Sermon Snippets

They say the "two certainties in life are death and taxes".  I assume whoever 'they' are came up with that phrase to emphasize the omnipresence of taxes. But of course we all know that death affects us all.

Approximately seven times in Genesis 5, the author dresses up an otherwise monotonous genealogy with the cold hard truth, "and he died".

Death is an overriding theme and ever-present reality even with Seth and his descendants, who are supposed to be the 'good' side of history's first family (vs. Cain - 4:17-24).

Most of us don't like to dwell on it too much, but we are all mortal. We aren't guaranteed a certain amount of time in this life.

But as is common, the author of Genesis places some hopeful details within an otherwise dark story:

• Enoch (vs. 21-24) doesn't actually die. Why? He "walked with God". He had a close relationship with his Creator and pleased God by his life. 
• Noah (vs.28-31, 6:8) also stands as a symbol of comfort and relief from the curse of the ground mankind has to deal with because of the Fall.

It becomes a consistent theme as the rest of Scripture's meta-narrative unfolds - those who walk with God have hope, even when the world is crumbling and death threatens us.

Death is a certainty in life. But it's not the end and it's not a certainty that saps all hope and meaning from this life.