Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Genesis 5 | Date: November 18, 2018 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, please, to Hebrews chapter 11. And then, after you get there, put a marker there and turn back to Genesis chapter 5. I have been thinking recently how important it is to have men and women in the church who are faithful and encouraging in the ministry. And from a pastor’s perspective in particular, how important that is. Pastors look at it pretty much the same way, but with a different viewpoint. But we look at people of the church and we see those whom God has sent to be a blessing. And we realized that we can’t have a church by ourselves, that it’s not enough to preach. The Lord has to send people, not only to come and attend, but to put their shoulder to the wheel and to help and to be a blessing in the congregation.

I remember, it’s got to be 10 years ago or more, just after I got here to RBC. I remember standing in the back with Pastor Boyd, and Dan and Betty walked in just to head up the service time and we greeted them. As they walked past, Pastor Boyd said, “Those two people have been a blessing and there’s never been a moment that they’ve been anything but a blessing in this church.” I thought, That is so cool. What’s cool at RBC is we have so many people like that. I remember a Sunday morning in, I think 1986—it might have been 1985. A young pastor, and our church was, I think, 40 people or something like that at the time, and a struggling congregation. And one Sunday morning, I was still in the parking lot, and five people walked in, and little did I—I could not have known at the time what a wonderful blessing they would be. It was Rick Kantner and his wife, it was Dean Cook and his wife, and Kenny Wingle as well. Later, Billy came along as well. I could never have known what a wonderful blessing they would be to me and to the congregation.

They came, as I recall, just after a time of some difficulty in the congregation. And for the next 16 years of my time there, it just was nothing but happiness that we had at our congregation. The Lord blessed in wonderful ways. And these men here were a big part of that. I was a young pastor, late 20s, and I’m trying to learn and study. And one day, Dean came up to me. He had just landed a job at Alcoa Aluminum in Schuylkill Haven. And they give—was it profit sharing that you used to get? I hope you still get it. But he came up to me one day and said, “Do you have any books that you’d like to have?” “Yeah,” and that’s when I started keeping a list. And he said, “Well, I get profit sharing every however often it was.” And he said, “We’re going to go down to the Christian bookstore down in Wilmington, and I’d like to get you some books.” So I prepared a list. And he came back, I don’t know, with a few bags of books. It was just like heaven. And every time profit sharing came in, he would bring back some more books for me from the list, and I’d cross them out. I was just devouring everything I could find to read. And it was just an enormous blessing to this young preacher at the time. And he said at the time, “I figure it helps you learn and grow. It helps the rest of us.” And I said, “I like the way you think.”

That was just a marvelous blessing and that went on for some time and he fed my habit wonderfully. Rick Kantner very soon showed as well, all of them steady, steady in the ministry there; and Rick immediately shows leadership qualities, just a stabilizing influence in the congregation. His mind just steeped in the scriptures. And he eventually became a deacon in the congregation, served in that for many years. We asked him to become an elder at one point. He said he really wasn’t interested in that. So we let it go. Then I think after I left then, he became an elder in the congregation. He’s just finished 10 years now there. I wasn’t able to get back for the celebration for that, but just an enormous blessing and nothing but a blessing in the congregation. Billy as well came along. I forget when, but it was a long time back. I remember your baptism when they were baptized in the swimming pool, I remember, at the Dolben’s house. But these people were just a wonderful blessing to me and a blessing to the congregation and the church there for many years, and they still are. And I’m just grateful to see them again this evening. It’s good to have you guys with us. Pardon my nostalgia.

The Roots of the Doctrine of Resurrection in the Old Testament

Genesis chapter—we’re going to look this evening into the subject of the resurrection. We have talked about the subject of life after death. We started out showing that God has created us as two-part beings, material and immaterial beings, and that the soul is able to survive death. In fact, the soul does survive death, and for the believer, we saw that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. On one level, that’s not a desirable thing to be apart from the body because that’s what Paul calls “naked” in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It’s an unnatural state for the soul to be separated from the body. But in that state, what we call the intermediate state, we are present with the Lord and still, even though it is unnatural in that respect, it is still better. In fact, Paul calls it “far better” because we’re in the presence of the Lord.

We saw then last time that for the lost at death, they go immediately into punishment. We saw that in 2 Peter 2. We saw that particularly then in Luke 16 with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. We saw that in 2 Corinthians 5, Paul said that what he’s really looking forward to—although it is so much better to be with Christ than even to be here in the body—what he’s ultimately looking forward to in his great desire is to be in that final state, the eternal state, the state of resurrection, when the soul is rejoined to the body and raised at the second coming of Christ.

And it’s that subject then now that I want to look at tonight, and I think we’ll look at it the next couple of times as well. What I’m going to do this evening is back up. I decided to take the time to do that this evening. Next time, we’ll get more specifically into the doctrine of the resurrection. This evening, what we’ll do is look at more at the roots of the doctrine of resurrection in the Old Testament. Where does this doctrine come from? We find some passages later in Revelation coming in Isaiah and the prophets and things, and Daniel in particular, affirming the resurrection of the dead and the time to come. But where did that doctrine come from? And that’s what we’re going to try to explore this evening. We’re going to see that there are some hints of it, sometimes little more than a hint, but we’re going to explore that kind of background to it this evening.

And I thought I would begin with Genesis chapter 5, and I will try to explain later how this might bear on our theme. Verse 28: “When Lamech 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.'” We’ll come back to that in just a moment.

A Back to Eden Theme

Again, we’re looking at the roots of the doctrine of the resurrection. To do that, I’m not going to take the time to have you read all of these verses, but you can think with me. I will assume you’re familiar with some of these passages. In Genesis chapter 1 and 2, God creates man and woman from the dust of the ground, and he breathes into Adam the breath of life. So again, we find right from the beginning that man is dichotomous, material and immaterial, body and soul, that we are created. We really don’t have anything there about the resurrection, but at least looking back at it, we can say if God can create out of the dust and breathe into it the breath of life, at least we have this already announced that God is able to raise the dead if he can create out of nothing.

We come to chapter two of Genesis, and you remember there are two trees that are introduced to us. There’s the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and there’s the tree of life as well. Later in chapter two, there is the one prohibition that comes, that is, don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day that you eat of it, you will die. And then we come to Genesis chapter 3, and we have, of course, the first sin and rebellion in humanity. And Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge and good and evil. And the consequence of it, of course, is death. But we also then, late in chapter 3, come across the tree of life again. And it tells us there that having eaten from the tree of knowledge and good and evil, that access to the tree of life now was prohibited. It was blocked. God put an angel there, said, “Don’t let him back in.” And in fact, it says in Genesis 3:22, “lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.”

So this tree, at least in some symbolic sense, the tree of life offered immortality. And not to eat of the tree of life meant certain death, because it was an immortality that Adam and Eve did not have, but could obtain through the eating of the tree of life. So barring access to the tree of life meant certain death for Adam and Eve. Well, then that leaves the question: will God ever again grant access to the tree of life? Don’t ask me how that would give immortality, I don’t know. At least in some symbolic sense, the tree of life promised immortality. And the question then is, would God ever again grant access to the tree of life?

Well, if I can jump ahead a little bit, when we come at least to the prophets, elsewhere as well, but particularly in the prophets, and then finally in the book of Revelation, we have a very prominent “back to Eden” theme. Back to Eden. That is, not even just back to Eden, but back to Eden and beyond. That is, it’s going to be back to Eden, but even better than that. And we find several passages like that in the prophets. Usually it’s cosmic in perspective, looking at the whole created order and a reversal of the curse, a rebirth of the created order, and so the hills are shouting, and the hills bring forth milk and honey and much wine, and we find even the animal creation affected by it. Isaiah chapter 11: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the young goats, and the calf and the lion and the fatted calf will lie down together. The cow and the bear will graze. The lion shall eat straw like the ox.” You’ve remembered some of those kinds of passages in the prophets, particularly in Isaiah.

In that back to Eden theme, we also have, and sometimes very prominently in the prophets, mention even of the resurrection of the dead. We’ll come to this again later, but just here for a quick mention, Isaiah 25 and verse 8: “He [that is God] will swallow up death forever.” Isaiah 26 verse 19: “Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy, for your dew is a dew of light and the earth will give birth to the dead.” Fascinating metaphor, isn’t it? Earth is pictured as a womb giving birth to the dead. Resurrection plainly prophesied.

That all comes to a climax in Revelation, particularly in Revelation 21 and 22. And there we have that back to Eden theme. There’s the tree of life and there’s the river and many of the allusions back to Genesis. But it tells us that the tree of life is there and it’s yielding fruit every month. The symbolism is again, back to Eden and even better than that. And it tells us that in Revelation 22 in verse 2, the tree of life in the New Jerusalem is there for the healing of the nations. So we have this back to Eden theme, and in this back to Eden theme, we have the doctrine of resurrection.

Hints of Resurrection in Genesis

Again now, our question now is, where did they get that, and how did it arise in the scriptures? Well, I think the answer has to start with what we find in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. God promises a champion who will come to defeat the tempter, and the implication is he will not only defeat the tempter, but he’ll fix this mess that the tempter has created. Ultimately, that has to mean a reversal of the curse, an end to death. Does it mean necessarily resurrection? A reversal of death? It doesn’t quite say all that, of course. Ultimately, that is what that means. But it doesn’t say all that, of course, in Genesis that early on. But this is where the answer begins. A champion will come, and through him this curse will be reversed.

Another hint comes, then, in Genesis chapter 4 where Cain is born, Adam and Eve’s firstborn, and Eve says in chapter 4 and verse 1, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” I suspect what she meant by that is that she thought that Cain would be the one who was promised in Genesis 3:15: “I’ll put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and he—he, that is this male offspring of the woman’s seed, woman’s offspring, a male descendant—will crush your head.” And I suspect we get to chapter 4 when she says, “I have begotten a man with the help of the Lord,” she’s thinking, at least hoping, that this is that one who was promised who would do it.

In verse 2 then in chapter 4, she gives birth to Abel. Well, surely it’s got to be one of them who’s the promised offspring who will crush the tempter. But then when we get to verse 9, Cain kills Abel. And now we know that Cain, rather than that promised seed, is the seed of the serpent. And the other one, Abel, is dead. And now it seems like the promise has been reversed, not the curse. The promise itself has been reversed. Well, we get later in chapter 4, we have verse 25, and we have the birth of Seth. And there it tells us, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel.” The Septuagint rendering of that is interesting. It’s a word that means “to raise up instead of.” He’s raised up for me instead of Abel another offspring, and that is Seth. I suspect—one person said this in a book that I read a long time ago, and I suspect he’s probably right—that all of this may have begun a new way of thinking about resurrection, but at least we have here that she is expecting now another one instead of Abel.

Chapter five: Enoch, verse 24. “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” He, of course, is the exception in chapter 5 with the repeating refrain, “and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died,” and then suddenly Enoch was not, for the Lord took him without death. And this is where it may have begun a new way of thinking about life after death. Now, it doesn’t say anything about resurrection. Again, we’re not really there yet, but it at least announces that God can cheat death anytime he wants to with anyone that he wants to. If he can take Enoch apart from death, well, then it leaves it open that God can cheat death anytime he wants. If he can take someone before death, then it’s a small step to say that maybe he could take someone after death and raise him. Again, these are just hints looking back at it. I don’t think they could have seen all that quite yet, but there it is.

And now Genesis 5 verse 29. Verse 28: “Lamech lived 182 years. He fathered a son, called his name Noah, saying, ‘Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief.'” He named his son Noah, which means “rest.” He named his son Rest, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one will bring relief, a rest from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” Now notice some of the language there: “The ground that the Lord has cursed.” “Work.” “Painful toil of our hands.” Does that ring a bell? That’s Genesis chapter 3 verses 17 to 19 when God pronounces judgment on Adam for his sin and there’s a curse on the ground and it is through labor and toil that he will have to make his living through the sweat of his brow. So evidently what God had said to Adam in Genesis 3 had been passed down. And now Lamech hears that and he says, “Now maybe in this one who is born, Noah—I’ll name him Rest—maybe he will be the one who will bring relief from the curse because of Adam’s sin.” Now, why did he hope that Noah would bring all of that to an end? I suspect he hoped that because of Genesis 3:15, where God promised a champion who would come. Did he expect a reversal of death in resurrection? Again, I don’t know that we can say that quite yet, but he is asking for an end to the curse, which at least would be then an end to death, if not its reversal.

Death and Recreation

All right then. We turn the page a little further and we come to Genesis chapters 7 and 8. And here we have something of the death and resurrection of the world on a cosmic level. The world itself goes through death and then resurrection again. There is a very striking—and I’ve done this before, some of you may remember—there’s a very striking similarity between Genesis 1 and 2, God creating the world, and Genesis 8 and 9, where the world is restored after the flood. A lot of the same language is used in both, within the middle, this de-creation. We have creation, de-creation in the flood, and then recreation in the scenes after the flood. We won’t take time to trace those down. I’ll mention some of them for you.

In Genesis chapter 1, of course, we have the Spirit of God hovering over the newly created world to bring forth order. And then in Genesis chapter 6, we have the Spirit of God striving against the sinfulness of man. And then, of course, comes destruction. And again, after the flood, we have the Spirit of God hovering over the world to bring about order out of the chaos. In Genesis chapter 1, we have the Spirit of God separating the waters to bring about order and creation. In Genesis chapter 7 and 8, at the flood, we have the waters above collapsing. Rather than God separating the waters, we have the waters above collapsing, the waters below the earth surging up, and then afterward, after the flood again, we have the waters receding. Creation, de-creation, recreation. Genesis 1, we have the dry land appearing and filled with plants and animals and human life. And then in Genesis 7 and 8, we have all life destroyed except for eight human souls and the animals that were on the ark. And then again after the flood, we have plant and animal life and human life again flourishing and blessed. Again in Genesis 1, humanity is blessed. God made them and blessed them. Genesis 7 and 8, we have humanity cursed under the judgment of the flood. And then in the recreation, they are blessed again to be fruitful and to multiply. Well, there’s the death and the resurrection of the world on a cosmic level. Again, this is not resurrection per se, but it is in a real sense bringing life out of death.

Abraham’s Faith in Resurrection

Now, I think we come to make much more track a lot faster when we come to Genesis 21 and 22, particularly with Abraham. First of all, again, this one is just a hint, but in Genesis chapter 21, we have life granted—and I’m going to put it this way—life granted to a dead womb. And I say it that way because that’s somewhat how a barren womb is described in the scriptures. And if you think that’s stretching a bit too much, in the ancient world, sterility was considered the functional equivalent of death. And in fact, in the scriptures itself, it is represented sometimes that way. And particularly with Abraham and Sarah, Paul picks that up in Romans chapter 4 and verse 17; it says that God gives life to the dead and calls out of existence the things that are not. And in fact, verse 19, he says he brought forth the promise from Abraham’s body, which was as good as dead. A kind of resurrection. And that same thing in turn occurs with Rebecca, with Leah, and with Rachel.

And we track, I think, a lot more now when we come to Genesis chapter 22. And this is when we have Abraham’s trust in God to preserve the promised seed in resurrection. In Genesis chapter 21, God promises Abraham that “in Isaac, your seed will be called,” or the promise will be fulfilled. Genesis chapter 22, then, we have the challenge, where God comes to Abraham and says, “Now take”—well, verse 2 of chapter 22—”take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering.” So in chapter 21, God says, “Your promise will be fulfilled through Isaac.” And now in chapter 22, he says, “Go take Isaac and offer him on the altar.” Which Abraham does, almost.

And you have to ask then, how could Abraham do that? I think we tend to look at the men in the Bible as somehow super-saints, not like us. We need to realize they were made of flesh and blood just like the rest of us. As James says of Elijah, men of like passions like the rest of us. How could he actually go through with that and offer his son, especially when God had promised that through Isaac the promise would come? Well, that is why I had you turn to Hebrews chapter 11 because there the answer is given to us. I have lost my place. Hebrews chapter 11, look at verses 17 through 19:

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise was in the act of offering his only son, of whom it was said, “through Isaac, your offspring shall be named.” And here’s the catch: He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.

That’s how Abraham could do it. Abraham reasoned: God can’t lie. God can’t break his promise. God promised that he would bless and I’d receive the promise through Isaac. He’s asking me now to offer him on an altar. If I go through with this, God will have to raise him from the dead or God will break a promise. That can’t happen. And so he said, “I believe God will then raise him from the dead to fulfill the promise.” And on that ground, believing that God would raise the dead to fulfill his promise, he goes through with offering Isaac. And of course, God stops him at the last moment.

The point here then is that Abraham believed that God could, and if necessary would, fulfill his promise in resurrection. He did not believe that God’s promise in Genesis 21 was nullified by his command in Genesis 22. He says, “This will have to be God’s problem to fix. He promised; he’ll have to do it in resurrection.” Alright, we at least now have it on biblical grounds that Abraham believed that God was able to raise the dead in order to fulfill his promise.

The Patriarchs’ Resolve to be Buried in Canaan

Now this last one that we’ll look at, I think the last, is a little more complex yet, and so I’ll have to ask you to listen and think tightly as we follow through the thinking on this. But in Genesis 25 and following now, we have the patriarchs’ resolve—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph—their resolve to be buried in Canaan as an expression of their faith.

Before we begin on that, let’s review the promise that God gave to Abraham. Genesis 17 verses 7 and 8: “I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings.” That’s again in chapter 12 as well, chapter 13. It’s reaffirmed to Isaac in Genesis 26, the very same thing; the very same promise reaffirmed to Jacob in Genesis chapter 28: “To you and to your offspring, I will give you this land.” Now in Hebrews 11 and verse 9, we read, “By faith he [that is Abraham] went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.” So God promised him a land. Abraham says, “I’m going to believe God that he will give it.” And so Abraham goes to the land, trusting the Lord to keep his promise.

Now, Abraham never received that land. Never got it. The only spot of ground that God had promised to Abraham that Abraham ever received was the cave at Machpelah, which Abraham purchased himself so that he could be buried there. That’s all he ever obtained of it. And now Hebrews 11 and verse 13: Abraham died in faith, not having received the promise. I believe God will give it. He hasn’t, and he died believing that God still would. So Abraham died still expecting that God would come good on his promise. When? How would God come good on the promise now that Abraham’s dead? Is it too much to say that Abraham believed God would fulfill that in resurrection? Well, we already know Abraham believed that concept with regard to Isaac. We’ve already seen that. And is that why it was important for Abraham to purchase that cave in order that he could be buried there? Well, you think maybe that’s not enough to go on.

Let’s pursue it a little bit further. Isaac, then, was buried in the same cave. Jacob, down in Egypt, you remember, late in the book of Genesis, ordered that he be brought back when he died so that he could be buried in the same place. And then Joseph asked that when he died, his bones would be brought back up into Canaan as well. Why? Why was it important for Jacob to be brought back up there? Why was it important to Joseph that he be brought back up there after he’s dead? Well, again, Hebrews 11 answers us in verse 22: “By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, gave direction concerning his bones.” By faith, he said, “Take me back up there. God’s made a promise. He hasn’t come good on yet. He will. So even after I’m dead, take me back.” Evidently, what Hebrews 11:22 is saying is that Joseph believed that God would fulfill the promise in resurrection.

Now, it seems to me that without an understanding of the resurrection, these Old Testament saints would have died thinking that God had failed to keep his promise, but rather they died believing that he would fulfill the promise evidently in resurrection. And in fact, Paul affirms, I think, the same when he says in Romans chapter 4 and verse 13 that Abraham is heir of the world. The promise expanded, but the promise kept nonetheless. So the resurrection hope is alive, it seems, with the patriarchs.

Let’s look at one more passage then, Deuteronomy chapter 32. Here it’s later yet. As you remember, it’s Moses now, four hundred years, five, six hundred years later now, speaking to Israel. In verse 39, Deuteronomy 32 verse 39: “See now that I, even I am he, there is no God beside me. I kill, and I make alive, I wound and I heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.” Here I think we have the first unambiguous affirmation or anticipation of the resurrection—that God is the one who not only kills, but he’s the one who makes alive afterwards.

All right, we’re past the hour. I wanted to get just a little bit further, but it will take me too long, so I think we’ll stop there and pick it up next time. Let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer. Rick Kantner, would you pray for us, please?

“Our Father in heaven, we are dependent upon your word for our own resurrection. You hold the power of life and death. Your Son said he holds the keys to death and hell. Lord, we know that what you say you will do, you will do. Lord, we live in hope. We die in hope, knowing that you are the God of resurrection. Lord, because of your Son’s resurrection from the dead, we know that he is our captain. He is our leader. What he does, we will do. Lord, we know he has secured our resurrection. Lord, that’s good to know. That’s comforting to know that you have not abandoned us, but you will come for us. We know that even now, when we pass away, Lord, we go to be with you. But you will not leave our bodies behind forever, Lord. You will come for them as well, and we thank you for that.

Help us, Lord, to believe these things. Help us, Lord, to think these things through, to live in the light of these truths. We thank you for your word that gives us such hope. We thank you for your word that teaches us how to think about these things. Lord, we know death no longer has the power it once had, because your Son has been victor over it. Lord, because he has won, so will we. We thank you, Lord, we can know that our loved ones who have died in Christ will rise again. Their bodies will rise. We thank you for that, Lord. Thank you for doing for us what we could never pull off on our own. Thank you for securing our salvation complete to the end. And one day, Lord, as Job said, we’ll stand before you with our flesh, we’ll see our Redeemer. Oh, Lord, how we’ll rejoice and thank you for what you have done.

We thank you, Lord, for this, as Fred said, the Eden motif, that one day we’ll go back to the Garden of Eden far better than anything I’ve ever even known. We’ll know Christ; we’ll be one with your Son. Lord, thank you. Thank you for this time. Thank you for Fred’s teaching. Thank you for your word. Thank you for this church that teaches your word. We thank you and bless you for all of this. In the name of Jesus, our Savior.”