Son of Adam, Son of God

Introduction

When I realized what I’d be preaching on today, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t very excited about it. These genealogies are scattered throughout Genesis at key intervals, something I hadn’t really accounted for when I decided to preach through Genesis for a year. I seriously considered skipping Chapter five and moving on to Chapter 6. You know, to Noah, a passage that won’t lull you to sleep while you read it. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit kept urging me to stick with ’m really glad he did, because I think this chapter is rich. It has so much to tell us, if we are careful to listen.

Overview

The author of Genesis really loves punny word play, and it shows in in . So let’s look at this passage in light of the Hebrew.

Each genealogy has some striking similarities. Both mention a man named Enoch, to which attention is drawn, and a man named Lamech, to which attention is drawn. Cain’s genealogy ends in a man bragging about the death he has caused, while Chapter 5 ends in hope for life and removal of the curse of the serpent.

What is somewhat different between these two genealogies, however, is the amount of puns in them. The author of Genesis really loves punny word play, and it shows in in . So let’s look at this passage in light of the Hebrew.

When Adam, i.e. “man”, was 130, he had a son named “foundation” (Seth). Then “the foundation” was the father of “all humanity” (Enosh). “Humanity” went on to father “Kenan”. Now, the name “Kenan” has the same semitic root as “Cain”, which , if we remember, means “to create” or “to buy land”. I think the pun isn’t on the meaning of the word, however, but on its relationship to Cain, because “Kenan/Cain” becomes the father of “Praising God” (Mahalalel). This is a stark contrast between Kenan, who leads to “praising God”, and Cain, who murdered his brother and who’s genealogy ended in more murder.

Then “Praising God” had a son named Jared, whose name is “to bring down”, which doesn’t really seem to be a relevant name, unlike his ancestors. So Jared has a son named “to dedicate” (Enoch), and Enoch is in fact very dedicated to God, as we’ll see in a minute. Then “to dedicate” has a son, “Man of the Spear” (Methuselah), who has a son named Lamech. Now, what’s interesting is that Lamech, in Hebrew, means… well nobody knows what Lamech means.

These two names, “Man of the Spear” and “Lamech” might be a way of building tension, however. Lamech, at least, is certainly meant to make us remember Cain’s descendant of the same name. This Lamech, however, does not go on a murderous rampage, and so we can breathe a sigh of relief, which, by the way, is the name of Lamech’s child. “Noah” means “relief” or “rest” in Hebrew. Then Noah has three sons, but we’ll talk about them next week.

If you hadn’t already guessed, some of these names are more than just puns. For example, Seth actually becomes the “foundation” of humanity. He’s the one who carries on life after Cain’s act of death. Enoch provides an example of what it means to be “dedicated” to God, and Noah becomes a promise of “rest” and “relief” from the curse that has wreaked havoc on humanity.

It’s easy to get lost in a genealogy like this, especially since we can’t appreciate such great puns in our English translations. If we are careful and look closely, however, the author has made some really important statements about God and humanity here.

Imago Dei

Of first importance is the introduction to the Genealogy:

When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them “Humankind” when they were created.  When Adam had lived one hundred thirty years, he became the father of a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.

3 When Adam had lived one hundred thirty years, he became the father of a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.

Did you catch that? God created Adam in his likeness, and Adam created Seth in his likeness. This is the only time in the genealogy that this kind of language is used. Why point this out? Is Seth no longer “the image of God”? Has that been lost? Were humans in the image of God just a peculiar unique thing early in human history?

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

I don’t think so. The introduction says God created “humankind”, all of them, in his image, both male and female. This is not an undoing of . Humans are still affirmed to be in the image of God. Yet, now, Seth is also made “in the image of Adam”. Seth, and all of his descendants, are in the image of Adam as much as in the image of God. Humanity is now a mixture of the regal image of God and the flawed image of Adam.

To

The genealogy goes on from there, repeating the same pattern over and over again:

“When X lived A years, he became the father of Y. X lived after the birth of Y B years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the years of X were C, and then he died.”

Over and over and over again, the genealogy really hammers it home: You’re born, you have children, and then you die. What is especially odd about this is that no other genealogy in the Bible bothers to tell us “and then he died”. Most just say, “this person lived 100 years”, and we get the point. Genesis, however, does not let us assume, it makes sure we know that the life of these people ended in death. The warning of God from the Garden becomes a reality. Death has become a reality and an expectation of the sons of Adam.

This theme gets carried on throughout Genesis. You may have noticed that some people in this genealogy lived really long lives. Take, for instance, Methuselah, who lives to the ripe old age of 969! Or Lamech, who oddly lives 777 years.

Many interpreters have studied to see whether there is any special significance to these numbers of years. Maybe there is, but the meaning has long been lost to us. There’s just no way to know what these numbers might have meant to the author, or if they really mean anything at all. What we do know, however, is that long life spans were very commonly recorded for ancient people. Ancient Sumerian kings, for instance, were said to have lived tens of thousands of years. “Alulim became king and reigned for 28,000 years.... Alalgar reigned for 36,000 years, etc.” Lots of ANE cultures had flood stories, and almost all of them record people living a very long time before the flood. Genesis does the same, but it seems a little more realistic about human life expectancy. 700 years is a long time, but it’s not as unbelievable as 30,000. Whether we believe these numbers are accurate or some kind of symbolism, however, shouldn’t keep us from recognizing the pattern present in Genesis, and that is that these life spans, as humans get farther and farther from Eden, get shorter and shorter. Abraham is only said to have lived 175 years, Jacob 147, 120, and by the time the Israelites are writing Psalms, we read:

The days of our life are seventy years,

or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;

even then their span is only toil and trouble;

they are soon gone, and we fly away.

Death has become a reality. The beast lurking at the door has overcome us, the curse of sin is taking its toll on humanity. That is, all except for the seventh son.

Enoch

Enoch is different. After Enoch had his son, he walked with God for 300 years, then he was no more, because God took him. What an odd thing to say. The Hebrew literally says, “Enoch walked with God, then nothingness, because God grabbed him, or accepted him.” It’s as if Enoch was walking around one day and then *poof*, he wasn’t there anymore. There’s no “and then he died”. He just was not, because God grabbed him off of the earth and said, “This one’s mine, I’ll take him.” Here, in the midst of all this death, Genesis makes the radical proposal that there might be more to say about a man’s life than “he lived, he had children, he died.” Enoch us toward the possibility of a consistent and steady relationship with God even in the midst of a cycle of sin and death. When God walked in the garden, Adam and Eve had chosen to hide from him, but Enoch walked with God. Bill T. Arnold puts it this way:

“Enoch’s genealogical notation hints at- and perhaps points forward to- the role of faith as the antidote to the vicious cycle of sin and death unleashed in the world by the actions of humankind.”

Noah

After Enoch, the genealogy goes on, almost as if it had not mentioned a man disappearing into thin air at all. After Enoch comes Methuselah, “Man of the Spear”, and then Lamech. This might have us worried, the last guy named Lamech wasn’t a very nice person. But, whereas the last Lamech looked to himself to provide vengeance and power, the Lamech in Seth’s genealogy, however, looks toward God for hope and salvation. Here is a man who has witnessed every person before him face death. There wasn’t much to hope for. Even his grandfather, Enoch, wasn’t exactly around any more. He may not have “died” but he certainly wasn’t alive anymore either. And yet, Lamech dared to hope. God had promised one of Eve’s offspring would crush the head of the serpent, and so maybe this newborn boy would bring humanity relief. Maybe they would finally be able to enter back into the rest of God.

Conclusion

I remember the first funeral I went to. It was my great grandfather, who I called “Pappy”, and I was about five years old. When I walked up his casket, well, there he was. It was my Pappy. He looked a little paler than usual, and he was taking what looked like a very good nap. I didn’t quite understand why everyone in the room was so somber and sad. When I asked my dad what was wrong, he just told me everyone was sad because Pappy wasn’t coming back. I could see Pappy right there though, and I figured he’d wake up at any minute with all the people around. So I went outside and played with my other two cousins.

I didn’t really cry or mourn my Pappy until about three months later. My Pappy lived in Lena, Mississippi, and his town always had a huge firework show on the 4th of July. We still went to Lena that year, but my Pappy wasn’t there. I think that’s when I realized what it meant for someone to die.

I’ve seen several other people die since I was five. It never gets easy.

This genealogy is like a death knell. “And he died. And he died. And he died”. Over and over again, it marks the all consuming cycle of death that humanity has entered into. Yet, even in the midst of all that death, there is hope for life. There is hope that a faithful man, who chooses to walk with God, might not be defeated by death. There’s hope that a newborn child might just be the one to overcome the curse and provide rest and relief for us all.

Lamech’s words are striking, “Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” Out of the curse, this one might bring us blessing.

Now, if you haven’t read the story of Noah before, I hate to spoil it for you, but he doesn’t quite live up to Lamech’s hopes. Noah, unfortunately, is not the one to crush the head of the serpent. No, we have to turn to Luke’s expansion of this genealogy to find that child.

 Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work. He was the son (as was thought) of Joseph son of Heli,  son of Matthat, son of Levi, son of Melchi… son of Shem, son of Noah, son of Lamech,  son of Methuselah, son of Enoch, son of Jared, son of Mahalaleel, son of Cainan,  son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.

Jesus answered Lamech’s hopeful prayer. “Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief”. From the curse will come blessing, from death, life.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:13-14)

For Lamech, however, it was a long wait to Jesus. Lamech did not live to see his hopes fulfilled. The same might be said for us. We don’t know when the Lord will return, we don’t know how much longer we’ll suffer under the curse.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

For Lamech, it was a long wait to Jesus. The same might be said for us. We don’t know when the Lord will return, we don’t know how much longer we’ll suffer under the curse.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

And yet, even in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of all the death in the world, God is at work. This genealogy provides us with hope. Hope that, for those who choose to walk with God, we will not taste the sting of death. “And then he died” will not be the end of our story.

Because God is at work. God is doing great and amazing things, even in the midst of this repetitive cycle of human life. If we dare to hope, if we dare to walk with the LORD, we will see life.

As Jesus gave himself up on the cross, he cried out “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus, in his dying breath, chose to recite a line from the ’d like to read that Psalm with you:

Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;

and by night, but find no rest.

.......

Yet it was you who took me from the womb;

you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.

10 On you I was cast from my birth,

On you I was cast from my birth,

and since my mother bore me you have been my God.

Do not be far from me,

for trouble is near

and there is no one to help.

.........

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

The New Revised Standard Version Plea for Deliverance from Suffering and Hostility

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;

and by night, but find no rest.

3 Yet you are holy,

enthroned on the praises of Israel.

4 In you our ancestors trusted;

they trusted, and you delivered them.

5 To you they cried, and were saved;

in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.

6 But I am a worm, and not human;

scorned by others, and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock at me;

they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;

8 “Commit your cause to the LORD; let him deliver—

let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”

9 Yet it was you who took me from the womb;

you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.

10 On you I was cast from my birth,

and since my mother bore me you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,

for trouble is near

and there is no one to help.

12 Many bulls encircle me,

strong bulls of Bashan surround me;

13 they open wide their mouths at me,

like a ravening and roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint;

my heart is like wax;

it is melted within my breast;

15 my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to my jaws;

you lay me in the dust of death.

16 For dogs are all around me;

a company of evildoers encircles me.

My hands and feet have shriveled;

17 I can count all my bones.

They stare and gloat over me;

18 they divide my clothes among themselves,

and for my clothing they cast lots.

19 But you, O LORD, do not be far away!

O my help, come quickly to my aid!

20 Deliver my soul from the sword,

my life from the power of the dog!

21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!

From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.

22 I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;

in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:

23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!

All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;

stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

24 For he did not despise or abhor

the affliction of the afflicted;

he did not hide his face from me,

but heard when I cried to him.

25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;

my vows I will pay before those who fear him.

26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;

those who seek him shall praise the LORD.

May your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth shall remember

and turn to the LORD;

and all the families of the nations

shall worship before him.

28 For dominion belongs to the LORD,

and he rules over the nations.

29 To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;

before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,

and I shall live for him.

30 Posterity will serve him;

future generations will be told about the Lord,

31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,

saying that he has done it.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

I love verse 10 especially, “On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God.” I think this genealogy is challenging us to recognize that we are created in both the regal image of God as well as the flawed image of Adam. That is is true to say, “He lived. He had kids. And then he died,” yet there is more to say. Because “from birth you have been my God.” From birth, by your mighty hand and wise providence, you have been working for my good. Though “many bulls encircle me” though “I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast,” I know by faith and through hope in you that I will be saved from the mouth of the lion, that is, death. You have been my God from birth, you have worked in ways seen and unseen throughout my life, and so I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. I believe that, as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

and since my mother bore me you have been my God.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

The death knell rings loud and clear, “And he died. And he died. And he died,” I cannot help but hear it. But I know this: dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. All those who have gone before us, who lie in the dust, are bowing down before him. And future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his deliverance to their children, who will proclaim it to their children, who are not yet born, saying “He has done it. It is finished.” Death has been defeated by our Lord Jesus.

Noah was not the one to lift the curse. Nevertheless, through his faithfulness, his life became a part of God’s plan for salvation. Enoch did not lift the curse. Nevertheless, through his faithfulness, he entered into eternal life with God. We may not live to see the last enemy, which is death, defeated. But by our faithfulness and hope in the LORD, we can become a part of his plan for salvation to the whole world. We can be a voice that overshadows the knell of death and proclaims hope and victory, as we walk with the LORD. Walk with the LORD, and show the world what hope looks like. Walk with the LORD, and proclaim his deliverance, shouting against the ever present knell of death in the world.

Prayer of St. Augustine:

I know, O Lord, and do with all humility acknowledge myself an object altogether unworhty of your love, but sure I am, you are an object altogether worthy of mine. I am not good enough to serve you, but you have a right to the best service I can pay. Do you then impart to me some of that excellence, and that shall supply my own want of worth. Help me to cease from sin according to your will, that I may be capable of doing you service according to my duty. Enable me so to guard and govern myself, so to begin and finish my course that, when the race of life is run, I may sleep in peace and rest in you. Be with me to the end, that my sleep may be rest indeed, my rest perfect security and that security a blessed eternity.