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Friday, October 28, 2016

FAMILY HISTORY

Blogging Genesis chapters 5-6

When I was a kid in Sunday school, I learned that Adam and Eve had 3 children: Cain, Abel, and Seth.  I learned that because Cain murdered Abel all of Cain’s descendants were evil, but all of Seth’s children were good.  I learned that God chose Noah and his family to survive the Great Flood and restart humanity because Noah was a righteous man and the Lord wanted to preserve the good side of Adam’s family.   

Noah and Cain's grandson from the movie "Noah"
I learned a clean, easy to follow, simple story of Biblical family history.

I learned wrong.

Ten years later I learned that I had relatives I didn’t know were related to me because their connection to the family was a secret.  I learned that all of the families I’d grown up with had similar secrets.  It kinda broke me for a minute.

People prefer the clean, overly-simplified, incorrect version of our family histories.  We need the truth.

Young me, present me, and current you all need the truth about the first family so we can process the truth about our families.  So let me tell you three things my Sunday school teachers didn’t tell me.

#1.  Adam and Eve had more than 3 children.

After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. (Genesis 5:4)

Adam lived 800 years more AFTER Seth was born.  He and Eve had plenty of time for ---- you know what they had time for.

P.S. Nobody’s family tree is as straight and narrow as our public histories imply.  Every family  (Yes. Yours, too.) has secret marriages, forgotten divorces, unclaimed children, and other secret side branches that didn’t make into the back of grandma’s Bible.

#2.  Cain’s side of the family wasn’t the only side with issues.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)

Genesis chapter 5 traces Adam’s biological line through Seth.  Chapter 6 doesn’t mention a shift from that side of the family.  Chapter 6 also doesn’t mention Cain or his descendants.  So, if Cain’s descendants at that time were part of humanity’s widespread wickedness, they were only part of it.  Noah’s brothers and sisters were descendants of Seth the good, but God didn’t invite them onto the ark.  So, Seth’s other descendants were equally involved in the sinful culture of the pre-Flood world.

P.S. Tell the truth.  Everyone at your Thanksgiving dinner table doesn’t have a clean record either.  I mean they might not have been convicted, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t guilty.


#3.  Cultural or ethnic dominance does not equal moral or spiritual superiority.

There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:4)

The giants were the most famous, most powerful, and (probably) most admired people in Noah’s time.  In God’s eyes, they were also the embodiment of everything that was wrong with human culture.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. (Genesis 6:5-6)

P.S.  The household with the biggest house may not be the happiest family.  The ones in the trailer with the raggedy shed out back may be the most emotionally and spiritually healthy unit at the family reunion. 
Image result for simpsonsDon’t judge any person by their prosperity, appearance, or genealogical pedigree.  Not even yourself.    Our parents, upbringings, our history as a people---- they shape us and affect us, but they must not fully define us.

Who are we as a nation when our founding fathers turn out to be hypocrites, heretics, and opportunists?

Who are we as racial and cultural groups when our honored ancestors turn out to be not as universally honorable as we had thought? 

Who are we as children when the ancestors we revered turn out to be at least as much sinner as they were saints?

Who are we when ancestral villains turn out to be as heroic as the heroes, and our genealogical heroes turn out to be as sinful as the villains?

Who are we? Who are you?  The book of Genesis tells you.

The beginning of Scripture show us that no matter what family history produced you, God created you.  God created YOU, specifically YOU, in His image.  Claim that ancestry.  Define yourself by that genesis. 

Your genealogy describes you, but only God can define you.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

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Fairfield, Al 35064


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