2024-10-02_Genealogies and the Old Men

Genealogies mirror the chronological structure of the first account of creation (Genesis 1:1-2:4). We recall that the first account of creation is distinguished by God’s orderly self-revelation unto mankind in and through His creation. It is as close to God’s perspective upon creation as may be possible for human comprehension, whereas the second account is man’s perspective upon the same creation. From God’s perspective, the created order manifests certain universal truths, as in creation before sin is “good” in that it is totally reflective of, and in sync with, God’s will. The same universal truths can be discerned through man’s perspective as well, but they are always made manifest partially and indirectly foremost through man’s relationship with God. There is a clarity of revealed truths when seen from God’s perspective, for God sees as perfectly as God is. There is less clarity of revealed truths when seen from man’s perspective, for even prior to sin, man is seeking and probing more than he is possessing truth, and after he sins, his observations of truth are perverted to some degree. Thus, if we see that genealogies mirror the structure of God’s perspective of his own self-revelation in the created order, then we see that genealogies are meant to convey God’s direct providence in and through human history.

In Genesis 5, there is a clear indication of man’s growing sinfulness: With each generation, the number of years lived is getting smaller. Men are falling further away from God’s grace, and for that reason, the world is becoming less habitable and, therefore, harder from which to extract spiritual and physiological nourishment. The exception is Methuselah, the son of Enoch, for the reason to be explained below. And yet, notwithstanding how each generation is falling further away from God’s will, God is with them. There is still an order to man’s chronological progress through time, and in the case of Enoch and Lamech, there are still men set aside as particularly God fearing. Moreover, God can and does reverse man’s course from time to time, as when the piety of Enoch is clearly connected to his son, Methuselah, living a longer life than anyone else.

Cain’s descendants are mentioned toward the end of Genesis 4, but they are not organized in a similar chronological structure. We are invited to differentiate the descendants of Cain and the genealogy of Adam through the line of Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son.

Excerpt of Genesis: From Paradise to Patriarchs: The main contrast between the lines of Cain and Seth is that of the emphasis of each. Cain’s line is credited there with what might be called ‘worldly progress’ and achievements. Cain built the first city (4:17). From his descendants came the technological and cultural contributions. Metal workers, ranchers, and musicians were of this line. Now what is it that is emphasized about the line of Seth? No mention is made of any great contributions or achievements. Two things marked out the men of chapter 5. First, they were men of faith (cf. Enoch, 5:18, 21-24; Lamech, 5:28-31). These men each looked back and grasped the fact that sin was the root of their troubles and travail. They looked forward to a redemption that God was to provide through their offspring...Now we are not told that every child of theirs was godly. But we do know that these [mentioned in the genealogy] were godly men and that through them and their children a line was continued which culminated in Noah. Secondly, while the rest of mankind would be destroyed in the flood, through Noah the seed of Eve would be preserved. The hope of men rested in the preservation of a godly seed.

Note that the men of faith chronicled in Genesis 5 are not known for their worldly abilities, let alone their worldly achievements, and yet they feature large in God’s providential plan for the salvation of mankind. In that, they are a kind of foreshadowing of how “the meek shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). God works in and through the quiet and steadfast faithful. God sets aside His holy remnant, which is small in number compared to the worldly achievers (the sons of Cain being numerous enough to populate the first city, while the sons of Seth are much less populace), but which is more consistently ordered to God’s will. We recall that Abel’s blood had cried out for vengeance and that “Abel’s blood” is likely a reference to the generations that had no chance to be born because of Abel’s untimely death. In crying out for vengeance, the unborn sons of Abel are as worldly in their perspective as the worldly achievers found among the sons of Cain. The implication is that God sets Seth aside from birth to be the father of a line of godly people leading down to Noah. God responds to Cain’s sin first by cursing Cain, though as stated He tempers justice with mercy even in this case, and then God establishes the structure and the signs of salvation in the genealogy of Adam through Seth. The structure of salvation is that, like the first account of creation, it will be ordered to God’s will. There will be no salvation possible apart from God’s will. The signs of salvation will be in the preservation of a godly seed through the tumults of history. That God preserves His holy remnant tells us that God will return in time to offer salvation: The Master will return to the house where His obedient servants prepare for Him by keeping His commandments.

Genesis 5:22: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

Keil & Delitzsch Biblical Commentary: Against the background of universal death, the power of life was still more conspicuous. For the man [mentioned in the genealogy] did not die till he had propagated life, so in the midst of the death of individuals the life of the race was preserved, and the hope of the seed sustained, by which the author of death should be overcome. In the case of one of the fathers indeed, viz., Enoch, his life had not only a different issue, but also a different form. Instead of the expression "and he lived," which introduces in every other instance the length of life after the birth of the first-born, we find in the case of Enoch this statement, "he walked with God (Elohim);" and instead of the expression "and he died," the announcement, "and he was not, for God (Elohim) took him." The phrase "walked with God," which is only applied to Enoch and Noah, denotes the most confidential intercourse, the closest communion with the personal God, a walking as it were by the side of God, who continued still His visible intercourse with men. It is distinguished from "walking before God" (Genesis 17:1; Genesis 24:40, etc.), and "walking after God" (Deuteronomy 13:4), both which phrases are used to indicate a pious, moral, blameless life under the law according to the directions of the divine commands. The only other passage in which this expression "walk with God" occurs is Malachi 2:6, where it denotes not the piety of the godly Israelites generally, but the conduct of the priests, who stood in a closer relation to Jehovah under the Old Testament than the rest of the faithful, being permitted to enter the Holy Place, and hold direct intercourse with Him there, which the rest of the people could not do. 

We know from the Apocryphal Book of Enoch that God brings Enoch up into Heaven without Enoch having to experience a physical death. In this, Enoch foreshadows Elijah. Enoch sees the angelic beings and the spiritualized geography of the place where God is. Since Enoch sees this without dying, the connotation is that this heavenly place is where man is meant to be. For all men are meant to be eternally alive and never to suffer the afflictions of death. If alive without suffering the afflictions of death, then like Enoch all men would be living in this heavenly world. Enoch does not return to the fallen world, but his son, Methuselah, in living longer than anyone else, is a kind of living testimony to the overriding power of life over death. Methuselah’s long life is a kind of echo of his father’s undying life in paradise with God. This is why in Methuselah we see a momentary reversal of the downward trajectory of man’s lifespan. When the veil has been briefly opened to God’s eternal life, that life overflows like water breaking through a dam. Even when the veil has been lowered again, there is an abundance of that divine life still in the world for a while. This is similar to how Saint Peter could heal, and even raised Dorcas back to life from the dead, after the Ascension of Christ Jesus.

Genesis 6:2: The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Jude 1:6-7: And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities round about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering vengeance of eternal fire.

There has been disagreement about “the sons of God” reference. Are they the pious men who fall within the line of Seth? Are they angels, since elsewhere the phrase “sons of God” refers to heavenly beings in close proximity to God? Are they fallen angels? In considering this question, scholars have defined “the daughters of men” as most likely attractive women who fall within the line of Cain. These women are attractive by worldly standards and not by any indication of spiritual maturity or piety. Since the descendants of Cain are identified with worldliness, these attractive women then are identified with the descendants of Cain. An exegesis of verses 3 and 4 will aid us in determining the likely definition of “the sons of God.”

Genesis 6:3-4: And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also, after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bear children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

As men multiply across the earth, and become that much more removed from their initial state of grace, they become more identified with their “fleshiness,” which is to say, their worldliness. Originally, God saw that man’s flesh and spirit were equally good, but after man sins, his flesh is at war with his spirit. Sin perverts the flesh and the spirit in man, such that man’s “flesh” now is more identified with earthy sinfulness than with the moistened dirt God had crafted into flesh. Similarly, man’s driving spirit is becoming less and less identified with God’s Spirit and more an ugly counterfeit of divinity. In saying that He will not always “strive” with men, God is not giving up on them. Rather, He is saying that for salvation to be possible, the holy remnant must be all the more protected, which is what will happen inside Noah’s Ark, and man’s lifespan must be a lot lower than it is so that there are fewer years in a lifetime to rack up sins. In the next verse, we see the product of “the sons of God” copulating with “the daughters of men” – a new and perverse race of giants. These “mighty men” are “men of renown” for their worldly exploits – likely of a violent or sexual nature - and not for their fidelity to God. Not only has sin spread to the known ends of the earth, but sin is exercised by some on such a grand scale now as to be the stuff of legend. Abomination is becoming high spectacle, and the biggest sinners are now the biggest celebrities of the time. These giants may be men of tall stature, such as in Goliath, but more importantly, they are “giants” in the imagination of the men who practically worship them as gods on earth.

Now, if “the sons of God” are identified with the descendants of Seth, then in copulating with “the daughters of men,” who are likely the descendants of Cain, we are seeing mixed marriages which threaten to undermine the integrity of the Seth bloodline. The holy remnant is at threat because too many counted among the holy remnant are letting their lust override their piety to God. The result of these mixed marriages is an even worse perversion – the race of giants who raise the grand spectacle of sin to a higher level.

Now, if “the sons of God” are identified with angels, then considering Jude 1:6-7, they are likely fallen angels. If that is the case, then we are not seeing the dissolution of the Seth bloodline but rather the intervention of demons into man’s affairs to worsen man’s sinfulness considerably.

Either way, man’s perversion is approaching the depths of Satan’s, and God is going to have to do something drastic to save the holy remnant. Seen from this perspective, the deluge that will kill all of man but for Noah and his family is an act of divine mercy. Much like separating Adam and his descendants from the Tree of Life, God uses the deluge to protect mankind from falling into the abyss where Satan dwells. Better to preserve the holy remnant, which will allow all the humans who follow to see their origin in God’s covenant with Noah, than to see mankind be as dark as the demons themselves. Indeed, the fact that demons could copulate with women here suggests a growing likeness between the two as if “the daughters of men” now are of the same species as the minions of Satan. There is not much time to reverse man from his slide into Hell.

Genesis 6:5-6: And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary: God sees all the wickedness that is among the children of men; it cannot be hid from him now; and if it be not repented of, it shall be made known by him shortly. The wickedness of a people is great indeed, when noted sinners are men renowned among them. Very much sin was committed in all places, by all sorts of people. Anyone might see that the wickedness of man was great: but God saw that every imagination, or purpose, of the thoughts of man's heart, was only evil continually. This was the bitter root, the corrupt spring. The heart was deceitful and desperately wicked; the principles were corrupt; the habits and dispositions evil. Their designs and devices were wicked. They did evil deliberately, contriving how to do mischief. There was no good among them. God saw man's wickedness as one injured and wronged by it. He saw it as a tender father sees the folly and stubbornness of a rebellious and disobedient child, which grieves him, and makes him wish he had been childless.