Thank you to John for this message

Another Family Story
We continue our journey through the first eleven chapters of Genesis – the book of beginnings.
Last week we read Genesis 4, which focused on Cain and his family – a rather strange and dark story. Today we move to the next chapter in Genesis. This tells another family story – one that also is strange and puzzling, but which holds some vital and wonderful truths.

Please read Genesis 5.

“This is the book of….” (v1) indicates that this chapter was at first a self-contained unit. It opens with a recap of the creation of humankind (Gen.1:27-28). Then comes a genealogy – a selective one through Adam’s son Seth. This genealogy is –


1) A STORY OF DEATH 
As we read these verses we face two problems of interpretation:

a) The total period of time between Adam and Noah (& the Flood) looks too short to harmonize with other data. (1056 years, if you add the relevant ages in vv3-28.)
However, the ten named individuals in this genealogy may have been selected by the compiler as “landmarks”, rather than continuous links. The NIV Bible has a marginal note that in these verses the word translated “father” can also mean “ancestor”.

b) The life-spans of these antediluvian (pre-flood) people seem unbelievably long to us.
However, our assumptions about age are not the only possible ones. (Some races have ancient traditions of huge life-spans – even 30,000 years or more!) And think of a sparsely-populated world, with few if any serious diseases, no pollution, and no highly-processed food!

“Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died.” Whatever the truth behind these numbers, this chapter has a hauntingly insistent phrase: again and again we read “….and then he died.” This refrain points to the reign of death. Even over very long lives, death has the last word.


2)  A GLIMPSE OF DEATH’S DEFEAT
Amid the list of antediluvians emphasising their mortality, we find an astonishing paragraph about Enoch (vv21-24). We are told (twice) that he “walked with God”. This is a beautifully simple description of a close relationship of trust and obedience. (Noah also “walked with God” (Gen.6:9)).

And through Enoch we catch a glimpse of the defeat of death. The New Testament tells us “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him” (Hebrews 11:5). So in that way Enoch pre-figures the Lord Jesus Christ, who by his death and resurrection “has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10).


3) A PRE-HISTORY OF SALVATION
This genealogy is selective: of Adam’s sons, only Seth is named here. The reason becomes clearer in the final verses of the chapter, with the mention of Noah. It is through this family (not Cain’s) that God is going to work his rescue plan for the world.
It is through Seth’s descendant, Noah, that God will judge evil and establish his covenant with every living creature. (Watch this space for the next four weeks!)
And it is through Jesus, descendant of Seth and of Noah, that God will establish his new covenant of grace, sealed with the blood of Christ. 

Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span, at Calvary!


Prayer
Eternal Lord, our beginning and our end;
bring us with the whole creation
to your glory, hidden through past ages
and made known
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Category: The Bridge

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