Genesis 5

(Genesis 5:1-32): What makes this abbreviated genealogical record of Genesis 5 unique among all the genealogies of the Bible is that it includes some of the oldest men to ever have lived but also mentions their death; it reads more like an obituary than a genealogy, and he died, occurring 8 times. This is naturally cast in the shadows of the serpent’s spurious claim to Eve in Genesis 3:4, You will not surely die. We also learned that practically all of the godly line of Seth was already dead and buried, except for the eight remaining in Noah’s family when the great flood broke upon the whole earth.

God’s promise to Adam, and to dust you shall return (Gen 3:19) was fulfilled in Genesis 5:5, So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; he died. There is no record of how old Eve lived to be. Sadly, who is conspicuously missing is Abel’s name at the top of this record under Adam (cf. Gen 4:25), no thanks to this wicked brother, Cain, who snuffed out his young life. Though not an exact comparison, I cannot refrain from comparing Cain to Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus, in the New Testament. They both talked with God directly and both rebelled against Him, resulting in someone dying, a trademark of the wicked one.

Out of this genealogy of long life and eventual death, announcement emerges an incredible fact; Enoch was one of only two men recorded in the Bible to never have experienced physical death! Elijah was the other. Enoch was so blessed by God that his son Methuselah was the oldest man to have ever lived on this planet who lived to be the ripe old age of an astounding 969 years (Gen 5:27)! Even though he lived on earth 604 years longer than his daddy did, he never outlived his father because Enoch never died for Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him (Gen 5:24). Is this not a picture of the next eschatological event approaching mankind, the rapture, or what!

Lamech reminds us of the struggle and the hope of living a godly life in a world surrounded by spiritual darkness by naming his son, Noah. This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed (Gen 5:29). In the times of Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah, ungodliness had become rampant and pandemic throughout the earth, Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Gen 6:5). These godly patriarchs before the great flood (known as the antediluvian period) proved that we can live a godly and holy life in a world bent on self-destruction.

O, Father, our world is free-falling into deep darkness like those before the flood. Every intent of the thoughts of man’s heart today is on evil continually; there is no discernment of what is right or wrong anymore; every man is doing that which is right in his own eyes. They are like sailing vessels without a rudder, drifting on the face of the earth subject to every whim of the wind. I fear the impending flood of judgment upon the world is fast approaching. 

Strengthen me, O LORD, to walk in the ways of Enoch; it is not in me to direct my steps. Oh, how my soul longs for the Genesis version of a solo rapture on a mass scale, he was not, for God took him, to come quickly! Comfort me concerning my work and the toil of my hands for your glory like the godly patriarchs of old. May I be pure as You are pure in the midst of a world consumed by the filth of wickedness; that I will not be found unclean when you return for your Bride, the Church. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, come quickly. <><