GENESIS 5

Introduction

The believers we read about in Genesis 4 and 5 lived in the Last Days before God's judgment fell upon a Christ rejecting world.

You and I are believers living in the Last Days before God's judgment will fall upon a Christ rejecting world!

If you identify the things which characterized their lives during the Last Days before the Flood, you will be instructed as to the things that should characterize your life in these Last Days before the Great Tribulation.

As the names of God's faithful, Last Days saints are being recorded, three of them are given special prominence: Enosh, Enoch, and Noah.

- - 4:26 When Enosh was born, "men began to call on the name of the Lord."

- - 5:24 "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took him."

- - 5:29 "And he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed."

Each of these three saints instructs you in a particular area of faithfulness that should characterize your life in these Last Days:

#1 Enosh - - Involvement In The Church Of Jesus Christ Should Characterize Your Worship In These Last Days

#2 Enoch - - Insight Into The Coming Of Jesus Christ Should Characterize Your Walk In These Last Days

#3 Noah - - Investment In The Commission Of Jesus Christ Should Characterize Your Work In These Last Days

Genesis 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, "For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed."

Adam and Eve had many daughters, and they undoubtedly had other sons both before and after Seth. Seth and his descendants are recorded because it was through them that God would fulfill His promise to send a Savior, God born of a woman, the "seed" promised in Genesis 3:15 and referred to here by Eve.

Eve remains faithful through the tragedy of losing both her sons! She lost Abel to a murder, and she lost Cain to apostasy. Your faith is never more beautiful than when it is framed by adversity.

Genesis 4:26 And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.

From a reading of the original languages, all of the commentators agree that this phrase, "then men began to call on the name of the Lord," means that corporate, public worship services were established at this time. God's people began to assemble together for worship. The moral darkness and decay of the Last Days in which they lived drove them to seek fellowship with other saints and together, corporately and publicly, they called upon the Lord.

The Last Days in which you and I find ourselves are no less dark and decaying! We should often assemble together, in various meetings, to worship the Lord. God is pleased when we do so! Listen to this passage from Malachi 3:16-17,

"Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name. They shall be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him."

It has become fashionable in recent years to engage in 'Church-bashing.' In pulpits and in print, you can find plenty of criticism being leveled against the Church of Jesus Christ. On the surface there is plenty to be critical of. Jesus, however, loves the Church. He is constantly working to wash and cleanse her by His Word. He will present her faultless and blameless before His Father in heaven. We are His bride, won to His love by the shedding of His own precious blood.

I think we need to have more and more the attitudes of Jesus toward the Church! Even when He is critical, as He can be in His letters to the Church in Revelation, His motive is His love, and we are motivated by that wonderful love.

The Church of Jesus Christ is something marvelous, miraculous, mysterious. It is a privilege to be a part of it and it should be a priority to participate in it.

Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.

This phrase, "this is the book of...", is like a signature. It is Adam's signature; he puts down his pen and Noah begins to record this next section. All of the various inspired writings were then compiled by Moses, himself under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 5:2 He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.

We resist the efforts to 'feminize' the Scriptures. God Himself uses male pronouns and calls the human race Man or Mankind. The word encompasses the beauty of God's original established order in the relationship between men and women.

Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

Adam was made in God's image; he now begets children in his image. They are born, as we saw last week, with inherited sin - - with a sin nature.

Genesis 5:4 After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.

Before the flood, men lived longer than they do today. The conditions of the early earth were conducive to long life expectancies. We have spoken of the vapor or ice canopy that surrounded the planet, of the higher atmospheric pressures that would exist in such an environment, and of the uniform temperatures around the globe at that time. All these and many other physical characteristics of the early earth contributed to longevity.

Nevertheless, Adam died. It is interesting that God takes notice

of the death of each of these saints, but nothing is said of the death of the line of children begotten by Cain. Ezekiel 33:11, "'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live"; Psalm 116:15, "Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His saints."

Genesis 5:6 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enosh.

Genesis 5:7 After he begot Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:8 So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.

Genesis 5:9 Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan.

Genesis 5:10 After he begot Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:11 So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.

Genesis 5:12 Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalaleel.

Genesis 5:13 After he begot Mahalaleel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:14 So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.

Genesis 5:15 Mahalaleel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared.

Genesis 5:16 After he begot Jared, Mahalaleel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:17 So all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died.

Genesis 5:18 Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch.

Genesis 5:19 After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:20 So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.

Genealogies are often skimmed over in our reading of Scripture. They are no less inspired than the precious promises we are eager to locate! These patriarchs of the Last Days were precious to the Lord; so are you! Rejoice that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life and that God and His angels often read it there in heaven!

Genesis 5:21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.

Genesis 5:22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.

Genesis 5:24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

After a new birth, Enoch walked with God in the Last Days until he was taken bodily to heaven without ever dying! Hebrews 11:5 confirms this: "By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him..."

He was raptured - - caught-up or snatched away to heaven.

In the Last Days in which you and I live Christians will be caught up bodily to heaven prior to God's wrath being poured out in judgment:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."

Enoch is a type of the Rapture of the Church prior to God's wrath being poured out from heaven; Noah, safe in the Ark, is a type of those who God divinely seals and protects safe through the seven years of the Great Tribulation of His judgment.

What is interesting about Enoch is that more is said of him in the New Testament than in the Old! We read of him especially in Jude, verses 14 and 15 - -

"Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

Enoch prophesied concerning the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! He was given unique insight into prophetic truths - - insight into a glorious future beyond his own day and time. This is what occupied his mind and what characterized his walk with God among the ungodly in those wicked Last Days.

We need to be reminded of the unique insights into prophetic truths that our generation has been privileged to receive. It is our generation that has witnessed the most important prophetic event of the Last Days - - the regathering of the Jews as a nation in their promised land! It is our generation that can begin to understand the universal mark that could make all of humanity subject to a single economic system! It is our generation that could witness simultaneously the events depicted in the Book of the Revelation as they occur!

This is why it is almost incredible to me that, rather than being characterized by insight into the soon coming of Jesus Christ, many sincere Christians are returning to positions that godly men held centuries ago when the Church was ignorant of these prophetic facts!

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is preceded at least seven years by the Rapture of His Church. This Rapture, this being caught-up alive into heaven, is called your "blessed hope," and it is said to have a profound affect on the purity and passion of your daily walk with Jesus Christ. Don't be removed from it.

Genesis 5:25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech.

Genesis 5:26 After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.

Methuselah was a sign and a warning to men that God's judgment would come. "When he dies, it will come." Please notice God's merciful, patient dealings with lost men for the almost 1700 years between the Garden and the Flood:

- - Men had the promise of a redeemer

- - They were instructed about the substitution of a lamb to redeem them

- - God had put a mark on Cain, a visible reminder of judgment on sin

- - The Sabbath had been established as a day for worship

- - Noah preached of righteousness while building the Ark

- - In chapter 6 we learn that God the Holy Spirit was striving with men

What prevented these lost men and women from being saved by grace through faith in the Last Days before the flood? They are no different than men in these Last Days in which we live. Concerning our own times, the Apostle Peter says in 2Peter 3:5 that men "willfully forget." Here is the phrase in several Bible translations:

KJV "they willingly are ignorant"

RSV "they deliberately ignore"

In the Last Days prior to the Flood, men deliberately shut their eyes to God's warnings and signs. In our own Last Days, in which the Flood itself is a sign, men are willfully ignorant of the compelling evidences of the global flood of Noah's day.

Genesis 5:28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son.

Genesis 5:29 And he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed."

Genesis 5:30 After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:31 So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.

Genesis 5:32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Lamech's prophesy echoes sentiments you and I have today. Seeing the increase of wickedness all around him, he looked forward to the soon judgment of God upon the ungodly and took comfort there. The Christian has the difficult task of looking with compassion on lost men and women while at the same time looking and living in such a way as to hasten the Lord's coming in judgment!

Noah's life and times will occupy us for several weeks. For now we note that God commissioned him to work for Him - - to build the Ark as a pulpit from which he would preach. As we read the story, the indication is that Noah invested his time, talents, resources, and energies into God's work.

We are commissioned by Jesus Christ; we have the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations... " Our personal investment into the furthering of the Gospel of Jesus Christ should characterize our lives in these Last Days!

Conclusion

It's the Last Days...Jesus Christ is coming soon - - first to Resurrect and Rapture His Church, then to Return to Rule and Reign on earth for 1,000 years.

Each of these ten patriarchs we've studied was individually precious to the Lord. You are individually precious to Jesus!

Please note that they all were wonderfully placed as living stones in a household of faith. Remove any one of them and you lessen the witness of God's love and grace that is seen in all of them together.

Beloved, you are wonderfully placed as a living stone in a household of faith! When you are "removed," by your own apathy or arrogance, you lessen an important witness of God's love and grace that can be seen in all of us together as His building on earth.

The Church will go on; Jesus loves it and will see to its completion. You will even go on - - provided you are born-again, a possessor of eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus and not a mere professor. How much better, though, to mutually submit ourselves one to another in the fear of God! Involve yourself; invest yourself; "For behold the Lord cometh..."