Certain Death, Pt. 1

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We don’t like to think about death, but it’s something every person will have to deal with, eventually. Pastor Nick Gatzke opens a long list of names, numbers, and one unavoidable ending that shows up again and again. So what does the Bible say about how we should live in light of our mortality?

You know, it has been said that old rock hounds never die. They just slowly petrify. That old skiers never die. That they just go downhill. That old optometrists never die that they simply just lose their looks. That old salesmen never die that they just lose their line. And old tennis players never die. They lose their bounce. Old podiatrists never die. They just lose their souls. And old postmen never die. They just lose their zip. Old realtors never die. They just become listless.

And old doctors never die, they just lose their patience. Old architects never die, they just change their plans. And old plumbers never die, they just drain away. Old cooks never die, they just go to pot. And old farmers never die, they just get plowed under. Old bankers never die, they just lose their interest. And old dentists never die, they just get down in the mouth. Old fishermen never die. They just smell like it. Old quarterbacks never die, they just pass away. Old anesthesiologists never die, they just run out of gas. Old quilters never die, some of you are quilters. Old quilters never die, they just go to pieces. And old musicians never die, they just decompose.

You know, there are a lot of people that go through life thinking about death, but never their own death. They think about death as it applies to somebody else. We think that in many ways we can cheat death. And yet as we come to Genesis chapter five, we see that the overriding reality of this passage is the reality of death. And as cheesy as it is to give these tongue and cheek analogies about cheating death, we see that in this long genealogy of Genesis five, that there’s a common theme. And the common theme is that death reigns supreme in our human experience.

So open your Bibles with me. Turn to Genesis five, it’s found at the beginning of the scriptures, page four. And what you see here is a unique chapter in the Bible. This chapter, the entire chapter from start to finish is one long genealogy from Adam to Noah. And you might say, Pastor Nick, why are we gonna spend time talking about the names of people we’ve never met or heard of and how long they lived and who their children were? Seems like it might be a waste of our time. But what we’re gonna see in this genealogy are a few very important ideas that the Lord gives to those who read it. And so let’s look at Genesis chapter five together. And we’re gonna start out just by reading the first five verses. Genesis five, starting at verse one says this.

“It says, this is the book of generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female, he created them, and he blessed them and named them man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness after his own image, named Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. We see at the beginning of this passage of scripture that death interrupts our purpose. God gives a wonderful purpose. He gives a purpose that is found, and maybe one of the greatest blessings that we have as humans, and that is that we are made in his image.”

We are made in His likeness. We don’t often think about that, but it is one of the greatest blessings that you have in your life. And we were reminded of that a couple weeks ago as we looked earlier in this Genesis account. To be made in God’s image simply means that in many ways we are like God. And the truth of that reality defines who we are and it should define how we act as well. Now all of us struggle with different forms of insecurity. Some of us more than others. Some of us struggle with the idea of self -worth in this life. And all of these struggles in some way or another point to a lack of appreciation in this reality. That the Kingof the universe, beautiful in his being, perfect in every possible way. The one who embodies genuine love and balances that with perfect justice, that this perfect, majestic king has seen fit for me and for you to carry his image into the world. Wow, to be made in the image of God himself is a profound reality. And so our purpose in the very beginning.is to represent God, to enjoy his blessings. And even here we see that despite the fact that humans are no longer a perfect representation of God, by the time we get to Genesis chapter five, that sin has entered the world and its ravenous in its nature as it spreads throughout the human experience, that God still sees fit that humans would carry on his image as he had given to Adam, and Adam and his wife Eve give birth to Seth, who is found to be in their image and likeness and spread on down through humanity. But then we see that the curse takes hold.that the mood of the passage changes, and that as much as Adam and Eve have this wonderful blessing of God’s image and this purpose of enjoying what God has for them, that death enters and interrupts this purpose. As verse five shows us, Adam died. Look at it with me. We then get to the resounding theme of this as we look onto verse six, because Adam wasn’t the only one that died. Seth had lived for 105 years, verse six, and he fathered Enosh. Seth lived after he fathered Enosh, 807 years and had other sons and daughters, thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.

And when Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years, he had other sons and daughters, and thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. And when Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahaliel. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahaliel 840 years, and had other sons and daughters, and thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. Mahaliel, similarly, gave birth to Jared, he had other children, his full days were 830 years, and he died. And Jared, similarly, lived 162 years, he had children, his total number of years was 962, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. That’s it.

despite all of the human achievement that we saw in chapter four, the proficiencies in tent making and managing livestock, the fact that humans became masters of harp and lyre, the fact that humans became metal and bronze workers and even made weapons, despite all of the things that humans could do, one thing reigned supreme, every single one of them died. Martin Luther once said that every man must do two things alone in this life. He must do his own believing and he must do his own dying.

“The writer George Bernard Shaw once said that death has an impressive success rate. One out of every one person dies. And it would become the story of the rest of the Bible. As we saw the warning from God to Adam and Eve in chapter two, verse 17, the day that they would eat of this tree, the day that they would rebel against God, the day that they would sin, they would surely die. You press fast forward and you move it all the way to the New Testament. And Paul talks about this reality in Romans chapter five, verse 12. He says, sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sinned. So death interrupts the purpose that God gave us. This is the state that we are in. And yet even in the midst of this terrible”

“overarching theme, there are glimmers of hope. So let’s look at two of them. The first is found in verses 28 to 31. Move down to the end of the chapter with me. We see that only God can provide relief from the curse of death. It says in verse 28, when Lamech had lived 182 years, and if you were here last week, this is a different Lamech that’s talked about in chapter four. 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 should bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands. Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years and he died.”

After Noah was 500 years old, he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So, Lamech names his son Noah, and he prophesies about him saying that this one shall give us comfort concerning the work of our hands. And it’s a wordplay that we don’t recognize here in the English. The wordplay is that the word Noah and the Hebrew word for comfort, Naham, sound very similarly. And so, in naming his son Noah, it would call to ear, it would remind the people of comfort because the words were closely related. He didn’t know what God was gonna do through this son, and yet God…use Lamech to give a glimmer of hope to the people. And this is where we see maybe the main point of this passage, or at least part of it, and that is God alone, God and God alone can break the certain cycle of death. Nobody else can do it. It’s a dominant feature of life on earth, but God alone can break the cycle of death. And we see another glimmer of hope here. And that is as we read through this passage, there is one person who didn’t die. Look with me at verse 21. We have a whole list of eight people who had children and they died. And the description for them is pretty uniform, except for different names of children and different numbers of years on the earth. But when we come to verse 21, we see something about this man named Enoch.

This is what it says. It says, when Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. He walked with God. When you stop to consider the nature of that description, it becomes.Rather intriguing, Enoch is the only one that does not die. Here are just a couple of observations. Says he walked with God, he didn’t live. All of the other listings of people say so and so lived for this number of years he had a child and then he lived this number of years. For Enoch it says Enoch lived this many years and then he walked with God for 300 years. He didn’t live, he walked with God. There’s an intentional contrast that’s being made there. And this walk was not a short lived stroll through the park. This wasn’t a walk that happened during his morning devotions. This wasn’t a walk that happened for a couple weeks following that spiritual high that comes from the high school missions trip. This is the walk that lasts 300 years. And as we read the text we see in a highly abnormal fashion.This must be a walk that’s pretty special because it’s not mentioned just once. In the very short section of verses 21 to 24, it says in verse 22, he walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years, and then he mentions it again. Verse 24, Enoch walked with God and he was not because God took him. Think about the idea of walking with someone My grandmother’s name was Lucille Gatzke. Lucille was a stubborn German woman. She was short.

She was quirky, but she loved her grandchildren dearly. And one of my favorite memories of her was when Amy and I were fairly newly married. My grandmother was not one to sort of bestow advice upon people. But she sent us a card, and I don’t remember if it was for a birthday or a holiday, but in the card it stuck out to me that she gave some very clear and direct advice. This is what she said. She said, make sure that you try to take a walk together every day. It gives you the chance to hold hands and talk. Make sure you talk.

What does it mean to walk with someone? What does it mean to walk with God? As I try to picture the life of Enoch and how this must have played out, I’m struck by the fact that the description is so short and yet so powerful in its nature and obviously powerful in its effect that it distinguished him from every other person on earth. And with the exception of just one other, every other person in history, that I want to be one too that is identified as walking with God. How is that for a defining characteristic of your life?

“with all the things that you could do or all the things that you could be defined by or all the things that you could pursue, all the things that constitute the good life, but that people would say about us, not just that he lived, but he walked with God. What does that mean, to walk with God? Well, the Bible actually talks about this a lot more than you might have realized. There’s a number of descriptions. Let’s just look at a couple of them together. Walking with God means having faith in God. Now that sounds rather pedestrian, and yet we see in Hebrews 11, verses five to seven that Enoch is listed in this hall of fame of faithful men and women throughout history. This is what it says. It says, 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’s impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Through the ups and downs of life, this faith was the thing that was constant for Enoch. And it was credited to him as being pleasing to God. What kind of faith is pleasing to God today? Well, Colossians chapter two, verses six and seven tells us, it says, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, this is the faith in God that we have today. Not faith in simply God the Father, but also in God the Son. Since you have faith, since you have received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk in him.”

rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Faith in the Lord Jesus establishes us and continues to build us up in a type of walk that’s pleasing to God today. It’s not a one -time decision. It’s not something that merely happens when you come forward and pray in response to a sermon. It’s not something that happens simply in the quietness of your own heart. Those things are true and they’re good and they are in many ways the initiation or the first step in your walk with God, but there are a lot of steps after that. Ongoing faith in the Lord Jesus is an ongoing faith in the person of God, and it constitutes walking with him. Now this type of faith is, of course, applicable to all of us.”

But I think today specifically of you who are young moms, this type of walk with God is the daily dependence upon him to provide you strength when the little kids are out of control, when it feels like the inmates are running the asylum. This type of walk with God is the walk that says, Lord, I depend upon you for wisdom. I’m gonna walk with you because I know even though I can’t feel my way out of the chaos, that is my current daily experience that you will accomplish your purposes in the long run as I walk side by side with you.

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