Genesis 5

2006.Aug.18 08:44

Generations

Read Genesis 5:1-32 | Full Chapter

Genesis 5 is basically the quick and dirty flash forward to get us from Seth, son of Adam and Eve, to Noah. There are a few notes of specialized interest in the process:

• Eve and Adam had children other than Cain, Abel and Seth, including daughters (Genesis 5:4), assumedly with names that would be anglicized to four letters, had they been recorded.
• Enoch "walked with God; and he was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:25, NASB) , whatever that’s supposed to mean. Hebrews 11:5 offers the clarification "Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death" (Hebrews 11:5, NASB) . Okay, despite my complaints about the wording here, Enoch apparently had something of an Eden experience. He walks with God, as did pre-lapsum Adam and Eve, and he does not die, despite the curses. His life is a testimony to us, that even though we all sin, we do not have to remain subject to the curses of sin. In any event, he gets a pretty lengthy write-up in Wikipedia.
• Lamech says of his son, Noah, "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed" (Genesis 5:29, NASB) , which is quite frankly not the first idea that comes to mind when I think of Noah. While this statement might just have been wishful thinking on Lamech’s part, it can be read as an ironic prophecy: everyone, except Noah’s family, does get rest from their toil. Killer floods will do that. Another thing to note is that Jesus (like all of us, I suppose) is in the line of Noah, and it is Christ who offers freedom from the curses of sin.

What I really want to focus on is the idea of generations, something I mentioned last entry. Reading the geneologies, I have a ambivalent impression of statis and of progression. The story is basically the same for each generation, and perhaps that’s why we move from father to son, father to son, each in a few short verses. Sin, repentance, failure, turn back to God…or not. Next. At least, from reading the other stories in the Bible, and from living in my generation, that’s my guess.

Nevertheless, there is a tug as of progression, a movement toward something. Many (most?) of these geneologies throughout the Bible eventually lead to Jesus. And with that progression is a connection. I have a connection to each of these generations before their flood. I still find myself frustrated with my work. I find myself wanting to walk with God, and often failing. But I have a hope they didn’t. I cling to Jesus, where they must find imperfect sacrifices. I can worship in spirit and in truth. Do those who lived righteously in those days long that they had known the freedom of Christ then? I’m so glad I do know that freedom. But there’s much to learn from the whole story, from all the generations.