TWU Genesis 5 First Genealogy

Introduction

Well we have made it to the fifth episode of The Word Unfolded, and I am thankful that so many of you are enjoying it.

I also appreciate those that disagree, and hope you will take the time and strive to show me proof wherein you consider me to have gone wrong.

Now today, we are in Genesis 5 and we come across the first of several chapters that many will simply ignore unless they are doing their daily bible reading, or are specifically researching genealogies.

In Genesis 5 we have a genealogy from Adam to Noah, who of course we will be looking at over the next three chapters.

I’m like most of you in that I used to simply skim over or ignore complete chapters like these however, I had a fellow teacher of mine when I was in preaching school that pointed out that there are often really interesting nuggets of information in these genealogies.

We find several here in this particular list of those who beget who.

The first is…

Enoch Was Taken By God

I’m Not Going To Pretend To Know Why

Now I’m not going to sit here and say I can tell you why Enoch was taken.

We do know that Enoch, who is the great-grandfather of Noah, was a righteous man.

Genesis 5:22–24 ESV

22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

There have been three people taken by God in this or a similar way.

We have Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus.

This is a very impressive group here, but I think the more interesting thing is, all the faithful, when Jesus comes back, will go in a very similar way.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 ESV

16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Summary

We can look forward to one day “being here on earth no more” and in the abode or home of our God.

The second thing I find interesting about this genealogy is that…

Methuselah Was Old Enough To…

Know Adam & Eve

A crazy thing to think about is that Methuselah, the grandfather of Noah, could have easily known Adam and maybe even Eve.

Adam died at 930 years old which means Methuselah would have been 243 years old at that time.

Now why this is so interesting is that Enoch obviously was faithful to God, but Methuselah, and his son Lamech were obviously not.

Notice, it was only Noah that found favor in the sight of God.

Genesis 6:8 ESV

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Now there is the sad reality.

Noah found favor, but not Methuselah nor Lamech, Noah alone.

Now later, after Noah married and had kids at 500 years old he and his wife raise faithful children, but to start out Noah alone was found faithful out of all of humanity.

How sad is it that Methuselah was unfaithful having been alive when Adam was alive.

Not only do we find that Methuselah was old enough to know Adam and likely Eve but…

Methuselah was old enough to…

Die In The Flood

Some have tried to sugar coat this and say Methuselah didn’t die in the flood, and it could be that he died “right before the flood” but it is unlikely.

You see, Methuselah was 187 when his son Lamech was born, and Lamech as 182 when Noah was born.

Noah was 600 years old when the flood happened (Genesis 7:6).

This means Methuselah was 369 years old when Noah was born, and the flood came 600 years later which would make Methuselah 969 years old when the flood came.

Genesis 5:27 ESV

27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.

Summary

Methuselah could have and should have learned form his father’s faithfulness, but instead he not only became unfaithful but raised an unfaithful son in Lamech.

Thanks be to God Noah broke this family trend of unfaithfulness and walked with God like his great-grandfather did.

Conclusion

Genealogies are a great source of information if you study them, and I am looking forward to each of these little nuggets of information we will be looking at over the weeks, months, and years.

I hope you have enjoyed this episode of The Truth Unfolded, and I look forward to our next study in Genesis 6.