Adam and Eve were charged with populating the earth. This devotional reading looks at their line from the birth of Seth to the birth of Enoch.
Nuggets
- Creating humankind was tied to the line of Adam.
- Moses used Genesis 5 to start another section in his writing.
- Yes, God created only male and female as genders.
- We are not only made in the image of God, but we are also made in the likeness of man.
- Adam and Eve had more than three children.
- Adam died at the age of 930.
- Seth’s line as firstborn provided little insight into the sons listed.
Genesis 5 is a transition section. In a way, I am surprised that Genesis 4: 25-26 wasn’t Genesis 5: 1-2. This is because we talk about that issue again.
Part of me, though, can see why. Genesis 4 was a heavy chapter about sin. Moses wanted to offer hope.
That was probably a good idea since Genesis 5 transitions to the heartbreak of Genesis 6.
Let’s transition.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the The Influence of Sin series
Creating Humankind
“This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created” (Gen. 5: 1-2 NLT)
Creating humankind was tied to the line of Adam.
Not much new information is given in Genesis 5: 1-2. This is a rehash of what we were told in Genesis 1.
But then, we need to hear things over and over again. We may not come to totally understand them, but we have to have a dose of faith to accept what is best not understood.
Generations of Adam
Moses used Genesis 5 to start another section in his writing.
Genesis 1 through 2:4 was the first section. It was a large overview of the creation story.
Genesis 2: 5 through Genesis 4 was the second section. It not only gave us a more detailed account of creation, but it also showed us a rocky start to human history.
Creation was quickly tarnished by the stain of sin. Humankind had chosen against God.
Genesis 5 is another section. However, there is no mention of sin — except one little phrase. We’ll talk about the significance of that when we get there.
Created in the Likeness of God
God patterned humankind after Himself.
God formed us from dust of the ground and breathed life into us to put spirit into us. He made us to be sympathetic. He wants us to be connected with others so that we can make relationships in order to spread the word about His love for us.
God originally made our moral character like His. He made us holy and righteous.
Being made in God’s image, then, is about our moral and spiritual nature being in a kinship with God.
The problem is that our character changed after the original sin, not our nature. While we still have a soul, it was tarnished by sin.
One thing that did not change was the immortality of our souls. Like God, we will live eternally — not our physical bodies, but our souls.
Male and Female
Yes, God created only male and female as genders.
All the rest are manmade through the influence of Satan. Yes, that makes them a sin.
Are they the unpardonable sin? No. When we ask God for forgiveness, He will forgive us.
Yes, we have to repent and turn from our sin. We shouldn’t think it is acceptable to go on sinning.
This is the first opportunity for relationships. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1: 26-27 ESV).
But it was more than that. Think of all the different relationships this started.
- Man with God.
- Man and woman — interacting with someone of the opposite sex from friendship to marriage.
- Family — being a cohesive unit of parent, siblings, and parent with children.
- Neighbors — living around others.
- Coworkers — dealing with someone else while you do the job assigned to you.
It goes beyond this. Every person who has been born, is alive now, and will be born is a descendant of Adam and Eve.
Race and ethnicity does not matter. That separation came, I think, after the Tower of Babel, which we will talk about eventually.
The Days of Adam
“When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died” (Gen. 5: 3-5 NLT)
Fathered a Son in His Own Likeness, After His Image
We are not only made in the image of God, but we are also made in the likeness of man.
I once wrote a devotion asking whether we were made in God’s image or were we made in Adam’s image. Some didn’t like it when I said it was both.
Yes, Adam and Eve were made in God’s image. But we, as their children, are also made in Adam’s likeness. Once sin entered through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, sin was within us from birth.
“And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5: 16-19 NLT).
Are likeness and image synonymous? Well, yes. Likeness is a synonym of image, and both are synonymous with resemblance.
That is logical to me. It goes back to God using patterns. Not only do we individually resemble God, but also the family structure resembles God. We have God’s intellectual and moral character.
Our sinful nature is not part of being made in the image of God. It came from Adam. His image of God was tarnished by sin.
Every one of Adan’s descendants have the same tarnish on our nature.
In churchy words, that means we are unclean or unholy. We are no longer pure.
We are called to be holy as God is (I Pet. 1: 16). How can we get there?
Luckily, there is an answer to Job’s question. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one” (Job 14: 4 ESV).
Jesus can.
Other Sons and Daughters
Adam and Eve had more than three children.
When we are faced with reading genealogies, we tend to get all glassy-eyed and start skipping. We don’t want to do that because we could miss something very important.
Take Adam, for instance. It might be easy to think that Adam had only three sons: Cain, Abel, and Shem. That is all Moses talked about in his book of origins.
But Moses slipped in a little nugget when we might not be looking. “… he had other sons and daughters” (Gen. 5: 4 NLT).
Adam and Eve were not going to populate the earth — “… ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth …’” (Gen. 1: 28 NLT).
Why did Moses not even name Adam and Eve’s other children? Well, Moses appears to be a man of few words. He only includes information that furthers the narrative.
If it is not included, it is not germane to what God wants us to know.
Besides, it would be like John said about writing an accounting of all Jesus said or did.
- “The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name” (Jn. 20: 30-32 NLT).
- “Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written” (Jn. 21: 25 NLT).
God wants us to take it in faith. “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” (Heb. 11: 1 NLT).
Adam Died
Adam died at the age of 930.
Wait! What???? Adam was pushing 1,000 years old???????
I can see that. Adam and Eve were charged to go forth and multiply. They weren’t going to have just three kids.
It is conceivable that they would have had hundreds of kids — both male and female as we said. They had to live long enough to do that.
Let’s look what was written about that in the Christian Age’s sermon entitled Lessons from the Longevity of the Antidiluvians. It says,
“The race of antediluvians were blessed with all possible capacities and facilities for indefinite improvement in knowledge and happiness. They were not called to die when they had just began to live, nor to quit their investigations forever when they had just learned how to study. Men’s minds might have been formed and disciplined in the revolution of nine hundred years under an accumulation of influences and circumstances in the highest degree powerful and [favorable].”
Resource
I know. Adam lived almost 1,000 years, and his life story is told in five verses here, two verses in Genesis 4, 12 verses in Genesis 3, 11 verses in Genesis 2, and four verses in Genesis 1.
But in those 34 verses, God told us all we needed to know.
We really don’t know why people started living fewer and fewer years. We assume the root cause is sin. We aren’t told in God’s Word the practicality of that.
Just another think for the UNR book — understanding not required.
The focus shouldn’t be the numbers. Focus should be on how the line of Seth led to the birth of Jesus. It shouldn’t be on individuals, but on the forerunner of the Church.
We will see in the coming verses the one thing that each have in common is they died. This began with the man that was created to live forever.
When Adam and Eve chose to sin, they brought judgment on all humankind. Spiritual death was not the only type of death we would experience. Humankind would suffer physical death because of their original sin.
God doesn’t want us to stress about our death. He wants us to have faith in Him.
Adam’s Descendants
“When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died. When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died. When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died. When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died” (Gen. 5: 6-20 NLT)
Seth’s line as firstborn provided little insight into the sons listed.
Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, and Enoch. We’ve got six biographies here. Once we get done talking about Enoch, we will be given Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah.
Other than Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, and Noah, the other half are unknown to us. They are just names and dates.
Ooo, baby! That tells us how much God really needs us. Zip. Nada.
Once we hit Genesis 12, we will come to realize how important genealogies are. They will come even more important in Matthew and Luke.
Look how every one of them says Adam and Eve’s descendants had more sons and daughters. Not all sons and daughters are named — just the one who is a direct line to Noah.
God is the One Who selected the sons and daughters and separated them out to do His Will.
Ouch! Parker said that the unlisted others weren’t listed because they were boring.
But then Parker said something else. He wrote, “Family life, patient service, quiet endurance, the training of children, the resistance of temptation — these things are never mentioned by the historian. Because we admire brilliance we need not despise usefulness.”
Resource
Everyday life can be routine. Patient service and quiet endurance are what each one of us is called to do. Training others is a marching order. Resisting sin is imperative.
We can’t think they they were excluded because they were not living in obedience to God. They might have been. They may not have been.
How much bigger would God’s Word be if more information is given on those listed — and more were listed?
Read John 20: 30-32 and John 21: 25 again. And John just wrote that about One Man. Imagine if each person got their life story told!
Making the Connections #1
Adam was a very important person in the history of the world. But all in all, we really don’t know much about him.
We know Adam did right. We know Adam did wrong.
Most of all, we know that Adam and Eve were the grandparents of every single person that came after them. That includes you, me, our family, our friends, our enemies, and strangers. That includes everyone who was ever alive, everyone who is alive now, and everyone who will be born until the Day of the Lord.
- “Then the man — Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live” (Gen. 3: 20 NLT).
- “From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries” (Ac. 17: 26 NLT).
Because we are all the same, you would think that would promote unity. “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!” (Ps. 133: 1 NLT).
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. We exercise our right to free will for far more than just deciding whether or not to obey God.
These days, it is woe to the person who thinks differently than we do. That creates a further divide in unity because no one wants to be told we shouldn’t think what we do.
We need to love as Jesus did. He didn’t force everyone to believe in Him or believe what He believed.
Jesus loved.
Making the Connections #2
You would think that as righteous as Abel was, the chosen line would have stemmed from him. Fuller noted that was a good argument as to why Abel died childless.
Resource
Think about it. “It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith” (Heb. 11: 4 NLT).
Abel was a righteous man. He is still a role model for us.
Once Cain would have forfeited his firstborn status, it would have gone to one of Abel’s children. Since he didn’t have children, it went to Seth.
Yes, Seth. The first son to be born in Adam’s image.
Talk about the grace of God!
Making the Connections #3
Candlish made an interesting comparison. By now in Cain’s line, we would have learned about musicians, artists, and those who worked with animals.
Resource
Those have a worldview slant in today’s society. That would have generated power, wealth, and luxury — the same as now.
Seth’s line didn’t have any indication of what their occupation or accomplishments were. It leaves us to believe their focus was on God.
How Do We Apply This?
- Acknowledge that God rewards walking in righteousness.
- Don’t worry about death but think about it to ensure eternal life with God.
- Don’t trust in our own merits or self-righteousness to ensure eternal life.
- Have confidence in God.
Resources
Father God. Thank You for creating humans — even though You knew they would disobey You. Thank You for using us to be a small part of Your redemption plan. Thank You. Amen.
What do you think?
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