08: Genesis 5-6

Genesis 5

• 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.
  • This is reviewing Genesis 1 of course
• And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
  • The image and likeness kept going despite the Fall. The image was not lost.
• 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.
  • What are these big numbers?
    • In the beginning, man was not intended to die. But after the Fall, man began to die but very slowly.
    • And many scholars agree that people in the old days lived much longer than we do. The earth was more pure… the air was clean, the food was clean, not like today. In those days they only ate plants.
    • And we will see in the next chapter that God allows them to eat meat, and He also limits the life of man to 120 years when He finds that the people are living very long times without repenting. Later on it will be less than 100s (in the Psalms)
  • Enosh → Cainin → Mahalel → Jared
  • Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch.
    • The genealogies usually say “xyz lived xyz years and begot xyz and then died” and continues to the next one. But sometimes they’ll get to a name and stop and say something. So this is a message to us – be careful that you don’t live your life as a name and number. No one remembers Enosh or Mahalel’s names… but we get to Enoch and we all know Enoch.
    • So what gives a man significance in history, and makes him remembered by all? His relationship with God.
    • The genealogy pauses here to tell us about Enoch.
  • 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.
    • Enoch walked with God – first person this word is said about and it’s used twice.
    • We don’t know anything about Enoch – we know “Enoch walked with God.” To the extent that God took him or God “translated him” (Septuagint)
    • Let’s see where Enoch is mentioned in the New Testament
      • Where did they get this info? Inspired by the Holy Spirit, but also possibly from a Jewish tradition
      • “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. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:5-6)
        • Someone who knows that God is there and has complete faith that God hears him, would never stop talking to God
      • “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.” (Jude 1:14-15)
        • God revealed to Enoch the plan of judgment and Second Coming even those many years ago
      • See what simply walking with God can do for you? That God took him and said “you don’t need to die right now”?
    • Does this mean it is possible for a man not to die?
      • In Hebrews 9 it says “it is appointed for men to die once” – so every man must die.
      • The Church understands that every person needs to die. And we have Enoch and Elijah that don’t die in the Bible but are taken up and translated to God. So they didn’t die… but their death was not canceled, it was postponed.
      • If we open Revelation 11, we will read about two witnesses sent by God to preach and they are killed and then resurrected. These are understood by the Church to be Enoch and Elijah
    • Walked with God
      • Friend of God – two people walking together are friends
      • “No longer do I call you  servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
      • Abraham walked with God and God came down and literally walked with him and said “should I hide what I intend to do from Abraham?” And He told Abraham about Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham even negotiated with God. And God told Abraham your children will be in Egypt in hardship 400 years but I will deliver them! This is friendship.
      • God wants to be our friend! He is the one that comes to us and says “I want to be your friend”
      • “The Lord was with Joseph” – it always says that in Genesis. And it means that Joseph was aware of it! God is with all of us – but how many of us are aware and see God in everything and remember God at all times?

Chapter 6

• Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
  • Who are the sons of God and the daughters of men?
    • St Luke answers this in his genealogy of Christ “Enosh son of Seth son of Adam son of God”
    • The sons of God are the sons of Seth; the daughters of men are the children of Cain
    • Seth taught his children about God; to love God and to want to be with God – you see it because Enoch came from this line and Noah came from this line
    • Cain did not do that
    • Like when we say “children of God” and “children of the world” – it is not because we are better than them (we are all human) but imagine if a Christian, son of God, went and married someone who did not know “Our Father who art in heaven…” what would be the result? How would the kids be? This is what happened in this generation
  • As you know, the wife can change the husband’s mind… so all these daughters of men, influenced their husbands and before long, no one in the world knew God. The world removed God from everything
  • “of all whom they chose”
    • Children of God, God should choose for them – they always ask God to help them make a decision. We will see this same phrase when we talk about Lot and Abraham because Lot makes the same decision and chooses for himself a land that looks good – and it ended in disaster for them
  • They were beautiful
    • “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30)
    • Yes they were beautiful – but they did not know repentance or prayer or God
• And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever”
  • God found that there was no good in these people and every generation is worse than their parents. Imagine they are growing up as kids and all they know is bad, wrong, sin. They have completely suppressed their conscience.
  • When someone rejects God, God will try with him – and he will try for one year, two years, ten years, even fifty years. But God will not strive with you forever. If you keep rejecting, rejecting, rejecting… you get to the verse that says “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions” (Romans 1:26) – you reach the point where God tells you “inta 7or” – but this is a word you never want to hear.
  • You are walking towards the devil – I am trying to pull you by your shirt, but you reject it
  • The people of that generation had a chance to repent and they didn’t
  • Why can’t God strive with man forever? Because man is not immortal.
• For he is indeed flesh
  • Man is as if he is flesh – he rejects the spiritual and the good – he has become carnal like animals. He has rejected the image of God in himself, and preferred the image of flesh like an animal.
  • There are two types of people
    • Those who take seriously the image of God and strive to be like Christ; concerned with the heavenly; with virtues
    • Those who prefer to be like animals – carnal – preferring the desires of the flesh (let us eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die)
      • If he doesn’t like someone he might kill him
      • If he wants something he might steal it
      • He’ll cheat on a test
      • He’ll get a boyfriend or girlfriend
      • He’ll eat and drink whatever he wants
• Yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
  • This was the first thing God tried with man – let me make their years short so that they are not living hundreds of years in sin without repentance. Maybe there are some who will die righteous
• There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.
  • Giants here refers to mighty men – men who liked to fight and go to war and kill lots of people. Like they would measure their success in life by how many men they killed and how many things they stole
• Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
  • This is what the devil loves – to take those people are the most sinful and to give them a name on earth. To make them famous. To make them admired
• Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually
  • Imagine that not a single good thought would enter their mind. Every single intent and thought of their heart was evil. You have to understand the kind of people we’re talking about here – murderers, adulteries, fornicators, thefts, every kind of sin. You know in those they would do things like child sacrifice – kill their children. They would harass and abuse their daughters. Even animals do not do these things.
  • So when God saw that every thought in their heart was evil – He said mafeesh fayda. That’s it.
  • Nowadays someone who steals – he still has something in his heart telling him that what he’s doing is wrong. Guilt. Or he knows it’s wrong but he tries to justify it… or he feels bad. All of these are good thoughts – they are thoughts that are pushing him towards repentance. But imagine if “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”
  • This is what Christ was referencing when He said “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:11) and then gives examples: “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man” (Matthew 15:19)
  • This is why in Christianity we care that the heart is pure.
  • “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45)
  • Sadly, doesn’t all of this remind us of the world we live in today?