It was said to me a couple of weeks ago that it would be good to get out of the contentious issues of Genesis next week. I agreed, but the more I think about it, all of Genesis is contentious in some peoples eyes.
We have dealt with creation, worship, original sin, being mad in the image of God, sin as a concept, God’s purpose, and hey these are big issues right now as well as when the book of Genesis was written.
And the issues do not stop coming. Next week, we look at the flood and Noah, after that God’s covenant, then the
In this passage we could deal with the controversies and there are some but instead we will look at God working in people’s lives. I have said all along that Genesis is an introduction to God. Here we have More about God and He introduces us to some people.
1. Reintroduced Adam.
GE 5:1 This is the written account of Adam’s line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man. GE 5:3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.
Why repeat things? Well this is about a heritage, a family tree if you like. The jews liked to know where it started. Adam. Adam actually means: to show blood in the face, like blushing. It came to mean a common sought, or generic of a person. By that I mean, someone alive, has blood in their face, a normal man.
Now, notice the generic term “man” – that refers to the race not the gender, throughout most of the old testament the simple word man refers to the race not the gender. This is where one of the controversies arise. Man and adam – are they referring to the same thing. Is this passage using the term Adam as an open ended statement referring to people back then. The people before they had truly evolved into an understanding of life and God.
No, I don’t think so, I believe in a real Adam. Why? Because the name is specific both here and in the New Testament. A man who had a son, lived a life did man type things like make mistakes and then died. Jesus referred to Him, Paul referred to Him, and they did so within the concept of a real man. If you take Jesus’ words to be real and Paul’s to be part of the word of God then we have to accept Adam as a real bloke.
But it is the age that these people lived to that is hard to understand.
Look at them
Adam 930
Seth 912
Enosh 905
Kenan 910
Mahalalel 895
Jared 962
Enoch 365 (But he walked with God and was no more!!)
Methuslah 969
Lamech 777
Noah
Now there are a few different ideas here.
- The time is the same as ours but counted differently.
- The time is symbolic as are the people and they indicate the ages of man before history was recorded.
- They were closer to being perfect so their bodies didn’t wear out.
- They just lived a long time.
- It doesn’t matter about the ages – it is just an introduction to Noah.
There are a few other views, but these are the main ones.
So what do you reckon. I think it depends on your view of God. Could you live that long? Only if God wanted you to!
Did hey live that long – well the bible says they did – how much credence do you put on the bible? Believe it or not – your choice. I cant prove it. I wasn’t there. Yet, this is not the only ancient document to say that people lived a long time. Some ancient myths of other cultures infer that people lived longer. Aztecs, Persian, even some of the Celtic myths mention people who live for a lot longer than normal. Where did the idea come from?? Maybe its true, my assumption is the bibles record is right.
2. What about Enoch? 23 Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
When I was a kid I dreamed about this. Walking with God and God taking me away with Him. I think I thought that if I was good enough I would have this happen. As you can see I’m still here.
There have been many views of this.
- He lived perfectly – It doesn’t say that.
- His relationship to God was so close that he just faded into a heavenly being.
- 365 years indicates a full year and this indicates when our full time is up we go to be with God.
- God took him to be in God’s presence permanently – because God chose to.
I think it is the credibility of his relationship to God that is being emphasized, not the being taken away. The bible tends to give credit where it is due. Enoch had a special relationship to God – God recognized that as did the writer of the book. The question is for us – do we walk with God????? Not how did Enoch disappear, but how is our walk with God. Remember, we are learning about God here. What does it say about God?
He treated Enoch individually special. – this is a personal God – involved in lives – for goodness sake – he walks with people. A relational God.
3. Introduction to Noah. GE 5:28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.”
You will notice in the bible that people are introduced before they become the subject matter. We see it with Paul (He was Saul then) He is introduced as being the holder of the coats at Stephens stoning. But he becomes a real part of the story later on.
The old testament is similar and we see it happening here, Noah is introduced as part of the heritage. Direct descendant of Adam. Working it all out mathematically, Noah could possibly have known Seth. Maybe some of you mathematical types would like to look at that. Adding all the numbers up, and the long levity of the people, maybe he knew a vastly greater number of generations than we get the chance to.
He is introduced. Notice that a word of prophecy given. In fact it is a name meaning. As we understand it Noah means or meant to the Hebrews – One who comforts in tough times.
Maybe , just maybe, life is already getting a bit wild. Maybe, just maybe, Lamech had an inkling that God wasn’t happy with the cultures lifestyle.
Noah is introduced just when God is about to do something. This comfort that he was going to offer was different from what his dad had in mind perhaps, but the comfort goes through history to us. Noah is a comfort to us, why? Because he did what God wanted.
We can follow that lead.
So there are two people we need to take note of here. Enoch who reminds us to get our relationship right with God and Noah who encourages us to comfort those around us.
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