GENESIS 5
Read Genesis 5:1-6:4
The next major event in Genesis is the flood, but before that we have a genealogy from Adam to Noah. This sets the scene for what is to come and we see the same sort of pattern in the New Testament. At the beginning of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke we also see genealogies; the list of God’s dealings with his people from generation to generation. Genealogies remind us of the continuity of humankind over the ages and point to a God who acts in history.
The chapter starts with a blessing for mankind (v2). There is a reminder that it is God that created mankind, that he created mankind in his image and that he created them male and female. Chapter 5 also confirms the judgement of death that was placed upon Adam and Eve for their disobedience; “you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). All of these people in the genealogy lived, and some for a very long time, but each potted biography end with the words, “and he died” (vv 5, 8, 11, 14 etc). There is a limit to the time we are allotted on earth. Our individual lives have a beginning and an end. Death may seem to be the end, but in Jesus we have the one who defeated sin and death to give us hope for an eternal future.
What are we to make of these enormous life spans of these early humans? It is not clear, but we know from other ancient writings that long life spans were recorded in various cultures. We do see in Genesis 6:3 that God said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years” seemingly limiting these extraordinarily long lives.
One intriguing verse in this chapter is Verse 24, where we read, “Enoch walked with God, then he was no more, because God took him away”. Here there is a hint of the restoration of close fellowship with God in Enoch’s case; a hint that reconciliation with God, to the state of the Garden of Eden before sin entered, is possible and it anticipates the coming of Jesus to fulfil that.
Chapter 6 begins with a very strange passage concerning the’ Sons of God’ marrying the ‘daughters of men’. These ‘Sons of God’ are referred to as the Nephilim, which literally means ‘fallen ones’. It is not clear what is going on here but the most common view is that fallen angels came to earth and what that means is that the boundaries between heaven and earth are being blurred; the limits that God set are being breached, just as when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Whatever the precise circumstances that Genesis 6:1-4 is describing, the point is that God’s authority is being challenged and that sin continues to escalate on earth.
This continued increase in sin sets the scene for the story of the flood.