Chapter Five – The Communique
“This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them mankind in the day they were created.”
Thinking back to chapter one, what was one of the very first things God did? He gave names to His creation - Day, Night, Heaven, Earth, Seas, and here, Man or literally, Adam. In this chapter, we’re reminded of the fact that He created Man in the image and likeness of Himself and so what’s one of the first things Adam does? He starts naming things as well - cow, dog, porcupine, etc. And in this passage he, like God, gives names to his creation or rather his procreation.
Now the whole issue of names is one that we in our culture are far removed from -- we tend to name our children after movie stars or give them names that seem to sound good, but we give little weight to the meaning. By contrast, the whole original purpose of naming was one of characterization or prophecy. I think names are important to God because they communicate truth about a person, place, or thing. On the other hand, the “father of lies”, the devil, is constantly confusing our understanding of names because truth is uncomfortable for him --consequently, he says that lust is now love, sexual perversion is now gay, sin is now entertainment, gossip is news, and on and on it goes. He’s probably ticked that his own name was changed from Lucifer which means “light-bearer” to Satan which means “adversary”. He’s also called Destroyer and Dragon - truthful names but not exactly complementary.
Names are really what this chapter is all about. However, if you're like me, there are times when I'll just scratch my head and really wonder why God put a certain portion of scripture in the Bible. For many people, genealogies like this one are such passages. Why would the Lord take the time to record this detail? Remember, all scripture is given for a purpose and the theme of scripture in its entirety is Christ Jesus. He is at the center of it all.
And as we take the time to study it, we’ll see that this chapter is a neat illustration of that principle. In order to get the message that the Holy Spirit is imparting, we need to do some `mining' in it. Let's look at the whole passage first:
"And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died."
"Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enosh. After he begot Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died."
"Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan. After he begot Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died."
"Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel. After he begot Mahalalel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died."
"Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. After he begot Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died."
"Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch. After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty two years; and he died."
"Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years, and Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him and he was not for God took him.”
Before we continue, we need to stop here for a moment to look at this last section. Enoch walked with God. What’s being said here is that Enoch had a marvelous relationship with the Lord. He communed with God continually. Consequently, their relationship became so dear that the Lord just said one day, “Come up here, Enoch.” and he was translated, zap! From earth to heaven in the blink of an eye. Enoch’s name means “dedicated” and he obviously was -- to God. Many scholars believe that he is a foreshadowing of the church which will also be translated at the coming of the Lord as seen in these passages:
“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. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thes 4:16-18
“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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Cor 15:51-54
Now, death being swallowed up in victory reminds me of a passage in Joshua. Joshua?! Yeah, Joshua -- a very prophetic book by the way. After Moses had died, Joshua was placed in command of the hosts of Israel by the Lord. (Keep in mind that Joshua is the same name as Jesus - one is Hebrew, the other a Greek transliteration.)
At the time, they were encamped on the east side of the Jordan river. In chapter three of the book of Joshua, the Lord spoke to Josh, and in turn he relayed to the priests that they were to carry the ark of the covenant before the people. He continued saying that when the priests who bore the ark stepped foot into the Jordan, it would stand up as a heap so that the people could pass over on dry ground. And that’s exactly what happened.
But the neat thing about this is that when it happened, the river, which was overflowing its banks at the time, backed up all the way upstream to a town called Adam.
“and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), that the waters which came down from upstream stood still and rose in a heap very far away at Adam the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.” Joshua 3:15,16
In order to catch the significance here we need to understand a couple things - the name Jordan means “the descender”. As such it is a picture of sin and death, the boundary between the ‘wilderness of this world’ and the ‘promised land’ i.e. heaven. And with whom did man first begin to descend?
Beginning at Adam of course. Sin and death began at Adam and man has been in a descent ever since. But there’s good news! As Jesus, or in type, Joshua, led the way, the ‘river of death’ made way to allow Him and His people (the Jews and all who will believe in Him) to cross over on dry ground! Instead of the river of death swallowing them up and sweeping them to the DEAD SEA, death itself was swallowed, foiled, heaped up all the way back to Adam! What a beautiful picture of the work of Christ on our behalf.
In addition, recall that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river - baptism is symbolic of dealing a death-blow to the flesh, identifying totally with the Lord. (See Col 2:11-15)
But that’s not all that’s important about this passage; the ark of the covenant, which is a beautiful symbol of Christ (that’s a whole study in and of itself!) was to precede the people.
“So it was after three days (that should remind you of the resurrection of Christ which took place on the third day after His crucifixion) the officers went through the camp; (reminiscent of Mark 16:19,20) and they commanded the people saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure.” Joshua 3:2-4
Let me suggest that this is a very specific prophetic picture of the salvation of Israel and that the picture foretells of the Jewish people following Jesus into the promised land (that is, receiving salvation) about 2000 years after Christ’s ‘descent’ to the grave and ascent into heaven. Notice also that this happened at the time of harvest. That reminds me of Revelation 14:1-16.
But now back to our text.
“Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.”
“Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son, and he called his name Noah, saying “This one will comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.” After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.”
“And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
So we have a genealogy that runs like this - Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. We started out this chapter saying that sometimes you just have to do a little ‘mining’ so to speak, in the Word, in order to dig out what the Lord wants to communicate.
Names don’t mean much to us today but they mean a lot to God - always have, always will.
So, let’s look at these names:
Adam meansMan
Seth meansappointed
Enosh meansmortal, sentenced to death
Cainan means sorrowful
Mahalalel means from the
presence of God
Jared means one descends
Enoch meansdedicated
Methuselah means when he is
dead, it will come (or he will
bring it)
Lamech means to the humble, to
the lowly
Noah means rest, comfort
For some of you, the ‘light bulb’ is already going on. Can you see it? There is a divine message from the Lord in this genealogy. It says, “Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah.” Let’s translate.
These names say, “Man, appointed mortal, sentenced to death, sorrowful. From the presence of God, One descends, dedicated. When He is dead, it will come to the humble, the lowly -- rest and comfort.” Wow! The gospel has just been given and God was the first preacher of it. No wonder He’s into names.
One more thing. Looking at the years we can see that indeed the year Methuselah died, the great flood came which covered all the earth. So his name was prophetic in that was as well. But look at Lamech. He died at the age of 777 - the only one mentioned who died at what would have been thought of as a premature age. (Remember Enoch didn’t die; he was raptured.) And he died five years before the flood.
Five, throughout scripture, is the number of GRACE. I think this is neat because it speaks of God’s gracious removal of Lamech from the scene so he wouldn’t have to be destroyed with the rest of the godless world in the flood.
There’s another scripture that’s very appropriate to note here: “The righteous perishes, and no man takes it to heart; merciful men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous is taken away from the face of evil.” Isa 57:1
I like this because I know that I can count on the Lord to also take those who humbly follow Him in this present age out of the world, whether by bodily death (like Lamech) or bodily rapture (like Enoch), before His flood of judgment comes on the earth during the tribulation. Hallelujah! “Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Heb 13:8.
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