Genesis 5 – Genealogy of Adam
God warned Adam to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil or he would die. Since Adam and Eve disobeyed and fell to sin, man no longer could eat from the tree of life and therefore no longer would live forever. Death was now in man’s future. Chapter 5 shows the genealogy of Adam. In these verses there are repeated phrases – “he lived” “and then he died”.
The following scriptures talk about death.
Gen. 5:1 tells us the first man was made “in the likeness of God”. Gen 5:3 tell us Adam’s son was made” in his own likeness” and “in his own image”. This means when God created man, he was made righteous and made in God’s perfect image and was not born. Now since Adam brought sin into the world we are made or born in Adam’s likeness and in his imperfect image. We are sinners and we will see death, because of sin.
Some of Adam’s descendants were faithful to God. Gen. 5:21-24 – One of these men was Enoch. We are told that he lived and walked with God for 300 years and then he was no more, because God took him away. This is the first mention of life after death in the Bible. He didn’t die like the others. This shows how one day believers will be taken away (raptured) before Jesus returns. Heb. 11 tells us Enoch pleased God. Jude says Enoch prophesied of Jesus’ 2nd coming.
What does it mean to walk faithfully with God? When the Bible speaks of “walking”, it usually refers to a lifestyle. Enoch modeled God’s action by obeying His commands and instructions. He made a relationship with God in his everyday life. He talked with God and listened to Him. He was God’s friend. Walking with God is making Him the most important thing in your life. You want to talk with Him, you seek Him, and you want to please Him in everything you do.
How are you walking with God?
The oldest man in history was Methuselah, father of Lamech. He lived 969 years. There are differences in the life span between Seth’s descendants in Gen. 5, Shem’s in Gen. 11, the people after Abraham in Gen 12-50 and the life span of people today. This is probably due to the environmental changes after the flood. Also the longer men live the more people there are. There are more pollutants, more hazards and more diseases. There is more sin and sin is destructive. Life gets shorter, because of sin. There is more and more of excessive alcohol use, drug abuse, more murder, smoking, less exercising, poor diet, use of pesticides and fertilizers, etc. All contribute to our life span. The average life span now of a man is near 70 and 75 for a woman.
History shows 2 types of people – those who moved away from God and those who called on God. Lamech was the 7th from Adam in the line of Cain. He was evil. Enoch was the 7th from Adam in the line of Seth. He worshiped God.
Which group are you in?
Another man of faith mentioned in this chapter is Noah. He and his family lived in a culture that was indifferent to God.
“When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they married any of them they chose.” – Gen. 6:1-2. Who were the “sons of God”? These were angels created God, but were fallen angels - angels who rebelled against God and became loyal to Satan. We know this because Job 1:6 says the angels presented themselves to the Lord and Satan was with them. Jude 6 says angels did not keep their own domain and are kept in darkness until judgment. 2 Peter 2:4 says God does not spare the angels when they sin, but cast them to hell.
These fallen angels took on masculine human-like form and took human wives, “daughters of men” and had children with them. Of course this was not allowed by God. The resulted offspring were the Nephilim. The Nephilim were giants with physical superiority and had a demonic element. Nephilim are also referenced in Numbers 13:33.
What was the purpose of these fallen angels? Satan tried to pollute the genetic pool of mankind to make the human race unfit to bring the Seed of the woman, the promised Messiah into the world. He wanted to infect the entire race so the perfect Savior would not come. He almost succeeded, but God stepped in and started again with Noah and his sons.
God was upset with men and the world. Marriage and sensuality was taken lightly, inclination and thoughts of man’s heart was evil all the time and there was much violence. This grieved God so that He decided he would wipe man off the face of the earth. (Gen. 6:5-6) This judgment ultimately was a good thing for the human race, because it cleared the earth of all evil.
In these passages we learn that God is filled with pain in His heart for mankind. He is deeply grieved. He was so sorry of all the evil men were doing that He was willing to destroy everything on the earth - even the animals. God has a firm commitment to accomplish His righteous purposes and does what was necessary.
Does God make mistakes? God does not make mistakes. This doesn’t mean God made a mistake or that He wished He had done things differently. God didn’t make a mistake in creating humans. Instead, He was grieving because of the mistakes humans were making. It’s possible to experience grief and regret without implying error. Think of it as any parent who grieves and gets upset with a child when the child does something wrong. The parent feels pain, but not wishing the child had not been born. God was simply unhappy with the current state of mankind.
What evil do you see in our world today? It sounds like Noah’s day was a lot like ours. There is so much violence on TV and in movies with sex, marriage being degraded, the collapse of the family, shootings, murders, drug abuse, riots, hate and division among people, acceptance of homosexuality, widespread pornography, and the rebelling against God. We see so much of this type of lifestyle that it seems normal. We see those who call evil good and good evil. Can you imagine how God’s heart is grieving?
Why is there so much sin in the world? Satan is behind it all. He knows his time is running out so he’s working harder and harder to deceive people. People are consumed by their desires. They see all this evil behavior and think it’s ok since others are doing it. When things go wrong, people want to blame God for it. Satan loves this thinking. He knows if people blame God, they will reject Him. God allows this because He didn’t create us to be puppets. He allows us to have free choice. He lets us make the decisions to do right or wrong.
Lamech had a son and named him Noah, which means “rest” or “to comfort”. Maybe Lamech thought Noah would bring comfort to the world, but he was wrong. Noah brought comfort to God. Noah walked with God like his grandfather, Enoch. Enoch was alive during Noah’s first 69 years of his life. He probably had a great influence on Noah. Noah found favor with God in Gen. 6:8.
Noah was a preacher of the Gospel. Gen 6:9 – “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time and he walked with God.” Noah was not perfect, because we know in Rom. 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. We know Noah was righteous, because he did everything God commanded him to do.
Who influences you?
Since the earth was full of violence and evil, God told Noah He was going to destroy the earth and everything in it and for Noah to build an ark. God gave Noah all the instructions that were needed on how to make the ark. It took him 100 years to build it.
God made a covenant with Noah that he and his family would be spared. This is the first covenant in the Bible. “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.” - Gen. 6:18. He was to enter the ark along with 2 of every kind of creature, male and female and he was to keep them alive. He was to take every kind of food and store it away for food for his family and the animals. Where did Noah get these creatures? God sent them to him. When God asks us to do something, He always provides.
Just as God said, the rains came and it flooded the earth. On the 2nd month and the 17th day the rains began and Noah and his family entered the ark. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Noah was in the ark for 1 year and 10 days. We know this because Gen. 8:14 says the 2nd month and 27th day the earth was completely dry and Noah came out of the ark. That’s 1 year and 10 days. Every living thing – birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures over the earth and all mankind perished. The waters flooded the earth for 150 days. (Gen 7:24).
I am sure God’s revelation to Noah and his family might have seemed unbelievable, since it had never flooded before, the size of the ark, every kind of animal on earth was to be saved, the feeding of those animals, Noah’s in-laws would perish, his daughter-in-law’s family would perish, and just the magnitude of the event itself. Noah’s family was probably convinced because of Noah’s faith and his living example, the evil in the world and the evil of those living around them, the animals coming to them and it raining for 40 days.
I thought it was interesting that it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The number 40 is mentioned 146 times in the Bible. It symbolizes a period of testing or trial. It means something as it brings repentance, newness, self-examination, transformation, escape from bondage, nourishment, growth, and new life. Below are some examples of the number 40:
Moses lived 40 years in Egypt and 40 years in the desert.
What convinces you the flood was real? – The alleged discovery of the Ark in Iran; the fact that there are stories of a great flood in the ancient traditions of the Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, American Indian, and Babylonian cultures; geological evidence of a flood; rainbows; your faith in God’s Word.
Noah made no excuses and was obedient, are you?
Principles and Lessons from these chapters:
Join me here next week as we continue our study of Genesis -- I encourage you to trust in Jesus.
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