Summary
October 2, 2024 – Genesis 5:1-6:6
Summary
The genealogy of the 10 antediluvian (pre-flood) patriarchs in Genesis 5 is a symbolic representation of God’s direct providence through human history. These are all descendants of Seth, Adam’s third son who produced this familial blood line of spiritual leaders. As in the first creation account in Genesis, the genealogy represents the clarity of an orderly, sequential, revealed truth about God’s will that is present in the natural world. Mankind’s sin expands with each passing generation. We fell further from grace and encountered more hostility from the external environment, resulting in shorter lifespans as the generations pass. As always, God has not abandoned mankind and occasionally, pious men such as Enoch were set aside for God’s purpose. The divine favor showered on Enoch “overflows” onto his son Methusaleh, which results in a miraculous life extension for him to a ripe 969 years, the oldest man in the Bible. The patriarch leadership remnant descending from Seth is relatively fewer in number, compared with the worldly achievers descended from Cain, whose numbers are large enough to people an entire city. Seth’s line are the structural evidence that salvation will be available to us in the fullness of time, and that it is ordered according to God’s will.
Preservation of Seth’s line – the Holy Remnant – comes into question when the sons of God begin to couple with the worldly daughters of men (Cain’s female descendants) to produce a race of giant offspring. This lustful coupling is seen by God as an outward sign of man’s continued corruption, and He laments that these goatish libertines had become widely celebrated by the rest of mankind for their aggressions against His moral order. In an act of divine mercy similar to reserving the tree of life away from Adam and Eve in Eden, God restricts the lifespan of His sinful creatures, to curtail their accumulation of sin, and prevent them from developing a spiritual likeness to the minions of Satan. The narrator describes God being aggrieved at the witness of the continual evil in the thoughts of the hearts of men, and at the magnitude of man’s wickedness upon the earth. God almighty repents Himself of ever having created mankind, much to our great shame.
Bible Study Notes