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Descendants of Adam
1-2 God created men and women to be like himself. He gave them his blessing and called them human beings. The following is a list of the descendants of Adam, the first man:
3-4When Adam was 130, he had a son who was just like him, and he named him Seth. Adam had more children 5and died at the age of 930.
6When Seth was 105, he had a son named Enosh. 7Seth had more children 8and died at the age of 912.
9When Enosh was 90, he had a son named Kenan. 10Enosh had more children 11and died at the age of 905.
12When Kenan was 70, he had a son named Mahalalel. 13Kenan had more children 14and died at the age of 910.
15When Mahalalel was 65, he had a son named Jared. 16Mahalalel had more children 17and died at the age of 895.
18When Jared was 162, he had a son named Enoch. 19Jared had more children 20and died at the age of 962.
21When Enoch was 65, he had a son named Methuselah, 22and during the next 300 years he had more children. Enoch truly loved God, 23-24 and God took him away at the age of 365.
25When Methuselah was 187, he had a son named Lamech. 26Methuselah had more children 27and died at the age of 969.
28When Lamech was one 182, he had a son. 29Lamech said, “I'll name him Noah because he will give us comfort, as we struggle hard to make a living on this land that the Lord has put under a curse.” 30Lamech had more children 31and died at the age of 777.
32After Noah was 500 years old, he had three sons and named them Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The Lord Will Send
1-2 More and more people were born, until finally they spread all over the earth. Some of their daughters were so beautiful that supernatural beings came down and married the ones they wanted. 3Then the Lord said, “I won't let my life-giving breath remain in anyone forever. No one will live for more than 120 years.”
4 The children of the supernatural beings who had married these women became famous heroes and warriors. They were called Nephilim and lived on the earth at that time and even later.
5 The Lord saw how bad the people on earth were and that everything they thought and planned was evil. 6He was sorry that he had made them, 7and he said, “I'm going to destroy every person on earth! I'll even wipe out animals, birds, and reptiles. I'm sorry I ever made them.”
8But the Lord was pleased with Noah, 9 and this is the story about him. Noah was the only person who lived right and obeyed God.
Reflect
“…and then he died” is now how the story continues. Adam was made in God’s likeness and was declared “very good”; but after the fall when Adam has a son “in his own likeness” and for those after him, “and then he died” becomes their epitaph.
Yesterdays reading concludes, “At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD” (v 26). Those who did so were associated with Seth’s lineage and signify a divide in the family line between those who identify with God, Seth’s line, and those who don’t, Cain’s.
Cain’s line is marked by sin; Seth’s line by calling on the name of the LORD. There was identification by Seth’s line with God’s name that doesn’t happen with Cain’s. It is the same in the New Testament where followers of Jesus identified themselves with Christ by calling themselves “Christians.”
Cain’s line continues with his son Lamech who also sheds blood and turns away from God. Seth’s line follows with Enoch who “walked with God” and Noah who “found favour in the eyes of the LORD.” From this point on we see a divergence between those who follow God and those who go their own way until the culmination in the one man who stops this pattern of rebellion against God, the one who “crushes the serpent’s head” defeating sin and death forever. Jesus, the second Adam, gives us a new beginning, “favour in the eyes of the LORD”, and a chance to identify with him and live eternally rather than live in sin and die.
Respond
God, you are the Lord of all. I come to you because you invite me to and I ask that you will enable me to walk with you and find favour in your eyes, that I might serve you and others today. This I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen
James Paterson
James works as a visual artist. His current body of work is a series of metal wire sculptures called Prayer Machines which are whimsically ambiguous machine-like objects that give expression to mystery. “I love to share the gospel message, using art as a bridge, to encourage people in their relationship with Jesus.” He and Lynn have four young adult children. Publications Jim’s Grandiose Big Bible Picture Book (Bastian Books ,2007)