Beginnings, Era 1, Episode 6

In the last episode, we read Genesis 4:1 through 26 and saw how dramatically sin had affected humanity as Cain murdered his brother Abel. The scriptures we're going to cover today is Genesis five, one through 32, and here we're going to read about Adam's descendants and how humanity grew to become independent families and tribes.

Genesis 5:1-32

I. The Descendants of Adam Notes

1.  As read in the scripture…

II.  Key Points of the Scripture (Pastor Dave)

1.  The conclusion of the account of Adam.

2.  The first record of lineage, or genealogy

a.  We see the genealogical link between Adam and Noah

b. Genealogy is valuable to establish the priestly and royal lines through Israel’s history

c.  The names listed represent the holy seed from which Christ came

3. Humanity grows into independent families or tribes

4.  Enoch did not die, God took him.

a. Enoch walked in close fellowship with God, and he pleased God, and God knew him – imagine what such an intimate walk with God would be like…

III.   Key Points of the Scripture (Scott Brekke)

1.  People lived a very long time.

a. People living such long lives must have gained a lot of knowledge/wisdom.

2.  People had many, many children.

a. After the Bible lists an individual’s name, it states that they had many other sons and daughters.

3. The Bible states that every person died, with the exception of Enoch

a. The Bible states how long an individual lived and then they died

4. Noah is born and has three sons (Shem, Ham, Japheth)

IV.  It did not rain on the earth until the time of Noah and God brought the flood

V.  Application gleaned from this scripture might be a shift of our mindset… we are all related

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Voiceover

You are listening to the Bible breakthrough with Pastor David Engman at Scott Brekke. In this study, we will break down the Bible from B.C. to A.D. chronologically while offering historical context and real-life application for today. This series is brought to you by the Breakthrough Media Network.

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Pastor Dave

Hi, my name is Pastor Dave Engman, and this is Scott Brekke. And we want to welcome you to the Bible Breakthrough, and we want to thank you for joining us today. Ultimately, our goal is to lead you into a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus.

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Scott

Please look for the bonus video to this episode as we discuss various topics that come up because of the scripture we cover today. Also, again, the show notes will be linked in the description of this production.

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Pastor Dave

Now, on the last episode, we read Genesis 4:1 through 26 and saw how dramatically sin had affected humanity as Cain murdered his brother Abel. The scriptures we're going to cover today are Genesis five, one through 32, and here we're going to read about Adam's descendants and how humanity grew to become independent families and tribes. The three questions you should consider as you are listening are What is this text saying?

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Pastor Dave

What does it mean? And how can I apply this to my life?

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Scott

So, before we open the Bible and read, let's pray like always. So, Lord, Father, again, we just thank you. First of all, we recognize you as being the Lord of our lives. And Father, as we open our word again, we pray that you would just highlight things that you would bring to our attention, Lord, that we can ultimately bring forth and apply to our life.

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Scott

Lord, in Jesus name. Amen.

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Pastor Dave

Amen. All right, so let's open up the Bible and let's read the passage. Scott, would you do the honor? Genesis 5:1 through 32.

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Scott

This is the written account of the descendants of Adam. When God created human beings, he made them to be like himself. He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them human. When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son who was just like him in his very image. He named his son Seth.

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Scott

After the birth of Seth. Adam lived another 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters Adam lived 930 years, and then he died. When Seth was 105 years old, he became the father of Enosh. After the birth of Enosh, Seth lived another 807 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Seth lived 912 years, and then he died.

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Scott

When Enosh was 90 years old, he became the father of Kenan. After the birth of Kenan, Enosh lived another 815 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died. When Kenan was 70 years old, he became the father of Mahalalel. After the birth of Mahalalel, Kenan lived another 840 years, and he had other sons and daughters.

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Scott

Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died. When Mahalalel was 65 years old, he became the father of Jared. After the birth of Jared, Mahalalel lived another 830 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Mahalalel lived 895 years and then he died. When Jared was 162 years old, he became the father of Enoch. After the birth of Enoch,

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Scott

Jared lived another 800 years and he had other sons and daughters. Jared lived 962 years, and then he died. When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived in close relationship with God for another 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Enoch lived 365 years walking in close fellowship with God.

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Scott

Then one day he disappeared because God took him. When Methuselah was 187 years old, he became the father of Lamech. After the birth of Lamech, Methuselah lived another 782 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Methuselah lived 969 years and then he died. When Lamech was 182 years old, he became the father of a son. Lamech named his son Noah,

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Scott

for he said, “May he bring us relief from our work and the painful labor of farming this ground that the Lord has cursed.” After the birth of Noah, Lamech lived another 595 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died. After Noah was 500 years old. He became the father of Shem Ham and Japheth. A lot of numbers there, Pastor!

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Pastor Dave

Yes, there are a lot of numbers.

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Scott

So, as I read through that, kind of what are the facts of the Scripture?

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Pastor Dave

Well, I guess, number one, what we could see here is… this happens to just kind of represent the conclusion, if you will, of the account of Adam This is the first record of lineage as we've come to in the reading. Now, it's the first time we see lineage listed or genealogy listed linking Adam to Noah. And then one of the things that we can see is beginning with Adam and Eve, humanity did obviously grow and become independent, maybe independent families or tribes.

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Pastor Dave

We see that. And then Enoch, of course, I think if there's anything that stands out, you know, I mean, there's some things that stand out, but the fact that Enoch didn't die is… that God took him.

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Scott

That's strange.

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Pastor Dave

That's a big one. So, you know, those are kind of the facts, I suppose that I saw. So, what about the main points, Scott? What do you see here regarding the main points of the key points?

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Scott

I mean, honestly, man, people lived old! I mean, they lived a long, long life. I mean, you're talking eight, 900 years old. Man, that's crazy to me! But also, that they're having many children, right? Of course, we go on to see that they’re, yes, listing different one in each particular. But also, after each time it says one of the names of one of their sons says that they have other sons and daughters.

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Scott

So, I could imagine that they're having lots of kids, especially living to be that old, so... But then after each of these, right? It says that they died. So, each person is you know, they all died according to, you know, and the result of sin except for one. And that was Enoch. So, we'll talk about that more. I think that obviously is going to be one of the main topics we'll touch on.

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Scott

But why though, why was the reason that Enoch was taken? Obviously, he walked with God. And so, and then we get to the last point. Maybe the fourth point is the coming of Noah. God, again, is setting this up, giving us this history of lineage. And then it's setting us up for the next obviously maybe into our next episode with Noah.

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Scott

So, yeah, so, you know, reading through all these, you know, we have lots of different names and, you know, how long they lived and different sons and daughters. Why is this lineage so important? What is it about lineage? Why does it like lay this all out? Why doesn't it just skip right to Noah?

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Pastor Dave

Well, you know, I think first of all, I think genealogy is important because they link us to our past.

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Scott

You know.

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Pastor Dave

You know, link us to the people we've come from. So that we at least can have a name like great, great, great grandfathers and grandmothers, probably not in our lives. Do we know their names but maybe, you know when there's a list, things become real. So, I think it's just really important so that we don't forget where we come from.

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Pastor Dave

And then, another thing is, is that regarding Old Testament genealogies, for example, they're not always well, what they are always trying to do is communicate to us multiple layers of information. And what they're doing is they're helping us to follow priestly and royal lines through Israel's history. There's a reason that we're getting names… specific names for example, we started with Adam than we were to Seth, and we went to Enosh, etc. These names were listed because what they represent are really holy seed for which Christ came.

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Pastor Dave

And for example, the royal line to Jesus started with Adam started first with Adam, and then it went to Seth, Enoch, and then eventually Noah, and then eventually Adam, and then eventually we'll get to Jesus. So, genealogies are important for a lot of different reasons. One thing I'd say about genealogy is that I've learned is that they're not always good at helping us establish timelines.

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Pastor Dave

I mean, it's not that we can't establish timelines, but I almost think that that's not like one of the main reasons why they're there.

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Scott

Yeah. So, you're saying you could just add up all these dates and be like, all right, you could list from this all the way back to Adam, and that's how many years it was.

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Pastor Dave

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Pastor Dave

Right? They may have… God may have skipped certain generations for certain reasons. And quite frankly, we don't know necessarily why. But anyway, with that being said, why did people live so long? We talked about that in the key points… you brought that up, why did people live so long in this period? You know?

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Scott

Yeah. I mean, it's speculation but one thing that I think of is we're still very close to being just kicked out of the garden. So, I mean, we can see today we’re thousands of years, you know, thousands of years away. So, we have lots of things that we've added into being perfection. So, I think one of the reasons is, is because it's not that far away from the garden.

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Scott

And there's still just a lot of things that are pure and not diseases that are necessarily out there. And, you know, the bloodlines were still pure in the beginning of these people. So that's kind of what stands out to me. But sometimes I think about, you know, when someone like Adam is 900 years old or Seth is 900 years old, like think of how smart those people were.

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Pastor Dave

How much wisdom.

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Scott

Yeah! How much wisdom was in those people. So, like they… I'm just thinking, man, they probably knew a lot of things. They've learned so many lessons over those 900 years of what to do, what not to do. But then I also like to flip the coin on that. All right. Well, and maybe this is for moving forward in our next episode…

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Scott

But look how evil people ended up getting! I mean, yeah, you think of these guys as being holy men, but flip the coin and I mean, just how corrupt and evil they could be too. So, yeah.

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Pastor Dave

So, here’s a thought, have you ever thought of this? And so here we go, we get all the way to Noah… the account of Adam's life. And then this genealogy ends with Noah.

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Scott

Hmm.

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Pastor Dave

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Scott

Well, I do now. I didn't know until one day… I can't remember where I heard it. And I was like, wait, wait. What?! What does that mean? What do you mean? How did it… how did stuff, like, get watered then if there's no rain? And then, of course, it says, I think we read it, that actually, dew was to come up out of the ground, and that's what kind of spring-fed all the living things, so…

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Pastor Dave

Yeah, well, one of the reasons I even brought that up is because one of the explanations for as to why people lived so long is the idea that it said it says here anyway no rain had yet fallen on the earth and the expanse of the waters of the heavens kept out harmful cosmic rays and shielded people from environmental factors that hastened aging.

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Pastor Dave

Never thought of that before.

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Scott

No.

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Pastor Dave

But of course, I got to be completely candid. I can't believe it didn't rain for that long. That's a long time with no rain. Yeah. Apparently, we didn't need it. Right?

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Scott

All right. So, I want to just ask you a question because I know we'll talk about this more in the bonus. But why did God take Enoch? Why did he take him? Not anybody else.

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Pastor Dave

You know, I think that it's one of the most interesting questions. I mean, all we get here at this point, not all we get here at this point was this, you know, God, clearly, he walked in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared because God took him. So, there must be a connection, right? How close was that walk?

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Scott

It must have been pretty close. I mean, I can't imagine.

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Pastor Dave

And, you know, we'll go on to learn there's only one other person besides Enoch, who was taken by God. And that was Elijah. Yep. And, you know, obviously, Elijah had quite a… and we're not there yet, but obviously he had quite a walk! And quite the exit, too! Exactly! And I mean at the end, I mean, his faith had wavered. He doubted God, but yet God took him anyway, you know, so it's so when you think about that compared to Enoch in this case, I mean, you got to think, man, that walk with God must have been really something.

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Pastor Dave

And the other thing that I think about regarding Enoch is, you know, in the midst of all the wickedness and so forth that's going on in the earth, there was still a man that God walked closely with, that walked closely with God, that God would then take him that shows to the power of God early on and what a representation of God's power to just take somebody, you know.

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Pastor Dave

And maybe during then, we were talking about this earlier, we were kind of preparing for this. But at a time in history when maybe people were wandering far from God with what we’ll come to learn about the wickedness of people, that in the midst of that, there was still somebody that was walking close with him. And then God illustrates his power by taking him.

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Pastor Dave

So, yeah, that's one thing it represents… Enoch… because he walked with God, because he pleased God, and God knew him. These are three components I think are really important, walking with God, pleasing God, and the fact that God knows you… So, what it does is it represents the hope of life over death. And it's really… it's the first of two examples, as I've already talked about, of God's power to I'll use the word rapture, okay.

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Pastor Dave

Even though it's not a word in the Bible. But that's really what he did, he kind of raptured him, right? And of course, Elijah's the other one.

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Scott

I love that part of walked, pleased, and knew God, that those three things really like really make me think of closeness with the Lord and like relational part. Like what, man? This person actually walked with God, talked with God, pleased God, and God knew who he was. That is so… like, that's intimate! That's an intimate thing that he obviously had that when you have that, I mean, it stands out obviously like in this verse does it say that? I mean, obviously doesn't say that about any of the other people.

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Scott

But guess what? It does say that about him.

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Pastor Dave

Right. So, what does it say to us? You know, you can know God and say, you know Jesus. But here's the real question… Does he know you?

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Pastor Dave

All right. So, we should always be sensitive to the Holy Spirit regarding application. And application is about obedience. And it's about and really and being obedient is the key that unlocks the door to transformation. You know, what good is knowledge if we don't apply it? Right? So, Scott, did you see any application in the 20… I’m sorry, the 32 verses of Scripture that we read.

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Scott

It's so funny when we get to this part because I, uh… I’m like reading through all these, I'm getting a bunch of names and how old they were and how long they lived. And I'm going to hand it to you because I know we talked a little bit about this before, and I think you brought up a really, really good point and made me think.

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Scott

So, I know if it's going to make me think it's going to make our audience think. So…

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Pastor Dave

Yeah. So, we're clearly reading, you know, 32 versus of scripture here. It's the conclusion, of course, of the account of Adam, and it's the genealogy. There's a lot of factual information and it doesn't necessarily look like something in this particular set of scripture would be something applicable to our life. But with that being said, you know, I think maybe the application principle here would be a mindset change, a shift of mindset.

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Pastor Dave

And what I mean by that is that let's remember, we're all related you know, we can… our lineage can be traced back to the Garden. And Adam and Eve. We're all part of a family. We're all part of the family. And if that does nothing else, then maybe help us be a little bit more kind to one another, a little bit more gentle with each other.

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Pastor Dave

Loving with each other, recognizing that, you know, we really are… we're related.

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Scott

So, can I call you, my brother?

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Pastor Dave

Oh, please do!

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Scott

Pastor!

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Pastor Dave

But with the same father, right?

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Scott

I’ll call you my brother, not pastor. I’m just joking. All right, so how about you? How about our audience? What can you apply to your life?

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Pastor Dave

Yeah, look, we talk about this struggle, that wrestling match that goes on, we all struggle and wrestle and it's not bad. It's good. And so, if you're struggling, if you're wrestling, I just want to encourage you to hang in there. You're not alone. A lot of us struggle. I struggle sometimes a lot with some of this, but it's okay.

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Pastor Dave

Hang in there. Keep coming back.

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Scott

Yeah. And really quick, I wanted to mention, I think it's really cool that you say that because I might read through something like this and get like, okay, what in the world can I apply? Or What am I going to take from this yet when I do it with a brother in Christ or maybe our audience, you do it with someone else.

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Scott

You sit down, read the word together, and then you're sharpening each other and we're getting things pulling from each other. So, I love that. So…

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Pastor Dave

That's good!

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Scott

Just a quick reminder to check out the bonus video to this episode as we dive deeper and discuss the topics of this episode.

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Pastor Dave

Thank you for being a part of this, Scott. Yeah, and we want to thank you for tuning in. We look forward to our next episode. Our next meeting together in episode seven as we discuss a new beginning for humanity, starting with the flood.

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Scott

Yeah. Get ready for Noah!

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Pastor Dave

It's about… in our study in the first era, beginnings. Thank you. God bless.

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Scott

God bless.

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Voiceover

Thank you for tuning into the Bible breakthrough with Pastor David Engman and Scott Brekke. We hope you enjoyed today's episode and will join us again for more of the Bible from B.C. to A.D., we are a volunteer driven ministry and rely on you to help us get the word out to the world. Please, like this podcast on Facebook, share it to your page and continue to listen on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere you find your favorite podcasts. This has been a broadcast of the Breakthrough Media Network.