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.

Genesis 4:25-26

2006.Aug.09 17:28

Calling on Jehovah

Read Genesis 4:25-26 | Full Chapter

Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.” To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD.
(Genesis 4:25-26, NASB)

This is a busy two verses. If I remember to, there are three things I particularly want to comment on:

1. That Eve considers Seth to be in the place of Abel.
2. The concept of generations.
3. The bit about “Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD.”

Upon the birth of Seth, apparently Eve and Adam’s third son, Eve says “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel.” I’m not certain why but I find this really interesting. Maybe it’s the business of one person taking the place of another (a la Christ’s sacrifice, creating life in us where we were once dead in our sin). Eve perhaps is placing the hope of humanity on Seth, seeing as how she and Adam botched the tree business, and their first two sons were separated from them due to fratricide.

As in the story of Cain, we now see the branching away from the initial nuclear family, with the birth of Seth’s son, Enosh. Throughout the Bible, we see generations going back to Seth (being the patrilineal ancestor of Noah). This connection of generations reminds me that I have a blood connection back to Adam and Eve, and that this is an ancestry I share with all humans. Generation by generation we fall. Generation by generation we can be accepted back as God’s children in repentance.

The sharing of the message of repentance and the truth of Jehovah is an essential function some part of each generation must perform. A result of the separation from God due to sin is the need for humans to encourage each other and share the Word with each other. By the time of Enosh, this seems to be coming into practice. " To call upon the name of the LORD" (Genesis 4:26, NASB) is otherwise translated as "preaching in the name of Jehovah" (Genesis 4:26, Young) or “to proclaim the name of the LORD” (NIV in footnote). I may be quite misinterpretting this, but my reading is that by the time of Enosh, there becomes a distinction of people who proclaim God to others.

In other words, I find this passage quite interesting but don’t really know what to make of it. Then again, that’s okay; that’s part of learning.