The Book of Generations

1. Genesis 5 The Book of Generations Genealogy is important to show the godly lines and ungodly lines.

2. Genesis 5 1 This is the written account of Adam’s line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.” 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

3. Genesis 5 6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. 7 And after he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Altogether, Seth lived 912 years, and then he died. 9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. 10 And after he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died.

4. 12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 And after he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died. 15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. 16 And after he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Altogether, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and then he died.

5. 9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. 10 And after he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died. 12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 And after he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died.

6. 15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. 16 And after he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Altogether, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and then he died. 18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. 19 And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died.

7. 21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. 25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died.

8. 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.” 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died. 32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

9. What is the purpose of genealogy in the Bible? • It shows the development of the human race from Adam to Noah and bridges the historical gap in time between these two major individuals . • Why is this important? Isaiah 46:9-10 9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

10. Isaiah 48:3-5 3 I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. 4 For I knew how stubborn you were; the sinews of your neck were iron, your forehead was bronze. 5 Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’

11. What is the purpose of genealogy in the Bible? 2. It demonstrates the authenticity of God's word when He said that people would die as a result of sin. Note the recurrence of the phrase "and he died" (vv. 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 31). “And he died…and he died…and he died…:” Because of sin we will all die.

12. Are you ready to die? "It is appointed unto men once to die and then the judgment” (Heb.9:27). Our physical bodies will die, but our spirits (who we are) will be judged. We have an opportunity to choose, either to have faith in God’s promises or to deny Him. The result of that decision determines where we will spend eternity.

13. 3. The Holy Spirit focuses our attention here on the difference that faith in the Promises of God will make in the quality of our life . We learn from these men of faith that their life was not without purpose. Their faith in the Promises of God made life worth living even under the most difficult circumstances.

14. Faith in the promises of God empowered them to walk with God for hundreds of years without recorded moral failure! This same power is made available to us today through faith in the promises of God (2 Peter 1:2-4).

15. 2 Peter 1:2-4 2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

16. Notice that these men lived for hundreds of years. It is important for us to understand some of the reasons God allowed such long lifetimes until the time of the flood when God began to be reduced life-spans to 120 years (Gen. 6:3). By 1000 BC life-spans were generally reduced to 70 – 80 years (Psalm 90:10) “The length of our days is seventy years or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.”

17. There are several reasons why a long life was God’s design in the beginning. • Long life was one of the chief means of preserving a knowledge of God, of the great truths of God, as well as the influence of genuine holiness. With such a long overlap of many generations the knowledge of history and spiritual truth could be preserved with the greatest accuracy and purity both orally and in writing.

18. This accuracy (inerrancy) is what distinguishes the Bible from every other piece of ancient literature. • All the patriarchs (except Noah) were born before Adam died, so that from him they might receive a full account of the creation, paradise, the fall, the promise, and those divine precepts which concerned Godly worship and living a life according to God’s promises.

19. 3. We observe how great was the care of Almighty God to preserve for mankind the knowledge of His Will, the purity of His Worship, the certainty of judgment, and the promise of redemption. 4. It allowed for the rapid increase of the population 5. It allowed for the preservation of knowledge so that advancement in civilization could progress very rapidly

20. We will look at these generations in later chapters of Genesis

21. Cain’s Family The purpose of genealogy in the Bible also contrasts the progress of the godly line of Seth culminating in Enoch (7th from Adam), who walked with God and experienced translation (Gen. 5:6-24), with the development of the ungodly line of Cain. Cain's branch of the human race culminated in Lamech (7th from Adam, not the same Lamech as Methuselah’s son). Lamech was a murdering, proud, abusive man with more than one wife. (Gen. 4:16-24).

23. There are amazing benefits of walking with God. King David knew what those benefits were when he wrote Psalms 103 “1Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits— 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

24. Enoch and His Son, Methuselah Apparently it was revealed by God to Enoch to name his son Methuselah as prophetical of the coming judgment. God must have revealed to Enoch about the coming Flood and told him what to name his son. There are many Scriptures that reveal God often tells parents what to name their child. The name Methuselah means, "his death shall bring.“

25. Enoch and His Son, Methuselah Methuselah's father, Enoch, was given a prophecy of the coming Great Flood, and was apparently told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld; but as soon as he died, the flood would be brought or sent forth. Thus people would have known that when Methuselah died the flood of God’s judgment would fall upon all the earth! It can be calculated that Methuselah did indeed die in the year of the Flood.

26. It is interesting that Methuselah's life, in effect, was a symbol of God's mercy in forestalling the coming judgment of the flood. Therefore, it is fitting that his lifetime is the oldest in the Bible, speaking of the extensiveness of God's mercy. Methuselah’s name was a fair warning to a careless world long before the judgment of God came. How great is God’s mercy when we consider that the man whose death would signal the beginning of God’s judgment would live longer than any other person in history!

27. Enoch Enoch was a “holy man of God who spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21) God had revealed things to him concerning the judgment to come: Enoch was also given prophecies of the 2nd coming of Christ!

28. Enoch Jude 1:14 “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, Jude 1:15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

29. Genesis 5:22 “And Enoch walked with Godafterhe begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.” Notice he begins to walk with God after the birth of his son. The miracle of child birth should cause all of us to walk with God. But his walk with God went hand in hand with raising a family and having children.

30. All these men of faith in Genesis 5 raised families. They understood how important and precious children were in light of God’s promise of a deliverer to be born of woman. (Gen. 3:15). 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

31. Gen 5:23 “And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years. Gen 5:24 “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Enoch is the only person in the history of the world who never died and never will die! And if it happened once there is always the possibility it could happen again! - He becomes a type of the Bible Believer who is alive at the Rapture of the church. (John 11:25-26).25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

32. We are told that Enoch "had this testimony, that he pleased God" (Heb.11:5). Pleasing God is the best place to begin if you want to follow in the footsteps of Enoch.

33. In comparison with the longevity of the other fathers, Enoch was taken away young, before he had reached half the ordinary age. This teaches us that long life, viewed as a time for repentance and grace, is indeed a blessing from God. Long life is not the greatest blessing, nor is a short life the greatest curse in life. The apostle Paul wrote: “to depart this world and be with Christ is the greatest experience any person could ever have!” (Phil. 1:23)

34. When the burdens of life caused by sin become too great and no longer serve the purpose of developing godly character in us, God may shorten our time on earth. Our time is in God’s hands. We are to walk in His promises. Lamech and His Son, Noah We know life had been very hard for the Patriarchs. This is evident by the fact that when Lamech names his son Noah he says, “This same shall comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.” (Gen. 5:28-29).

35. Lamech and His Son, Noah Lamech was warned of the flood by the name of his father, Methuselah, and the prediction of his grandfather, Enoch. Gen 5:28 “And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son. Gen 5:29And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort usconcerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.” However, the main fulfillment in this prophesy in Noah’s name is when the curse on the earth was removed after the Flood (Gen. 8:21).

36. We also have documentation of a Hidden Prophesy in the meaning of the Hebrew names. The Bible is not simply 66 books penned by 40 authors over thousands of years. The Bible is an integrated whole, which bears evidence of supernatural engineering in every detail.

37. An Example A remarkable example of this can be glimpsed in Genesis Chapter 5, where we have the genealogy of Adam through Noah. In our Bible, we read the Hebrew names. What do these names mean in English? We have already seen that Methuselah and Noah’s name both had prophetic significance. But even more amazing is the fact that when the meaning of all the names of this chapter are put together they reveal a prophesy of the Gospel.

38. The meaning of proper names can be a difficult pursuit since a direct translation is often not readily available, and views concerning the meanings of original roots are not free of controversy. But a study of the original roots, however, can yield some fascinating insights.

40. When we put these names together, we see something very remarkable Man[is] appointed[to be] mortal[and] redeemed or possessed;(by)the Blessed God [who] shall come down teaching[that] His death shall bring [the] despairing rest. Here's the Gospel Message hidden within a genealogy in Genesis! These are remarkable evidences of God’s design

41. Genesis 5 The Book of Generations Genealogy is important to show God’s amazing love and desire to redeem us from our sins.