Scripture: Genesis 5:
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.
Genesis 3,4,5; Luke 2 – Passage Lookup – New International Version – BibleGateway.com
Observation: Sometimes you have to look beyond the list of names.
Application: Ok today I want to share a couple of interesting things that you can find in Genesis 5. First I’ll come out and admit that many times when I run up on these genealogy lists that I quickly scan over them or depending on how long they are, I might even just skip them all together. But sometimes there are really neat things within them if you take the time to look deeper.
Lets start with this curious case of Methuselah Bar (the son of) Enoch. Methuselah is the oldest person to ever live according to the Bible, but he died before his father did. Let that sink in for a moment. How is that possible? How can a son who is older than any other person ever die before his father? Well – his father Enoch is never recorded as dying.
Enoch lived on the planet for 365 years, but then God just took him. He walked so closely with God that He never suffered death, instead God just took him. We don’t know very much about Enoch – there are only a few verses in our Bible about him. However there is a book that is not included in our Bible that is attributed to Enoch, The Book Of Enoch tells us more about the Nephalim (The Fallen Ones) and also about some of his visions of heaven. He is also mentioned in Hebrews 11: 5 where it says that “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death,” Remember also that he was the great grandfather of Noah and the Bible teaches that in the days of Noah wickedness abounded. Enoch must have shown like a bright star among the darkness of humanity so much that God honored him in allowing him to avert death. He is one of a small group of people that God has done this for. Only Enoch and Elijah were taken without death.
We are also told that it is appointed unto man to die.
Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
So Enoch and Elijah according to the scriptures must die at some point. Some have speculated that these two men are the two witnesses that are found in Revelation 11, and that this will be their appointed death.
Ok – one more little thing about Genesis 5 that I find very interesting is when you look at the meanings of the names in the genealogy list. Hebrew names all had meaning. And most of our names today do as well, although we don’t usually know them. So if we look at the names and the Hebrew meanings of them here is what we get…
Adam – Man
Seth – Appointed
Enosh – Mortal
Kenan – Sorrow
Mahalalel – The Blessed God
Jared – Shall Come Down
Enoch – Teaching
Methuselah – His Death Shall Bring
Lamech – The Despairing
Noah – Comfort, Rest
This genealogy of Genesis 5 tells a story of hope for all of us. “Man is Appointed Mortal Sorrow; but The Blessed God Shall Come Down (Jesus Immanuel) Teaching. His Death Shall Bring The Despairing Comfort and Rest. How awesome is that!?!?
Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of Kings is to search out a matter.”
Prayer: God of Wisdom,
Help me to look deeper into your wisdom and teaching. Let me find the knowledge that you would have me to know and understand what lies beyond the words and pages of the ancients, let me see into your heart by observing all that is around me and all that you bless me with.
Love Michael
