Adam to Noah

  Read Genesis 5

 We begin with the only authoritative genealogy that will continue beyond the flood that would come. Before the genealogy, we get a reminder that God created, and he created mankind to be special.

We are of the earth like the other animals, but we are also of God.  God breathed life into us.

This is the written account of Adam’s family line.

When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.

This is the fourth creation account in Genesis.  It is not as substantial as the first two.  It is more like the third, which is incidental to what followed.

There is a fifth account.  You know it.  Some of you know it by memory.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made

But this fifth chapter of Genesis takes us all the way to Noah.  When we get to Noah, we will see a re-baselining of God’s creation.  But we are not there yet.

It is important that today we can follow the bloodline of Adam to Noah, and then to Abraham, and then to Abraham’s seed that we know as Christ.  From Christ going forward, it is his blood alone that is important to us.  Understanding how God’s plan was fulfilled in the human bloodline to Christ is important, but being washed in the blood of the Lamb is what leads us to right standing with God.

Again, we are in the fifth chapter of Genesis, but our understanding of the New Testament helps us understand the beginning of the story.  It is our finite nature and our earthly mind that thinks we only understand the new by the old.  God is not bound in linear time and his inspired word gives us the full biblical witness.

The bloodline of Adam was first told through Cain, who killed his brother Abel.  We do not see the continuation of this lineage.  It will end with the flood.  What we do see is the continuation of Adam’s bloodline through Seth’s descendants.

Within this lineage is one very interesting exception to death entering the world through Adam and Eve.  Enoch lived 365 years, enjoyed faithful fellowship with the Lord, and had a son named Methuselah—who lived a very long time, but Enoch did not experience death.  God took him from the earth without stopping at death.

So, what should we take from this chapter? 

·       Bloodlines are important, all the way up to Christ. From our full biblical witness, we know that it is the blood of Christ that moves us forward.

·       Biblical authors, inspired by God, preserved the stories of the bloodlines that would endure to the seed that would come through Abraham’s line. Adam and Eve would have other children, but they are not included in the story we have here.

·       Sin was already wreaking havoc on the world, but there were those who were still faithful.  They may only be a small remnant, but there were those who found favor with God on the earth. Enoch was the example in this chapter.  Noah in those to come.

·       People lived a long time.  God would limit that in the next chapter.

From the beginning, God spoke creation into existence, then took what was formless and gave form to it.  God brought order out of chaos.  These first chapters deal with a lot of chaos, but God will bring order.  The line of Adam that goes through Abraham is the thread that will continue to put order in the world.

God will preserve a remnant of his creation. The evil that was prospering will be put away.  God’s relationship with mankind will continue.

The full biblical witness tells us that evil will again tempt God’s people, but God will continue to make a way for his faithful.

So as this chapter prepares for what is to come, let us consider where we have been.

God created.

God created good.

God gave form to the formless.

God created humankind special.  We are of God and like the other creatures—we are of the world.  We are unique among everything in creation.

Sin had manifested itself in disobedience to God. God gave consequences.

Humankind made offerings to God.  God was pleased with one of these offerings.

Man has manifested anger and again given sin a foothold.

Sin continued in Cain killing Abel. God gave consequences for this action but did not disown Cain.

Humankind had language, literature, tools, abodes, and grew crops and raised herds.

These were not mere cavemen who grunted and waved clubs.  From the beginning humankind was special.

Sin continued.

Adam was blessed with a lineage that would continue through Seth and eventually bring us the Christ.

Adam had other children but the story of God’s relationship with humankind will continue through Seth’s line.

Enoch marked the exception to death entering the world through Adam and Even.  All of these people—except Enoch—who lived a long time, eventually died.

It has not yet rained on the earth.

We are introduced to a man named Noah. He had kids when he 500. He was the father of three sons.

After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

We should realize that we have the Old Testament to better understand the New Testament; however, we who see the full biblical witness know that the converse is also true. We have the New Testament to help us understand the Old Testament and better understand a God who is not confined to linear time as we are.

Our full biblical witness will tell us that the story that gets us to Jesus and salvation and the fulness of life and life eternal, and it comes through a selected line and there will be adversity along the way.  Trials and tribulations will continue into our time.  Sin continues into our time. Some of us may or may not know what we call the Great Tribulation, but all will know some tribulation in our lives.

Many hope to be taken directly to heaven as was Enoch and those who will be living at the time of Christ’s return.  We all hope that the Burns Flat Cumberland Presbyterian Church is like the Church in Philadelphia—that we read about near the end of the age—share much in common, being saved from an hour of trial.

But we also hope to bear witness to the one true God and his Son that we know as Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Savior and our hope.  We hope to live a life full of testimonies of how we have overcome all the obstacles and stumbling blocks set before us without becoming a stumbling block ourselves.

We want to be known as followers of Christ Jesus by our love.  If that means that the world hates us, then so be it.  We know whom we serve, whom we follow, and whom we trust.

The line from Adam to Christ does not walk along the Primrose path, but it is a line that we will follow to our Savior.  Genesis won’t get us all the way there, but we will understand the early part of this story that tells of God’s relationship to the crown of his creation.

A flood is coming, but we will see those who are rescued from the destruction continue the story.

Amen.