We are introduced to the genealogy of Adam (v1-2). It is thought that Adam recorded this, and God had given him what had gone before, and it was all passed down to Moses to record in this book.
He starts by recalling that God created and called them ‘mankind’. Modern so-called experts give dates of millions of years to findings but, even though some generations may be omitted, it is clear that time passed was only a very few thousand years. If the generations recorded are correct, and I believe they are, we are only talking about 5,000 years before The Lord Jesus came. People lived for a very long number of years before the flood, after which they come down to familiar lifespans to today.
Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born (v3-5) and lived 800 years afterwards. He had sons and daughters and died at the age of 930. We are not given the names of all of these, and it was clear that Adam’s sons married his daughters. In verses 6-27 we have details of his offspring from Seth through Methuselah, who lived and died at the age of 969, the oldest man. It is interesting that the world refers to him when talking about age.
One of Adam’s descendants was a man named Enoch, the son of Jared, who gets special mention. At the age of 65 Enoch became the father of Methuselah, after which, “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.” Obviously, Enoch was one of those who called on the name of the LORD (4:26). In fact, he went further and walked with God, indicating a very close relationship with God. If only Adam had walked with God so closely in the first place. Enoch clearly had faith in God, hence his walk with God. I remember a preacher saying, ‘after walking with God for 300 years, one day God said to him, ‘Don’t bother going home tonight, come home with me’.’
What an amazing statement, ‘God took him’ – he didn’t die he just went with God and didn’t come back. Spurgeon suggests that it could have been like the apostles saw Jesus taken up. In that remarkable chapter of ‘faith’ Hebrews 11:5 – “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
What a testimony that was from God Himself! There is no mention that Methuselah walked with God as his father did, or any of the others for that matter. In fact, when we get to Methuselah’s death, the flood came, and God’s statement was that the thoughts of men were evil continually (6:5). How had things changed?
The final section of Adam’s descendants is in v28-32 going from Lamech to Noah who was born when Lamech was 182 years old. Noah was 500 years old by the time his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth were born.
Apart from Enoch all these are reported to have died, all of them were under sin although there were some outstanding men, not least Noah, but none of these were the deliverer promised at the beginning.
