Genesis 5:1-32
"The Children of Adam"

Warning: Don't try to make a sentence out of these names that somehow points to Christ. (Some people do this.) Christ is here, all right. We will see him in Seth and in Enoch and in Noah. Let those men point us to Christ and we will receive what the Scriptures intend.

  1. The Reminder: Man as originally created (vv. 1,2)
    1. The Book of the Genealogy of Adam
      1. Aren't Cain and his progeny part of this genealogy?
        1. No, not in the Biblical sense
        2. They prove not be sons of Adam, who was created in the image of God, but sons of the Devil
      2. The real story, the story of the descendants of Adam leading up to Christ, starts here.
      3. The previous chapter was a dead end.
    2. Man was created in God's image and likeness
      1. Remember all the significance of this
      2. Man was created to be like God
        1. The Serpent had twisted that very idea with Eve
        2. So we are reminded of this truth here, in its correct form
        3. Man was created to work and to rest, to think God's thoughts after him and to judge all things in accordance with God's word.
        4. Specifically, man was created to fulfil a covenant with God (by working) and then to enter into God's eternal rest, thus imitating God's work in the Creation week.
      3. Both male and female were created thus
      4. And they were blessed
      5. And they were named with Adam's name
        1. as the representative, the decision maker
        2. And thus God spoke of his intimacy with man in naming him
        3. and of his authority over man to command him
    3. With this recap, we're ready to answer the question: How did all that turn out? Did man achieve that rest that God had offered him?
  2. The Repetitions and Variations: Death and Hope (vv. 3-32)
    1. The Similarity to Cain's Genealogy
      1. Many of the names here are the same, two are identical.
        1. Cain and Kenan (5.12)
        2. Irad (4:18) and Yared (5:18)
        3. Methushael (4:18) and Methuselah (5:25)
        4. Enoch (4:17) and Enoch (5:21)
        5. Lamech (4:18) and Lamech (5:28)
      2. This is deliberate, to draw our attention to the similarities and differences in these genealogies.
      3. We are meant to compare them, to see the difference between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, between the children of men and the children of God.
    2. Adam's Seed
      1. Cain and Adam both bear children in their image.
      2. Cain's image is that of one whose home is here, who puts all his hope in the things of this earth.
      3. Thus Cain builds a city (a sign of his earthlymindedness) and names it after his son, Enoch, I.e. "Dedicated" (to Cain)
      4. Adam's image is the image of God
      5. Thus he bears Seth in that image.
        1. And what great joy to know that the image of God has not been lost in man!
        2. Adam retains it and passes it on to his son
        3. Therefore, there is hope
        4. The curse is not total
        5. Perhaps man will, by God's grace, be able to regain fellowship with God and thus fulfil the reason for which he was created in God's image.
        6. Seth represents that hope, he is the seed of the woman who will perpetuate the godly line
        7. He is the promise from God that the seed of the serpent may kill Abel, but God will raise up another to replace him. God will perpetuate the children of faith.
        8. He is the ancestor of Christ
      6. Yet, still, the worst effect of the curse remains
        1. Adam lives to a ripe old age, 930 years!, BUT HE DIES
        2. He is able to bear a son in his image BUT HE DIES
        3. He bears other sons and daughters BUT HE DIES
        4. Seth lives to be 912 years BUT HE DIES
        5. He bears Enosh and other sons and daughters BUT HE DIES
        6. Enosh lives 905 years BUT HE DIES
        7. He bears Cainan and other sons and daughters BUT HE DIES
        8. Cainan lives 910 years BUT HE DIES
        9. He bears Mahalalel and other sons and daughters BUT HE DIES
        10. Mahalalel lives 895 years BUT HE DIES
        11. He bears Jared and other sons and daughters BUT HE DIES
        12. Jared lives 962 years (!!!!)BUT HE DIES
        13. He bears Enoch and other sons and daughters BUT HE DIES
        14. This is death, the opposite of that eternal rest God had promised
        15. This is death, the ultimate consequence of sin.
        16. This is death, the worst effect of the curse.
        17. What good is it for the seed of the woman, the children of faith to be born if they must die?
        18. What good is it for them to be in the image of God if they go down to the dust.
        19. They go down to the dust, and will the dust praise God? - Psalm 30.9ff. What profit is there in my blood, When I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth? 10Hear, O LORD, and have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper!" 11You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, 12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
        20. When will a woman seed be born who does not die??? Who reverses the curse, who does not suffer the consequences of sin, who enters God's eternal rest????
    3. Enoch's Testimony
      1. Then, as you know, an amazing thing happens - Enoch is born AND HE DOES NOT DIE
      2. He walked with God, i.e. he had fellowship with God, God invited Enoch into his own presence
      3. And then, suddenly, he was not, for God took him (just as God would later take Elijah away in a chariot of fire)
      4. He went up into the eternal rest without seeing death
      5. By this he obtained a testimony that he pleased God
        1. How?
        2. By faith.
        3. By faith he endured as seeing him who is unseen and was one day caught up into his presence.
      6. Compare him to the other Enoch
        1. Enoch, son of Cain, lives in the city his father built that was named after him
          1. He is a child of this earth, his home and hope are here
          2. He wants nothing more than to live happily and to die at a very old age.
          3. He has no hope of heaven no desire of fellowship with God.
        2. Where is the other Enoch's city?
          1. Here, he has none
          2. For he is looking for the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God
          3. The children of Cain can make this life as comfortable as they want; Enoch still longs for fellowship with his Maker in whose image he was created.
      7. Compare him to Lamech as well
        1. Lamech is the 7th generation from Adam on Cain's side
        2. Enoch is the 7th generation from Adam on Seth's side
        3. The number 7 signifies completeness, so here you have the completeness of those who trust themselves (Lamech-Cain) vs. the completeness of those who trust in God (Lamech-Seth)
        4. Look at Lamech-Cain
          1. How he brags that he is better than God
          2. How he trusts in himself
          3. How he is content to live in the city of this world and to be powerful here
        5. Now compare
          1. Enoch has no city
          2. He has no achievements in this world such as bearing children who create the beginnings of culture
          3. He does not desire such things, but only fellowship with God
          4. And he is rewarded
      8. Yet this is only one man
        1. Methuselah, his son lived 969 years AND DIED
        2. Clearly, Enoch is not the Savior, not the seed of the woman in his final glorious form
        3. Yet he represents the fervent hope for that Savior as one who will enable us all to have fellowship with God, who will conquer death, and who will bring us into God's eternal presence forever.
        4. Believe as Enoch believed!
        5. Count the goods of this world as nothing and long for that heavenly city which Christ has built and though you die, you too will be caught up into that city. You will rise again!
    4. Lamech's Hope
      1. Methuselah's son, Lamech, gives birth to Noah.
      2. He names Noah in hope:
        1. The name means "Rest"
        2. Maybe this one will take away the curse with which God cursed mankind.
        3. Maybe our toil will no longer be vain and futile
        4. Maybe he will be the seed of the woman
        5. Maybe he will restore the Rest which God offered when he rested on the 7th day.
        6. He knows without this that this life is futile and vain. His entire hope is in the one God will send to correct all this and restore fellowship and provide rest.
        7. Thus, he expresses his hope in Christ.
      3. Compare him to the other Lamech
        1. Again, that Lamech is content with this life
        2. He brags about his own power
        3. He uses the curse to his advantage by killing others if they get in his way
        4. He doesn't want to put the fear of God into anyone; the fear of Lamech will do quite nicely
      4. This Lamech says the world as it is is not enough
        1. By faith he cries out to God in the naming of his son
        2. Give us rest, give us peace, restore what we have lost!
        3. And in that hope he dies, 777 years old, (3 sevens, as though this generation of death is being brought to a close and a new world is about to begin under Noah.)
      5. Thus Noah becomes a picture of Christ
        1. He will survive the judgment of God
        2. He will bring in a new creation
        3. Yet he will die, for he is not the true Rest-giver, Jesus is
      6. Come and imitate Lamech's faith!
        1. Don't hope in the things of this cursed life
        2. Hope in the one who gives rest.

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