Gen.5 walking with God

Genesis 5 – The Ultimate Senior Citizen Chapter

          We are starting a series of sermons about Senior Citizen in the Bible and in our town. Mower County has one of the highest rates of retired men and women in the state. All you have to do is go to the grocery store to see how many SrCs we have here in Austin. They provide this county with some great people and wonderful models to live by. There are many who have church homes but many still needed to have a relationship with Christ and a place to worship.  Some people don’t mind being SrCs but others don’t like it. (Are you a SrC too?)

In Genesis 5 we have the listing of the line of Adam and Eve. In our day, if a person lives to be over 100, they are really old. Listen to the ages of the men when they died as listed in this chapter – Adam was 930; Seth was 912; Enosh was 905; Kenan was 910; Mahalalel was only 895; Jared was 962; Enoch was really young – only 365; Methuselah was the oldest at 969; Lamech was 777 years old. This is definitely the ultimate SrC chapter in the Bible.

          Let me say a little about the ages in this chapter. Many people have questioned the numbers listed in Genesis 5. How could anyone live to be 969 years old? What would the person look like at that age if they aged the way we do? Can you imagine the wrinkles that person would have? Men’s ears get bigger as we age – they would be hanging down to our waist by that time. Can you imagine how bad our knees would hurt by the age of 900? Some have suggested that the years are really months or maybe 1/10 of what we would have.  So Mahalalel was not 895 but maybe 89 when he died. But that would mean that he would have born a son at age 6.5 years old. I believe the numbers are accurate, but the atmosphere in the world before the Flood was different and plants and animals aged differently then. It might have been like a greenhouse where everything was protected from the sunlight so we aged differently.

          I want to look at just 3 of these men this morning – the last three in the chapter. Methuselah is the man who lived the longest on this earth – 969 yrs old - when he died. In our day he would have been of Social Security for over 900 yrs. All we know about him was that his father was Enoch; his first son was born when he was 187, that he had other sons and daughters, and that he died. That is not much information for that many yrs. We assume he was a farmer or a herdsman, and he may have been very good at it, but we do not know. Methuselah is like a lot of people who live and die and not much is known about him. He might have accomplished many things during his life, but we don’t know. There is a poem I use at some funerals called, The Dash – it refers to the dash between the date of birth and the date of death on a tombstone. All of the person’s life is represented by that little “dash” - certainly there was more to his life.

          Next let us look at Lamech. We know more about him than we do his father. The picture we have is a vicious man. In Genesis 4 we hear him bragging to his two wives: ^{Ge 4:23} Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. ^{Ge 4:24} If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” Lamech was probably more like the other men of his time – arrogant and violent. This is the generation and time that was so evil that God was sorry he had made men and eventually wiped them out with the flood at the time of Noah. Lamech acted like the gangsters in the movies who would kill another person without a second thought.

          There is a second short passage that quotes him – found in Gen.5.29 where is says this: ^{Ge 5:28} When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. ^{Ge 5:29} He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.” To Lamech God was the cause of all the problems of the earth. God cursed the ground because of the sin of Adam and Eve, but Lamech did not see that. He was a wickedness man probably for his whole life – 777 years. Are there SrCs like that?

          Now we come to Enoch. The main phrase that characterizes this man is “Enoch walked with God.” Read Gen. 5.21-24. (With the death of Fern Everson last week – I said over and over – she walked with God day by day.) At first we might feel sorry for Enoch since he only lived 365 yrs. He was a young man compared with all his relatives. He had a wonderful quality of life rather than quantity. Again we do not know what Enoch did – whether he was a farmer or what. We know he lived in the midst of a wicked people - listen to what God said: Genesis 6.5 “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. ^{Ge 6:6} The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. ^{Ge 6:7} So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”  That sounds like people in our age – some people. Can you imagine living in your whole life in that kind of atmosphere? Instead of wanting to do good for others, everyone is trying to hurt you. We are used to living in a fairly Chr world – but there are places where evil is the typical. (In most places in our world you just don’t lock your doors, you have bars on the windows.)

          Yet somehow Enoch was different from the rest – he walked with God. This reminds me of Adam and Eve in Gen.3 where it says God walked in the Garden in the cool of the evening, and they walked with him, talked with him and received his love directly. Enoch must have done the same. Why did he walk with God and not the rest of the people? I know that God sought people then and he does now. The big issue is our receptivity to God. It is like God is a TV station broadcasting on channel 4, but most people do not tune into that channel. God always has and does now want a personal, intimate relationship with people. I don’t know why – we seldom are very good company – we always fail him and break the bond between us. Enoch listened to God and walked with him.

Walking with God for Enoch was difficult for a number of reasons. Nobody else it seems was listening to God. In fact I am sure he was mocked and made fun of for his faith in God. No doubt the rest of the people had invented their own gods by this time, idols and images. But Enoch worshiped the one true God in spirit and in truth directly. He had purpose and fulfillment in life – Augustine said there is a God-shaped hole in our heart that only God can fill. Enoch found God and his heart was filled completely. I am sure he tried to share his faith in God with others, but they did not listen, none of them.

          Remember this was centuries before the Law of Moses, before the Temple, and before the sacrificial system. Enoch had no scriptures to read – we have both the OT and NT to encourage us in our Chr life – he had none. There were probably the stories about Adam and Eve, and all the others and how this God had work with them. Maybe these sustained him some.

Mostly I believe it was God reaching out to Enoch and drawing him to his side day after day. Listen to what is written about Enoch in Hebrews 11.5 &6:  “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” The passage say God rewarded him – he was no more because God took him away – directly to heaven so their fellowship could continue for eternity.

          What about us today? What does it mean to walk with God? Am I doing that – are we walking daily with him? That is what Christianity is – daily walking by faith with the Almighty God, the loving God. As Chrs he takes our hand or puts his arm around us and we walk. We feel his love and forgiveness because of Jesus Christ. He comforts us and challenges us – always helping us to be obedient to him in all of our life. There is nothing that could be more wonderful in the whole world than walking with God day after day. None of us are good enough to be taken directly to heaven like Enoch, but we have the best possible life walking with God.

           

           

Fern Everson

I just got a call that Fern Everson died this morning. She was the sweetest lady ever. She taught all the kids at church for over 50 years and baked cookies for people all over town. She will be missed. I do not know when the memorial service will be yet. A saint went to be with the Lord after a life well lived for Him. Steve.

Sermon for 8/28

Two Seniors Citizens meet Jesus

Luke 2.21-40

          All through the Bible there are people who loved and served God but we know little about them. We know about Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses and many others. In the time of Moses there were thousands of Jews some of whom I believe were fully committed to the Lord. We do not know about them since the Bible could not contain all the stories about all these people. At the time of the birth of Jesus we know about Zachariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptizer. This couple were committed to God and he rewarded by giving them a son in their old age – the joy of their lives – a strange but wonderful young man who prepared the way for the Messiah. There are two other senior citizens at this same time who were as committed to God as any of the famous people of their time. Let us look at them and learn from them.

          In Luke chapter two we see that Mary and Joseph had gone to Jerusalem from Bethlehem to present him to the Lord at the temple.  Every firstborn male was dedicated to the Lord and a sacrifice of two doves was made for him. These new parents were faithful to God in doing what the law required. They did not know, but this would be a surprising and wonderful day for them.

          Read Luke 2.25-26. There could be a more complimentary description of any man. We know little about Simeon except what is written here. At first I thought he must be a retired man from Jerusalem but the people back then did not retire. He might have been a butcher, baker or a candlestick maker or maybe a priest at the temple at one time. We do know he was an absolutely committed to God. He was righteous in his lifestyle and devoted to God completely. These are characteristics that all of us should want in our own lives. They do not come as we passively sit back and do nothing. Simeon was also looking for the fulfillment of the promise of God to send the Messiah to the people of Israel. I don’t know if all the people in Israel were looking forward to the coming Messiah, this man was.

          An amazing thing is recorded about Simenon here – The passage says the Holy Spirit was upon him. As Chrs we know the Holy Spirit is upon us, but Simeon was alive before Christianity was established. (He was a pre-Chr charismatic.) There were few if any in his days, who were filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die before he saw the Lord’s Christ or the Messiah. What an honor that was for him, and maybe that was because he was so devoted to God. We are not necessarily rewarded like this for our commitment to God, but sometimes God gives these special gifts. (I wonder if he had ever told anyone about this. He could have gone around bragging about this revelation, but I think he just quietly waited, prayed and worshiped God.) (There are many people who think they have a revelation of God about living until the Lord returns a second time. I wonder if that is true.)

          Read with me vss. 27 – 32. The Holy Spirit moved him to go to the temple that day and there he saw a poor couple holding a new-born baby. He rushed up and took the child in his arms and was overcome with joy as he praised God. The Sovereign Lord had fulfilled his promise of the Messiah in this tiny, fragile, baby. Here is the Messiah, the source of salvation for all people, for the Gentiles and for the Jews. The promise God made to the Jewish people centuries before was fulfilled that day and the blessing would not be just for the Jews, but for us, the Gentiles of the world. Do you see this? The one thing that gave Simeon his purpose in life – the promise of seeing the Messiah – was fulfilled completely. He could die now knowing that God had been faithful and truthful to him – he had held in his own arms the Messiah – Jesus Christ, the Lord God himself. (I wonder if he was surprised by this Messiah being a newborn baby instead of a man.)

There was one more message Simeon had for Mary and Joseph – read vss. 34-35. They were told this little baby would cause a tremendous change in the Jewish nation. Some would be lifted up to God by him, and others would turn away from God because of his teachings and his death on the cross. Even this couple would be pierced with a sword – figuratively – by this wonderful child.

As they were standing there marveling at what Simeon had said, another senior citizen came up to them and startled them – this was a lady named Anna. Read vss. 36-38. Again we do not know anything else about this wonderful lady than what we have here. She was very old – 7 years married and 84 years a widow – she must have been 110 or so. That is very old when people had a life expectance of 40 or so. This lady it says never left the temple – she lived there – she was homeless in a sense, but she lived in the best possible place – the house of God. Anna worshiped God night and day, fasting and praying. She is the first nun if you will, living not in a convent, but in the temple in Jerusalem. She was a holy lady who loved God with all her heart. She was a prophetess and there had not been prophets or prophetesses in Israel for a long time. As a prophetess she foretold the future and preached to the people, telling them what the Lord wanted from them in their lives.

Anna I think took the baby Jesus in her arms and praised God, thanking him for sending the promised Messiah. Can you see the scene? The worshipers in the temple were walking around in the temple area as they had done every time they came to the temple. But on this day first Simeon and now Anna was praising God because of Jesus. He was proclaimed as the one who would provide salvation and redemption for all people in the world. I do not think many really knew what was going on here. This was the beginning of the movement of God to start Christianity, the means of salvation for all. Her life was fulfilled – she had seen and held the promised one of God, the Messiah.

What do we learn from these two senior citizens?  First, we learn how to live – the greatest lifestyle is to live for the Lord. They were both righteous and devout believers, living for God. They were also knew God intimately.

He was the center of their lives, and he needs to be the center of our lives. Anna worshiped God day and night, fasting and praying.

These two knew the love and faithfulness of God, and they knew it for a long time. At camp a couple of weeks ago, I preached in chapel about the love has for kids. In the sermon I said I was older than anyone at camp and a lot older than most of them. That meant I had felt the love and faithfulness of God longer than anyone else there.

In their old age, God at times blessed with a very special holy gift – they got to see the Messiah, and hold him. In the midst of our struggles with pain as we get older, God blesses us with his presence, his love, and the absolute hope of eternal life when we will not only see the Messiah, but live with him forever. 

This morning we invite you to come and give yourself to the Lord.

Pictures from Eagle Center