Generations of Adam

Introduction

Thus far in Genesis we have seen the creation of everything including a us close view of the creation of man and woman. Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, were places in paradise in Eden. Here was a world without the stain of sin, a perfect world. This did not last long though before they brought sin into the world by blatantly going against the will of God. There was a promise though that the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent and this is what they await. They then have children and wonder if it will be one of these children that will accomplish this promise from God, it becomes clear though that it is not one of these children. We see sin is here in all of man and it is increasing.

Genealogies

This all brings us to a head that we see here in Chapter 5. This chapter is a genealogy that takes us from Adam to the next main character in this book.

Genealogies serve several purposes in the Bible. One purpose is one that you can all appreciate, this family line takes us through a lot of people in a short amount of time. We cover a large amount of history through the book of Genesis and other books of the Bible and we stop at certain points of this history to see key people, these family lines carry us from one key person to the next without having all of the information about the life of that person. So they summarize a large portion of history.

The next purpose that they hold is to trace something, we are promised that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent, these family trees trace the line of the seed of the woman. They show us the promised family line that this prophecy will be fulfilled through. For the genealogies that are not a part of the promised line we see how they contrast with the promised line. This is like the descendants of Cain that we looked at last week, they are contrasted with the descendants of Seth that we see tonight.

In the New Testament the genealogies call our mind back to all of the stories of the Old Testament, instead of going back through them the genealogy briefly goes through the people and we are to remember who they are and what they did.

So as you can imagine, or even do, genealogies typically do not get read much or just skimmed over but they can hold gems of the Bible for us to uncover. Tonight we will seek to uncover some of these gems in Genesis 5. But first lets pray.

The Story

Genesis 5:1–2 ESV

This is the book of the 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.

These opening verses introduce us to a new section in the book of Genesis, it starts with the characteristic “these are the generations of” or for a technical word toledot. The content of this section calls our minds back through what we have read in the last few weeks of our study before we jump through all of these generations.

So what does this tell us as a rehash of the previous scripture. First that we are created in the image of God, the imago dei. Our bearing his image gives each of us value and shows us the grace of God because we are not worthy of his image. Second it tells us that we are created male and female. This is Gods design for sexuality, there is no switching or being something all together different. Finally we are blessed and called man. This calling of man is not gender specific, this is a broad type: mankind. Then this blessing, this blessing comes with the divine mandate to be fruitful and multiply. This is only to be done within Gods design of marriage. This marriage is to be between one man and one woman and in it they become one.

So in just a few short verses we are reminded of a lot.

Genesis 5:3–5 ESV

When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him 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.

So Adam has another son and names him Seth like we see in the end of chapter 4 he is to be replacement for Able since Cain killed him. Adam lives to the ripe age of 930 before he dies, in this he knows almost all of the people from this genealogy, Lamech who is born in verse 25 would have been 56 at the time that Adam dies.

Genesis 5:6–20 ESV

When Seth had lived 105 years, 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. When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died. When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.

These men, outside of Seth and Enoch, do not occur anywhere else in the Bible. They are simply a link in this genealogy. This is important though because this is how we can come up with timelines. Without this information we wouldn’t know how far apart Adam and Lamech are or any other important bits of timeline material.

Genesis 5:21–24 ESV

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.

Enoch here stands in contrast with the Enoch in the tree if Cain. We see that he lived an upright life, the term walking denotes a deep ongoing relationship. He was close to God and lived for God. Because of his life he did not suffer death but instead God took him. How crazy is that.

Enoch is even mentioned in the New Testament because of this passage right here. First he is mentioned in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11:5“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.” He is one of only 3 people that are mentioned in this passage for their faith before Abraham. He is then mentioned in Jude 14, this mention is in reference to literature outside of the Bible. There was quite a bit outside of the Bible that is supposed to be about Enoch, we are unsure of how much facts are in most all of it but through it, it is plain to see that we was viewed very highly in Jewish culture.

What a testimony of life though, a genealogy is interrupted to inform us that God was so close to this man that he took him instead of letting him die.

This is also the shortest life mentioned in this passage, it is not the length of life that is important in the promised line, it is their relationship with God.

Genesis 5:25–27 ESV

When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.

Methuselah the son of Enoch is interesting for one reason, he is the oldest man recorded in the Bible at 969 years old at the time of his death. Looking at his age as well we can see that he died in the great flood that God sends upon the earth in the upcoming passages.

Genesis 5:28–31 ESV

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 shall 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.

Next we have Lamech. Lamech was alive when Adam died and he fathered Noah. We can see that Lamech has expectations in his son, Lamech thinks he is the savior. The interesting thing about this is that Noah is a savior but he is not the savior. Noah will be the next main character in the book of Genesis. Lamech dies at the age of 777, he had a full and complete life and fathered a righteous man. We can assume that he himself was righteous too since he is awaiting the savior and his grandfather was one who God loved so much he took. Lamech stands in contrast with the Lamech in the line of Cain who kills a man then begins to brag about it.

Genesis 5:32 ESV

After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

The final verse is the 3 sons of Noah. Genealogies tend to end on 3 people like this. I will spoil it later and tell you that it is through Shen that the promised line continues. Shem will outlive Abraham who is a big main character in Genesis and his grandpa was around at the same time as Adam. This is some crazy overlap in the lives of these men. Now the interactions that they may or may not have had is unknown.

The Sovereignty of God

The sovereignty of God is that God possess all power and is the ruler of all things. He works according to his eternal purpose, even in events that seem to contradict his rule.

So God is in control of everything. How far does his control go? It goes all the way to the smallest details, all the way to Mahalalel.

From the great spectacle of creation we can see his power over everything. In salvation we see how he works to accomplish it all. We see through judgment that he gets the glory. We see how he places everyone right where he needs them to form the line of the seed of the woman that leads to Jesus.

This is just part of that family line, when you look through it all though it is amazing who all is in it. We see King David, Ruth and Boaz, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Noah. This is just scratching the surface but these are some of the ones that you all would recognize. God placed each one of them right where they needed to be so that they would be included in this genealogy.

Think to the story of Ruth. Her husband dies and she takes a huge risk and goes to live with her mother-in-law. She has no husband and no hope. Through the work of God he provides Boaz and she is redeemed. They are in the line of promise.

God has complete control and orchestrates this family line that will continue. We get just a glimpse here into some of the people that are included in it.

Conclusion

So tonight as we wrap up yet another chapter in Genesis, I have this one thing that I want to leave you with. This is that you are not an accident, there is nothing accidental about you. God has all of this control and he has placed you right here right now. Think about all that this means for you. Many of you may look at different times and wish you were from that time period. Many if not all of you look at different places and wish you were from there instead of here. That is not what God has for you though.

How can you live in such a way that reflects this? What does God have for you here and now? He is good and in complete control of everything. Just like he has control of the line of promise that leads to Jesus, he has placed you here.

Don’t skim or skip the genealogies. See where they are pointing. They are pointing somewhere spectacular and there are many reminders within them as well as hidden gems if you are just willing to search them out. You might have to mine but the rewards are great.