This morning and we will in front of the wrong I'm good this
morning we will be in Genesis chapter 5 and as I said we will
cover the entire chapter today. So we're flying now.
We'll slow down again next week. Don't worry.
Today is actually largely genealogy.
So that's the reason we're not, we're not going to examine every
single verse here. But Genesis 5 is where we'll be.
And Genesis 315 feels like such a long time ago in our study,
right? But it was last year.
But it's important that we don't forget it.
Genesis 315 said, I will put enmity between you and the
woman, in between your offspring and her offspring.
He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
So this was the first time that the good news was proclaimed in
Scripture. And it's something that we call
the proto evangelion, the very first good news.
But it also speaks to the inaugurated war between good and
evil, 2 offsprings at war with each other, and the offspring of
the woman will continually be in conflict with the serpents until
the war is completely ended. Last week, as we looked at
chapter 4, we examine Cain's line, which of course begins
with Cain and it ended with the evil Lamech.
And as the chapter closed, we were given a little glimmer of
hope. Maybe things won't always be
like this. In Genesis 425, we saw Eve
looking forward to the fulfillment of the promise, it
read. And Adam knew his wife again,
and she bore a son and called his name Seth.
For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead
of Abel, for Cain killed him. So Eve was hopeful that that
this son of hers, Seth, Seth would be the one to to make
everything right again, and he would be the one to strike the
serpent's head. The King's line was way
different than Seth's line. King's line had no mention of
God, but Seth's line does. As Genesis 426 reads.
At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
That verse serves as a as a signal that something's coming
in chapter 5, and it connects God's faithfulness from Adam all
the way through to Noah, and then ultimately to all those who
belong to the line of Noah through their faith in Jesus
Christ. So if you're able, would you
stand as we read from our opening text this morning?
Genesis 5 will read verses one through 5.
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.
When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered his 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.
You may be seated so this this is a review that we start out
with here at the beginning of chapter 5, Genesis 126 through
28 said God said, let us make man in our image after our
likeness. And then he goes on to say
exercise dominion over fish, birds, livestock and land
animals. And then verse 27 says, so God
created man in his own image in the image of God.
He created him male and female. He created them and God bless
them. So there are four specific
statements made here in in chapter 5 that tie explicitly
back to these verses in chapter 1.
God created humanity. First of all, God created
humanity in the likeness of himself, and then he created
them male and female. And lastly, he blessed them.
So all these statements find find their roots back in chapter
1. So this section serves as a as a
bridge connecting the creation account to the section following
this, which is Noah and the flood narrative.
It's like Moses is saying, OK, let's try this again but from a
different angle this time. But when we read this passage,
something jumps out to you, especially if you are new to the
book of Genesis. All the ages listed are way
longer than than we would think is humanly possible.
Right? Verses 3 through 5 read when
Adam had lived 130 years. So at 130 years, Adam fathers a
son, then it goes on to say in his in his own image and named
him Seth. And days of Adam after he
fathered Seth were 800 years. And the final conclusion is that
Adam lived 930 years and then he died.
So Adam fathered a child at 130 years old, which is amazing,
right? And he lived a total of 930
years. As you read through the entire
chapter, you will see that the ages listed in this chapter are
primarily in the 9 hundreds, and a few fall a little short of
that or significantly shorter than that.
But all of the numbers, every single one is a number of times
the normal lifespan that we would expect today, which is 78
years for men and roughly 81 years for women.
Critics of the Bible take these numbers as as evidence.
Oh, look at these numbers. These can't happen.
So we can toss out the Bible. We can completely discount what
the Bible says because of these numbers here.
Now I'd like to remind you that if you believe what we have
already read in the first 3 chapters of the Bible, that it's
nothing to believe that people live to being nearly 1000 years
old. The God who created the world
out of nothing. He created the world out of
nothing. So it's easy enough for him to
have humanity live to such a long age.
The Greek speaking Babylonian historian Barossas riding near
the time of Alexander the Greats.
He mentioned the names of 10 kings who each lived thousands
of years before what is termed a great deluge, Of course, which
is the flood. The Sumerian kings reigns were
said to have been between 18,600 years and 43,200 years.
Now those aren't actual years, but when we convert those
numbers from the Sumerian system, doing a bunch of
mathematical things that I don't understand because I'm not a
math person. But when we convert the numbers
from the Sumerian system to our normal decimal system, then the
numbers completely line up with what we see revealed to us in
scripture. Some people trying to do the
Bible a favor have suggested alternative options.
Oh, perhaps the numbers are symbolic.
Well, maybe it actually meant moon cycles.
Or maybe the Hebrew, the Hebrew calendar back then was was
significantly shorter. So that that's how you end up
with these large numbers. You know, because the Hebrew
calendar was shorter than our Gregorian calendar that we live
by now. Scripture doesn't need your
help. There are a couple reasons we
can expect to see long lives at this point in time.
First of all, while the wheels of death were set in motion
immediately, it may well have been possible that it it took a
long time for the impacts of sin and death to become a full
reality in humanity, especially before the flood.
See, we're only just a few generations at this point from
God's perfect, complete creation of humanity, so they easily
could have lived longer. Second, we can assume that the
first humans, Adam and Eve, had partaken of the fruit of the
Tree of Life. They've been told they could eat
of every tree, and so I would think they probably ate of the
entire garden before they'd even gotten to the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil. And of course this seems to make
sense because God's response then after they partake of that
tree is to is to block their access to the tree of life.
The numbers that the ages that are listed here should be taken
at face value. Theologians have long believed
that there are significant changes that will come after the
flood, both in the geology of the earth and and the biology of
its inhabitants, and we'll look at some of those things when we
get to the Flood. Now, throughout this narrative,
the text utilizes the format when so and so had lived X
years, he fathered blank. So and so lived after he
fathered blank and had other sons and daughters.
Thus all the days of so and so were X years, and he died.
This specific formula is used nine times throughout this
chapter, but on the 7th time, on the 7th time that it's used, it
pauses to draw our attention to Enoch.
Look there at verses verses 21 through 24 in your Bibles when
Enoch had lived 65 years. By the way, this Enoch is
different than the Enoch from from Cain's line.
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.
Enoch walked with God and after he fathered Methuselah 300 years
and had other sons and daughters.
Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.
At this point the formula would normally say and he died, right?
But it doesn't. The text says in verse 24 Enoch
walked with God and he was not, for God took him.
The break in motif gives us pause.
It causes us to stop and examine Enoch for a moment.
Yes, Enoch is special in that he is the father of Methuselah, who
at 969 years of age is the oldest person recorded in
Scripture. But there's more to Enoch than
just that. In verses 22 and 24, twice it
says that Enoch walked with God. Enoch walked with God.
He's the first example of someone to to walk with God
explicitly. Scripture regularly uses the
metaphor of walking to describe our relationship with God.
Genesis 69 As we'll see here in a couple weeks, Noah walked with
God. Deuteronomy 86 Keep the
commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways.
Isaiah 3021 You shall hear a voice behind you saying, this is
the way. Walk in it then.
Romans 64 We were buried therefore with Him by baptism
into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of
life. And this is just a small sample
size of the huge numbers of verses that speak to our walk
with God. So our relationship with God is
understood in in terms of walking.
So what does it mean to say that Enoch walked with Glock with
God? Clearly, as we'll see, as we'll
examine in a moment, this is something exceptional, something
that that we don't see in in all of the other generations that
are listed. First of all, to walk with God.
It suggests intimacy. It suggests intimacy in
relationship. We haven't seen this kind of
intimacy for hundreds of years, since before the fall in the
garden. Adam and Eve would presumably
walk with God, as it says they had heard God walking in the
garden. So it sounds like they were
accustomed to walking with Him. They had fellowship with Him.
There was intimacy. There was closeness in their
relationship. But when sin entered this scene,
the first humans had hid themselves from God.
That closeness had been broken. Now here we are a couple
chapters later, and Enoch is walking with God.
We don't know the details of of his walk with God, what exactly
that might have looked like, but we can conclude Enoch had a
lifestyle characterized by his devotion to God.
Walking with God also means living in faith.
It means living in faith. Enoch had faith in God.
He would have had faith that Yahweh was going to keep the
promise he'd made to Adam and Eve, that that Eve would bear an
offspring who would defeat the serpent.
This intimacy and relationship and living in faith led to Enoch
being taken up into heaven. Verse 24 continued Enoch walk
with God and he was not an interesting phrase for God took
him. Some have taken this to mean
that God took Enoch in the sense that we might say God took so
and so home. That's one possible
interpretation of that phrase, but that is not what is intended
here. First of all, at this point the
formula would normally say and he died instead for for Enoch
the formula diverges and says and he was not to meet meaning
and he did not exist. If death were in view here,
Moses would have written and he died just like he has written
eight other times in this chapter.
But clearly Enoch is exceptional in the text, so it makes the
most sense to understand the statement to mean that God
transported Enoch straight to heaven, bypassing death.
Hebrews 11/5 shed some more light on this.
It reads 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.
The writer of Hebrew settles the matter for us.
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.
Death has always been assumed. Ben Franklin famously said.
In this world, nothing can be certain except for death and
taxes. Thanks Ben Franklin, we
appreciate it. That is true for the vast
majority of humanity, but there are three people in all of
history who've not experienced death in any sense of the word.
Those three people are Enoch, Elijah, and can you guess the
third one, Not Jesus. He did die in some sense, right?
Any guesses as to the third one? I don't.
The rest of us in the end. Melchizedek.
Because in Hebrews 11 is it in
Hebrews 11, I don't remember where it is.
It Hebrews 7, that's where it is.
It says he doesn't have beginning of days or end of
days. There can be some discussion on
that, but a lot of theologians suggest that Melchizedek also
did not die and we'll look at Mechazedek probably in a few
months when we get there. The fact Enoch walked with God
and and didn't see death is certainly special in and of
itself, but if we look a little deeper we'll see even more
happening under the surface. A comparison of the line of Cain
versus the line of Seth. Moses goal in chapters 4 and 5
was to draw our attention to the differences between the
descendants of Cain and descendants of Seth.
Cain's line of faithful faithless living leads to
rebellion, and Seth's line of faithful living leads to
righteousness. Let me say that again.
Kane's line of faithless living leads to rebellion.
Seth's line of faithless living leads to righteousness.
I just realized I completely skipped over a verse there.
Sorry about that Banu. Some of you may have saw it on
the screen. That was Hebrews 11/6.
The Kane's line is markedly, drastically different than
Seth's line. Now Enoch is the 7th generation.
If we started at Adam, Adam is the first generation we continue
to countdown. Enoch is the 7th generation
through Cess line. You may recall from last week
that if we go through Keynes line, the 7th generation from
Keynes line was Lamech. So this is an intentional design
pattern in both Keynes and Seth's genealogies.
Pause at the 7th generation. The text calls attention to the
2 lines, the wicked line of Cain contrasted with the righteous
line of Seth. Cain's house is characterized by
the murderous Islamic, whereas the lion, the sons of Seth, are
shown to be righteous. Of course, they're still
sinners, as we will see. What scripture reveals to us
about Enoch stands in stark contrast to the way of Cain.
Cain sought to establish his own legacy.
He was fixed on outward success and accomplishments.
But Enoch shows us that when we seek honoring God as our legacy,
then that'll lead us to go about life differently.
We have a different heart posture when our legacy isn't
based on credentials, but rather based on character.
We act differently when we're trying to please God and not
please others. Enoch shows us that walking with
God is the best way to shape our legacy.
These two genealogies in chapters 4 and five share 2
names in common, Enoch and Lamech.
This Lamech, coming from the line of Seth, stands in stark
contrast to the vile Lamech we examined last week.
And if you look at verses 28 through 32 in your Bibles, we
have a new Lamech. When Lamech had lived 182 years,
he fathered his 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 after Noah was 500 years old.
Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Now Lamech is the 9th generation mentioned and he bears no
resemblance to the Lamech descended from Cain.
That one was a malevolent, violent, vengeful murderer and
polygamist. While this Lamechs life is is
marked by prayerful hope that God is going to act.
He'd fathered this child and he named him Noah because because
he's looking for rest. The name Noah means rest.
Rest is an appropriate name when you're hoping that the son of
yours will help make life easier.
Lamech, as we just read, was lamenting the sorry state of
man. How hard, how burdensome life
was under the consequences of the cursed ground.
Life had beaten him up and and he was looking for a reprieve.
He's clearly cognizant of the curse and promise found in
Genesis 315. So he, like Eve was, was hopeful
that this offspring of his might be the one to conquer the
serpent. Lamech lived 777 years and then
he died. Now the Astutes Bible scholar
looks at that and says, oh, that's important.
That's a symbol. Yes, that is a symbol, but I
think we can still take it as an actual number.
This number draws our attention, first of all to the other
Lamech. His vengeance was 70, sevenfold.
But more than that, this Lamech living to 777 years of age, it
points to the final complete generation before God would
bring judgement on humanity. Lamex generation was the last of
those who could have, who could have known the very first
humans. From this point on, connections
back to the Garden could no longer be a first hand telling
directly hearing from Adam and Eve, but would now be a third
person relaying of the truth of God's character and God's
promise. In chapter 5 closes after Noah
was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
We'll examine Noah more in a couple weeks, but this brief
introduction to Noah ends with his fathering three sons.
The text almost seems incomplete, as as you expected
to keep going after it, says Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
You expected to tell us more about them, or at least tell us
about their deaths. But that's not what happens
here. No deaths are listed in this
portion of the genealogy, only births.
When genealogies recount deaths as they do so, it's a reminder
that things right now are are not the way that they are
supposed to be. But when they recount births and
leave it open-ended like this, it's a sign that that God is
still in control. God is still working here and
there is still hope for humanity.
Shem, Ham and Japheth, we can say, are part of God's rescue
plan. Now, of course, one line in
particular will be singled out. Shem.
But they are part of God's rescue plan.
They're the ones through whom God will begin his restarts on
humanity. He'll judge the world in the
coming chapters, but he won't just leave it at that.
Noah's family will be used to bring rest, comfort, and rescue
to the world, albeit not in not in a manner any of them could
have hoped for or anticipated. So what do we get out of a
passage like this? If I had to hazard a guess, I
would venture to say most of us aren't holding out hope to just
be translated straight into heaven.
Well, some might be, you know, of course, oh, maybe the rapture
will happen in our lifetime. You know, there's kind of just
this faint, faint hope in that. But I think most of us probably
expect that we will face death at some point.
Here are three things we can take away from this passage.
First we need to walk with God by daily fellowshipping with
Him. Walk with God by daily
fellowshipping with him. When you walk with God, you
include him in everything, the UPS and the downs of life.
You navigate life together. You spend time with one another,
you talk, you listen. Intimacy with God is only
developed through time spent. Faith isn't a weakened
obligation, a simple check mark on the box of Christian duties.
Intimacy is only fostered in the day in and day out moments of
life, treating intentional prayer time and time in the Word
as absolutely essential to my survival, my source of life.
So fellowship with him. Second, maintain integrity in a
corrupt environment. Maintain integrity in a corrupt
environment. Enoch lived in a wicked
generation before the flood, yet he still remained faithful,
speaking about people who walked in the way of Cain.
Jude 14 and 15 reads. It was also about these that
Enoch the 7th from Adam prophesied, saying, Behold, the
Lord comes with 10 thousands of His holy ones to execute
judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their
deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an
ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly
sinners have spoken against him. Jude was recalling something not
found in our text here in Genesis, but which sheds more
like light on who Enoch was. Enoch was apparently, we learned
here he was a prophet and he had spoken of God's judgment over
the people of his time. Destruction was coming on the
evil generations that existed at his time, and Enoch lived in the
midst of these people in spite of the fact that he had
descended from a more or less righteous line.
He didn't go with the flow, rather he went against the
grain, and he didn't allow the evil influences to sway him
towards unholy, rebellious living.
Enoch walked in an upright manner in spite of the corrupt
people of his time. I suspect that many of you in
your work environments have people who are far from God
around you. So the challenge for you is to
continue to walk in integrity, to demonstrate integrity, and to
speak for the truth. Next, we can learn lastly to
rest in God. Rest in God.
There is a rest that we experience while still here on
this earth, in our in our mortal bodies.
And then there's a rest to come in the future when our faith is
fully realized. The rest we experience now comes
to us through 2 main avenues. 1st is through obedience.
Arrest comes through obedience. Hebrews 318 And to whom did he
swear that they would not enter his rest?
But to those who were disobedient.
These were the ones who rebelled against God.
When? When you rebel against God's
ways and standards, then you can't have peace with God.
And without peace with God, if you don't have peace with God,
you will never have true rest. The second means to finding rest
for your soul is through faith. It's through faith, hearing God
speak and responding with an attitude of obedience and
actions of dependence upon Him. Christ rest for your soul is
directly proportionate to your level of trust in Him.
As you grow in your knowledge of God, your knowledge of Jesus,
your relationship with Him and and grow in your trust in Him,
then the rest that you experience in your life will
increase. Practically speaking, this means
living with the assurance of faith, trusting that God rewards
those who earnestly seek him. So walk with God.
Walk with him day in and day out.
Don't take a day off of walking with God.
Spend time with Him. He is worth it, and in Him
you'll find peace. You'll find peace with others
and rest for your soul. So pray that God would give you
a passion for obedience and for the faith to trust in His
provision for that path. Let's bow our heads and close
our eyes. This morning we'll spend time
preparing for communion here in a moment, but even now we can
begin that process as we consider our walk with God.
What is your walk with God? Is it marking?
Ticking off a check box each Sunday morning I went to church?
Or do you truly experience God in your own personal life?
Do you truly find fellowship with Him in prayer, in the Word,
in the quiet and meditation, or do you find it hard to connect
with God? They say our our public worship
should be an overflow of our private worship time, our time
that we spend walking with God, fellowshipping with him in our
own hearts in our quiet time. Then that should be the driver
of our Sunday morning faith. So my hope this morning is that
that's the case for each of us. God, we thank you that we can
look at the life of someone like Enoch even in the midst of a
genealogy. These genealogies have purpose.
They point out something to us, and may we choose to follow
Slime of Seth, a line of Enoch people who call upon the name of
the Lord. It's in Jesus name we pray,
Amen.