February 24: Genesis 5

Today's reading.

I realize it is hard to believe, but sometimes, genealogies communicate gripping truth. Personally, I think this is one of the most exciting genealogies in Scripture.

Did you notice a pattern in this chapter? There is a constant refrain in it, tapping a steady beat, pointing to the crushing reality of the world as it is after the Fall.

And he died. And he died. And he died. (Gen. 5:5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 31)

Remember where we are in the story at this point. Just two chapters ago, humanity was exiled from God's presence for their rebellion, sent out of Eden, bearing the weight of the curse of their sin. The people God had created to live forever had broken his law and were now suffering the consequences. Now, they would surely die (2:17).

And the curse didn't just remain with Adam and Eve, but is quickly spreading across the entire race. It cropped up at Abel's murder (4:8), it reared it's ugly head when Lamech perverted justice and killed a man who wounded him (4:23-24). Now, it is affecting every single one of God's image bearers.

And he died. And he died. And he died.

This is a tragic chapter in the history of mankind. Death is now the enemy that comes for every last one of us, beating its funeral drum across the ages. No matter how many hundreds of years these ancient men lived, death came for them. Lamech wanted relief from this curse when he named his son, Noah: "Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands" (5:29). And Noah would certainly play prominently in God's plans. But he could offer no such rest.

Oddly enough, it was Lamech's great-great-grandfather*, Enoch, who pointed to true relief. For, in spite of the ever-spreading curse, Enoch was able to avoid death because he "walked with God" (5:24).

The Holy Spirit whispered hope to his people even in the midst of the constant clanging of death's bell. Enoch walked with God, and there is life, not death, for those who walk with him. Enoch ever so lightly foreshadows the hope of the resurrection, the hope that there is life for those who put their trust in the Lord. Enoch's God-given evasion of death reaffirms the divine promise of  Genesis 3:15, that the serpent who brought about the curse in creation would be crushed by the Seed of the woman. Though the future of the human race looks grim, the Lord does not let us forget the coming Christ who would reverse the effects of the curse and make all things new (Rev. 21:5).




*We should not think that Gen. 5 is a comprehensive genealogy, accounting for every single generation. 4:18 reveals that Enoch was Methuselah's great-grandfather rather than his father. "Father" is used loosely in Hebrew and can be used to refer to ancestors further removed than one generation.