Genesis 5--The Generations of Adam

​Genesis 5 English Standard Version (ESV)
LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Gen.5

Adam's Descendants to Noah
5 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. 7 Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.

9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. 10 Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.

12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. 13 Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.

15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. 16 Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.

18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. 19 Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.

21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. 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.

25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. 26 Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.

28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son 29 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.” 30 Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.

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

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Genealogies usually aren't very exciting to us unless it's our own family tree--and even then there's usually a "family historian" who loves these things and likes to know the person and the story behind each name in the family tree.  Early on, the people probably would have known all of the stories and all of the names, but it is important for us to understand the passage of time that has occurred and that we are at the end of one story in the book of Genesis and about to start another, and who are the characters that are leaving the stage and which characters are coming on stage next.

If you have never looked at a good Bible timeline, I recommend that you do.  We are tempted to think of all these events as linear.  Specifically, when we read, "and he died," we don't think of that person being alive at the same time as any of the other future generations mentioned.  I will insert a link to one such chart here and insert the image as well.  https://tben.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/adam-to-noah.gif

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One of the main reasons I want you to see this is because you'll be able to see that there was quite a bit of overlap and its not unrealistic to think that those who came after Adam would want to hear the story first-hand from him.  Even if the story wasn't written down originally and was only given orally, we are looking at the possibility of only three people that were needed to pass the story of Adam from Adam to Noah (the big arrows at the top)....Adam (for the first 687 years), then Methuselah (who died in the Flood) and then Noah.  I also think it's important to see these genealogies as an indication that these are real people and we are talking about real events in a real historical timeline.  Why bother with all the ages and years and births and deaths if you are simply making up a story?  We don't see this in mythology, we see this in history.  This, as I said in the beginning, is the family tree....but it's everyone's family tree.  Every single person on the earth today shares a common lineage from this tree through Noah back to Adam.  There is but one race--the human race.

Let's talk about a few other reasons why this is important to us.  First, we see the phrase "and he died" over and over and over again (with one exception that we'll talk about in a second) which reminds us of the very real consequences of sin entering the world.  Sin and death and its curs have passed from generation to generation, and much time has passed.  Is God still faithful to keep His promise?  When will the one come who is chosen by God to crush the head of the serpent?  Will it be Noah who is the next person in the story?  I'm going to "spoil" something for you and let you know that each main character we are going to study in the book of Genesis is a "type" of Christ and Jesus will come back and faithfully fulfill the roles of all of these people where sin corrupted them and caused them to have an imperfect completion of their mission.  We have already seen in some ways how Jesus will be the "Second Adam," now we will see how God is going to send a Savior to lead His people (maybe just a small remnant) to safety in the Ark that He has provided (this too is Christ) to escape the wrath of God that is the just punishment for our sins.  Even in all this we see that God is merciful and does not forget His promises and continues to be about His work, even though man is unfaithful and the enemies of God are hard at work to prevent as many people as possible from getting on the Ark.  The ark (when we study about it) was probably large enough to hold everyone that wanted to get on, but was only sufficient to protect those who actually boarded it and put their trust in it.

Speaking of how God works in the same ways over and over again, we see the first person that we might refer to as an Old Testament prophet here....Enoch.  God had a special relationship with Enoch that appeared to be much like the original relationship that He had with Adam--we see that Enoch "walked with God."  This may simply be talking about his "spiritual walk," but I believe this to be speaking of an actual physical communion and relationship with God unlike anyone else since Adam had experienced.  Enoch is one of the few people in the Bible that we read nothing bad about Him (not to say He was "perfect" like Christ, but that he was "blameless" and that no one had anything bad to say about him).  He had an important role to play as God put His words in the mouth of Enoch to warn of the coming judgment hundreds of years before it happened.  There was ample time for anyone that wanted to hear the message and repent to do so.  The same is true today.  God has used the prophets, the apostles and the Church to share the good news of the salvation that He brings, but that there is judgment for those that refuse to enter into the salvation that He offers.

We also see something important about God and another way that we know that God will work in the future.  God did not let His righteous one, Enoch, perish in the coming judgement and we instead seem to see the first indication of a person that is "raptured" (translated from a physical, earthly body to a spiritual body made for heaven).  We will later see this happen to the prophet Elijah, and we have this promise for all of us from the Old Testament and New Testament that have died in Christ.  Even so, we see that God is still faithful to have a remnant, even in the midst of the people who will move beyond just falling into sin, but will be described as always doing what is evil all the time.  God would have nothing good to say about the people that were destroyed in the Flood, save Noah and his family, and Jesus told us that in the end it would once again be like the days of Noah..meaning people will return to the point of always doing what is evil all the time, but God will continue to be faithful and provide a way of escape, even during times such as those for those who repent, believe, and trust in the Salvation that He has sent.

I hope this has helped you.  Again, please note that as we go through Genesis, we will stop 4 or 5 times like this and see a genealogy.  This is the "recap" for those telling the story orally, but it is also a reminder to us that God is faithful, and it is an indicator to us as the reader of who the next person is that we should be looking at to be a type of Christ (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph).  Later on in the Old Testament we will see God use the idea of census to fulfill a similar purpose to show His people that He is faithful to bring them through and to tell them when they are starting a new chapter His story whether that is when they go into bondage in Egypt, or come out of Egypt, or when they go into the Promised Land, or God anoints King David to be the one who from whom the throne will not pass because His descendant (Jesus) will set up the eternal kingdom and the scepter will not pass from His hands.  So, when you see a genealogy, don't fall asleep, and don't skip over it--be aware that God is about to do something new and different and amazing, and He's telling everyone that this marks a significant change in the course of history, and I don't want you to miss what I'm doing, what I've done, and what I'm about to do.  The players on the stage may be shifting from the descendants of Adam to the descendants of Noah, but God is still the one directing the play and He's in complete control of the situation and He will bring about His story to fulfillment.