Finding interesting things in a boring chapter

Genesis 5. Oh great. A lineage chapter. A list of daddies, ages, and death. I’m sure you’re sarcastically thinking, “Oh, fascinating.” But there is more here than you think. Sidenote: When googling “Genesis 5” in an images search to find a picture for today, I found out that there is a Christian comic book with teen superheroes called The Genesis 5. We have to admit that Christian pop culture is not as good as regular pop culture…

This chapter reiterated that we are made in the image of God. Here, it says that man is in the likeness of God. Biblical genealogies are not always complete, because sometimes generations are skipped. If you are attempting to count backwards and see how old the world is based on these lists, you’re out of luck.

One of the first  things that jumps out in this chapter is how old these people lived to be. Did they look old at the age of 60 or did their youth last longer? Did they only start looking 60 at 300? Yeesh. Adam was 130 when he had Seth. Note that these guys still die after these long lives. That’s still where it ends and what everyone has to face.

The descendants of Adam are listed and the list stops to point out that one in particular, Enoch, “walked with God.” This means he had a friendship relationship with God, he had faith, he walked in the light, and he went with God’s will. Then the Bible says that God “took” Enoch and the Septuagint says that he was “not found.”

Hebrews 11:5 says, “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased God.” We can please God? It’s clear hear that we can only do it through faith that leads to walking with him.

There are hints as to what prompted Enoch’s faith. First, The text says, “After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God.” I always look up Biblical names in commentaries because they always shed extra light on the parents’ mind states. The name Methuselah means “when he is dead, it shall come.” When his son was born, Enoch got a revelation from God about an coming judgment.

 Jude 14 tells us that Enoch was a prophet. He said, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” Enoch decided to make the most of his life with God, rather than waste it and contribute to the evil that demanded judgment.

The oldest recorded life is Methuselah’s. He lived 969 years. Apparently no one made it to 1,000. This is why it’s funny to call really old people Methuselah. They don’t like it though, especially if they don’t get it. As the meaning of his name indicates, Methuselah’s death prompted the flood. God kept Methuselah alive as long as possible so that the people could have that time to repent.

Lamech gave Noah his name because Noah would bring relief out of the cursed ground. Noah’s appearance would bring relief to the hard work and painful toil that was his family’s life…Somehow. Finally, Noah had Shem, Ham, and Japheth as sons.

It must have been an interesting time, what with all the people living that long. Adam would have gotten to know lots of his descendents. How much power and influence could a man have in his community in 800 years? We see that God is doling out prophecies and walking with men. These are a spiritual people doing the best they can, even without the Jewish law or Jesus.

It’s a shame that we don’t get more details about their way of life and this point in history. The long lives alone would have changed the way society operated in contrast to today. Some people think the long lives are not literal or that they are counted in months, not years, but I think they really lived that long. The environment was different back then. Later in the Bible, God decides to decrease the lifespan. It’s not unbelievable to me to think that God decided to speed up the deterioration process.