanity became fools. 

The serpent promised that as soon as she ate of the fruit her eyes would be opened, and he was right. Both of their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked. They immediately knew shame, and they hid themselves from each other as well as God. They had transgressed against their maker, and hid themselves with leaves. 

God had told them that they would die if they ate of the fruit, and they did. They were immediately cut off from access to the tree of life, and uprooted from the land that they had been given. They were alienated from God and each other--and so were we.

Yet in the midst of this judgment, they found mercy. The curse that was pronounced on the serpent contained a promise. One day a descendant of the woman would crush the serpent's head. This is the promise that underlies all of the Bible. The Old Testament authors told the story of Israel with this promise in mind. When Abram was promised a seed, it was in anticipation of the coming seed of the woman. When David was promised that one of his sons would always sit on the throne, it was in reference to this promise. The prophets looked forward to the day when the serpent's head would be crushed.

When Matthew and Luke tell us the story of Jesus life and ministry, they are careful to record his genealogy to show that he was connected in this line of seed. Jesus was the seed of the woman who came to defeat our enemies and set all things right.