Genesis 5

         Chapter 5 is the first of several genealogy chapters in the Bible. God is a being of order and detail. The Bible is a complete book of human history, compiled and passed down through the ages, miraculously preserved by God despite man’s many attempts to destroy it or corrupt it. Here in chapter 5, God gives us a detailed list of Adam and Eve’s descendants, ending with the introduction of Noah and his three sons: Shem, Ham and Japtheth.
        This chapter starts with a reminder that God created man in His image, and, like all the other plants and animals on the earth, man begets man in his likeness, after his kind. But because of the Fall, man’s likeness is corrupted by sin. (Contrast this with 1:26.) What then follows is a long list of the first patriarchs of the human race after Adam. The most notable feature of this genealogy is the average lifespan of these men and women. Seven of the ten men listed here lived more than nine hundred years, including Methuselah, the grandfather of Noah. Remember that the earth was still in a greenhouse effect because of the canopy of water vapor suspended above the sky. There was no such thing as rain, and the whole earth was a lush, tropical climate. This, among other factors, contributed to mankind’s lengthy life.
         It could also be argued that God Himself had something to do with the longevity of men’s lives at this time. It is very possible that the human genome interacted with the pre-Flood natural environment to give the human race a more robust immune system, among other things. These long lifespans are a sign of God’s mercy and grace even after the Fall and the corruption of sin. One can’t help but wonder what would have happened had mankind not become so wicked and depraved that God needed to send the Flood? Would we still be living such long lives today? Would we have as many environmental problems and/or issues as we do now, especially in the wake of the industrial and technological revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries? Interesting to think about.
       Another reason for this genealogy is to show that God’s promise of the consequences of Adam and Eve’s disobedience was true. Satan lied. God warned Adam and Eve that if they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would die. God is a being of truth, and He is perfect. That means He cannot lie. God is showing us here in Genesis 5 that what He promised came true. Mankind suffered physical death as a consequence of sin. (Romans 6:23) Yes, their lifespans were significantly longer than ours today (or even those of the generations of Job and Abraham after the Flood), but death was still the end for all men and women, with only the extremely rare exception.
 
         Verses 23-24: Enoch was a special man. In much the same way that Adam and Eve had walked and talked with God (Genesis 3:8), Enoch also “…walked with God…” (v.24) Jude 14 & 15 state that Enoch also had a prophetic ministry among men, warning them of God’s displeasure with their sin and wickedness and His coming judgment. (Though not scriptural canon, and thus not directly inspired by God, there does exist the writings of Enoch which are considered by scholars and historians today to be part of the Apocrypha, also known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. These “lost books” are of interesting study and scholarship but should not be taken as the direct, inspired word of God, and thus should not be believed as inerrant truth. The writers of the New Testament were very likely aware of Enoch’s teachings and writings, as Jude 14 and 15 show, yet God chose to leave the books of Enoch out of His holy word.)
          Verse 24 ends with the statement “…and he was not; for God took him.” Of the whole Bible, only one other man besides Enoch is recorded as having been taken by God in this same manner: Elijah. (2 Kings 2:11) God translated Enoch and Elijah from this mortal life into their perfect, spiritual bodies, thus bypassing physical death entirely. Enoch was so beloved of God, and walked so close to Him in as perfect a communion as one can get in this fallen, sinful world, that God simply took Enoch home at the appointed time. Also of note here is Enoch’s age when God took him: 365 years, the youngest – by more than half, in fact – of all the patriarchs listed in this chapter.
         The brief bio of Enoch reveals God’s mercy and grace. In every generation since the Fall He has found a way to reveal Himself to sinful man and call the lost to repentance. At the end of time, when all the unsaved will stand before God at the Great White Throne judgment, there will be no excuse for those who rejected God in this life. God has always made – and is making – Himself known through various means: some direct, some indirect. (Romans 1:20) Today, we have God’s complete and holy word, complete with genealogies, that reveal to us how much God loves His creation, and how we can be saved from His coming wrath and eternal damnation.
        Verse 29: Lamech begat Noah, whose name meant “rest”. Whether through some divine revelation or just because he followed God as his grandfather Enoch had done, Lamech named his son Noah because he believed, “…This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.” This entire genealogy showed the lineage of Noah that originated with Seth. Another significance of this chapter is to show mankind’s value to God. Each name and the total years of their life are meticulously recorded here, preserved for all future generations and history until the end of this heaven and earth. The same God that created the universe, planet earth, the hosts of the heaven, and you and I, has His eye not only on the sparrow (Matthew 10:29), but has also numbered every hair on our heads. (Luke 12:7) He knows each of us before we are even conceived (Psalm 139:16), and He cares deeply about us and our ordinary lives.
          As with the previous two preceding chapters, chapter 5 reveals God’s love, mercy, grace and longsuffering towards His fallen creation.