Genesis 11:10-26
Waiting for Jesus

  1. Why Another Genealogy?
    Here we are at another one of those wonderful sections. Why is it here? What purpose does it serve? Sure, it's nice to look these matters up and make sure that Jesus is descended from all the right people. But does that make a whole sermon? Couldn't the Holy Spirit have inspired an Appendix to the book of Genesis, listing these statistics in a table for theology nerds and Crossword Puzzle enthusiasts? Instead we get it right here in the middle, interrupting the flow of the story, as though somehow this is part of the story, and an important part. Which, of course, it is.
    1. It Makes You Impatient
      1. Admit it!
        1. Do you think you're the first people in history to read hurriedly past these boring sections to get to the good part?
        2. Everyone else before you has read this passage slowly, savoring the strange names and adding up the years? Yeah, right.
        3. You want to flip past it and get to the good stuff.
        4. You feel sorry for the Pastor who has to preach this passage or look like a wimp for skipping it.
        5. You feel sorry for yourselves that you have to sit through this.
        6. Oh well, the pace will pick up next week. (Whoops! Next week's another genealogy. What's the deal with that?)
      2. Such a long list of names and numbers. You're not going to remember any of them. The people are insignificant; they don't show up later in the story.
        1. Come on! Let's get to the good part already!
        2. Tell me a story. Do anything other than reel off a list of people who live and have kids and die and don't do anything else.
        3. There's got to be more to life than just that.
      3. Aha! We're getting somewhere.
        1. You're dissatisfied with life and childbirth and death. You want more.
        2. This is life, but it isn't much of a life.
        3. Who will come that we might have life and have it abundantly?
      4. You're waiting for Jesus, the promised Seed of the woman.
    2. Which Individual Will Be the Godly Seed?
      1. This is what they were waiting for
        1. Had you forgotten?
        2. Were you so awed by the spectacle of a bunch of idiots building a tower to the heavens that you lost track of what this story is about?
        3. We're waiting for the promised Seed
      2. Remember the promise to Eve
        1. The serpent deceived her and so she fell
        2. God promises her that from her shall come the One who will triumph over the serpent and restore what she and Adam lost.
        3. And so she waited.
        4. And her children waited in faith, and their children….
        5. Lamech named Noah - meaning "rest" or "comfort" - hoping that Noah would be that promised child.
        6. But he didn't. When oh when will that Seed come?
        7. Where is Christ?!?!?!
      3. By the end of this genealogy, God won't have sent his Son.
        1. But he will have sent us a picture - Abram
        2. And we ought to be impatient for him, almost rushing through this list, to get to that picture.
        3. Think how much more the men listed here must have longed for this Son, Abram, to whom God would give a covenant of salvation.
        4. Are you impatient as you read through this? Impatient with the 2 minutes it takes to get to the good stuff?
        5. Are you impatient in this sermon series? You don't want to wait another Sunday to dive into Abraham and hear salvation declared.
        6. Imagine waiting as they waited
          1. Bearing children in their 30s
          2. Living 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 years after and still not seeing that child.
          3. How they must have hungered for him!
          4. They built no city; they stored up no great treasure here.
          5. At any moment the Savior might show up and restore them to Paradise in the Garden of Eden
    3. It Invites Comparison and Reflection
      1. Comparison with the previous passage
        1. We enjoyed the grand spectacle of the Tower of Babel
          1. It is a wonderful story; and certainly it exalts and glorifies God.
          2. We prefer it because of its drama and its epic proportions. It's a big story.
          3. Fools that we are!
            • This isn't a book of fairy tales. (If it were, the Tower of Babel story would be a much better story)
            • This is our story.
            • And if it doesn't end up producing a Savior for us, we're in deep trouble.
          4. Here is the part of the story we should long for.
          5. We're back on track now, concentrating on producing Christ, the one who will save his people from their sins.
        2. Salvation History Is About the Coming of this Seed
          1. It's not about building empires - towers that reach to heaven.
          2. It's not about faceless masses of humanity.
          3. It's not about crowds and multitudes
          4. History boils down to this:
            • It's about one Man.
            • And it's about those who wait for Him.
        3. Let us rejoice that the Seed has come
          1. The long and tedious wait is over (Surely a genealogy gives us only a glimpse of how long the wait was)
          2. Our eyes have seen the salvation of God
          3. We are privileged beyond comparison - No one in the OT had this privilege
          4. The Tower of Babel is certainly a grand story, an amazing event.
      2. Comparison with previous genealogies
        1. In Genesis 5 we saw an account of this godly line from Adam to Noah
        2. There as well, we saw men live and die in the hope of this Seed
        3. It's worth comparing this genealogy to that one.
      3. So we're comparing the godly line with the worldly line, and we're comparing the godly line with an earlier part of the same line.
  2. What's Different and What's the Same?
    1. Significant Numbers from Adam to Noah to Abram
      1. 10 Generations from Adam to Noah
      2. Another 10 from Shem to Abram
      3. The 10 from Adam to Noah end with 3 sons - Shem, Ham, and Japheth - one of whom will be the godly line
      4. The 10 from Noah to Terah (Abram's Dad) end with 3 sons - Abram, Nahor, and Haran - one of whom will be the godly line
        1. And Terah is 70 when Abram is born
        2. 7x10, a number of completeness to indicate that the fullness of time has come and the next great event is ready
      5. We have been right, then, in suggesting that Noah is a second Adam.
      6. And we have been right in comparing events before the flood to events after.
        1. For the events after deliberately recapitulate the events before, teaching us that Noah was not the answer
        2. Now the next answer, Abram, is being brought on the scene
        3. And he will be a better answer for it will become explicit that he is justified not by his own righteousness but by that of another.
      7. God's plan is sweeping, magnificent, and meticulous
        1. Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things whether it's 10 generations or 17 from Noah to Abram?
          1. No.
          2. But God isn't just concerned with "the grand scheme of things"
          3. He is control of every little detail
        2. Though it spans generations, centuries, millenia, yet he knows the end from the beginning and plans it out meticulously.
        3. He makes it all work out down to these little fluorishes
      8. You can trust this God to oversee every aspect of your salvation
        1. the tiniest detail has not escaped his notice
        2. He's made it perfect down to the last little bit.
      9. You can rest easy; he's competent to care for you
    2. No Explicit Death but Shorter Lives and No Enoch
      1. Genesis 5 gave us a genealogy that ended with a constant refrain
        1. "And so he died."
        2. This was to show us the universality of the curse because of Adam
        3. They lived - a long time - but eventually they died.
        4. Thus, that genealogy taught us to long for a Savior as well, one of whom "And so he died" would not be the final word.
      2. But in the middle of that genealogy, an exception was made
        1. Enoch did not die. He walked with God and was no more, for God took him.
        2. In fact, the main reason the chapter repeated "And so he died" over and over was to draw our attention to the one time it didn't.
        3. Hope was smuggled into the midst of that grim chronicle of death.
        4. Fellowship with God had not been wholly lost.
        5. By faith Enoch endured as seeing him who is unseen and God accounted it to him as righteousness.
        6. Enoch trusted in his Savior and was saved.
      3. This genealogy has no Enoch
        1. God is not going to continue picking a man here or there.
        2. We need to produce a man through whom all the nations of the world will be blessed.
        3. And this is the promise made by God to Abram and fulfilled in Christ.
      4. As well, the lifespan is decreasing
        1. The problem is getting more serious.
        2. Shem only lives 600 years
          1. That's how old Dad was when he went into the ark
          2. Back then, 600 was somewhat old, but not seriously so
          3. Dad lived another 350 years.
          4. 600 years and Noah passed through the judgment of God on all mankind and kept living.
          5. 600 years for Shem and he suffers the judgment that God pronounced against all mankind - death.
        3. Still 600 is quite an achievement.
          1. The numbers go down from there - 438, 433, 464, 239, 239, 230, 148 (!)
          2. We're almost down to current human statistics.
        4. The problem is becoming quite grave
          1. When you live to be 900+, you must seem almost immortal
          2. Now men are beginning to feel their mortality more.
          3. Something must be done; they can't go on like this forever.
    3. No Continuing City but These People Have Names
      1. Genesis 4 told us of the line of Cain who built a city.
        1. His genealogy ended with descendants who invented culture and science
        2. And with a man who boasted of his power on the earth.
      2. Genesis 5 compared the godly line to them - no city, no achievements, nothing but living and dying and bearing children in hope.
      3. Same comparison here between the godly line and the Babylonians.
      4. They build no tower with its top in the heavens
        1. The Babylonians did this because their home was here
          1. They were not waiting for God to give them a true dwelling
          2. They'd manage just fine on their own.
        2. But these men wander about with no permanent city to their name; they are waiting for the true city, the kingdom that Jesus would bring
        3. The Babylonians did this to make a name for themselves
          1. Yet in 11:1-9 none of them are named
          2. and in 10:1-32 only one, Nimrod, is named and his children, if he had any, are not.
          3. Who can name the others? Who were these men who sought so desperately to make a name for themselves?
          4. The only one named, Nimrod, is named so that he may be mocked.
        4. The only one who takes a name from this event is Peleg
          1. 10:25 - in his days the earth was divided
          2. They don't get a name from the tower
          3. But Peleg, who's mentioned again in this godly line, gets his name from God's response.
        5. these men of faith do not seek a name yet we know their names
          1. God gave them what the Babylonians wanted and couldn't provide for themselves.
          2. They have a name on the earth
          3. And we bless their names, each of them here listed, for these are the ancestors of Christ.
      5. Let us imitate their faith by waiting for his return
        1. Let the impatience created by this genealogy do it's work in you
          1. Long for the coming of Christ
          2. Paul describes us as groaning, waiting for the redemption of our bodies.
          3. He defines the Christian life as turning to serve the living God and to wait for his Son from heaven
          4. We are those who "wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ."
          5. We are those who "love his appearing"
          6. Hebrews also speaks of Christ coming a second time "to save those who are eagerly waiting for him."
          7. And doesn't the entire Bible end with the statement that Christ is coming soon. And John replies, "Amen! Come quickly Lord Jesus!"
        2. Here is the secret to the Christian life
          1. How can you be wrapped up in material things - money, cars, houses, earthly comforts - when you anxiously await the coming of Christ?
          2. How can you be overly concerned about politics when Christ is about to come and put an end to all earthly governments?
          3. How can you worry about the praise of men and making a name for yourself when Jesus is coming back. His name is above all names and his is the only opinion that matters.
          4. Life is more than food, the body more than clothing. Don't seek what the world seeks. Seek the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you.

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