Awash with good people (part 1 of 3) - 7th stage

Genesis 4: 25 & 26;  ‘’And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth [Literally - ‘Appointed’]: For God said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.  And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.’’

 

Against the dark picture of our last blog post on this journey, ‘’Ever onwards, ever downwards’’, where man is choosing to be apart from God following his own destructive ways, there is now a glimmer that God has a remnant of people who are trusting Him and ‘’call upon the name of the LORD’’. 

Genesis 5: 1, 3, 18, 22, 24, 25, 28, 29 & 32; ‘’This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he them.  … And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth. … And Jared lived a hundred and sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch. … And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.  And Enoch walked with God: and he was not: for God took him. And Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech.  … And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son.  And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed. … And Noah was five hundred years old when he beget Shem, Ham and Japheth.’’

The purpose of chapter 5 (provided in part above) is its testimony to the development of the human race from Adam to Noah, citing the godly line.  The cycle of birth-death–birth-death appears to be God’s answer to Satan’s blasphemous  lie ‘’Ye shall not surely die’’ when he was tempting Eve to be disobedient to God's command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil.

Death reigned and God’s word was fully vindicated:

Genesis 3: 19; ‘’In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast though taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’’

However in the Old Testament there would be a couple of notable exceptions of people that God chose to be received into his presence without dying; one person was Elijah and the other Enoch the descendant of Adam and a forefather of Noah.  

‘’Enoch walked with God’’  (see scripture above) denotes intimacy, fellowship and, if Jude 14 & 15 are to be believed, Enoch’s ministry as a powerful preacher:

Jude 14 & 15;  ‘’And Enoch also, the servant from Adam, prophesied of these saying, Behold, the LORD cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgement upon all, and to convince [convict] all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly [ungodly way] committed, and of all their hard [harsh things] speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’’

‘’…for God took him’’ (see scripture above) Enoch was received into the presence of God without dying and it was a sign that ultimately reconciliation with God includes victory over death.

In the New Testament age it is the power of Jesus' atoning blood and sacrifice at Passover which enables any of us to have victory over death and to come into God's presence; a crucial subject with  detailed explanation provided in the last two blog posts ''Spotless'' and ''Happy to be passed over''.

But, in the Old Testament at the time of Noah, mankind was choosing to behave badly - very badly indeed:

Genesis 6:  5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 13; ‘’And God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth, and that every imaginations of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually [all day].  And it repented [the LORD was sorry] that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.  And the LORD said I will destroy man who I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and creeping thing, and fowls of the air; for it repenteth me I have made them.  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.’’

 

‘’Only evil continually’’: left to his own devices, separated and apart from God, man’s design or purpose for himself was to do nothing but evil all day long!

‘’But Noah found grace’’: the word ‘’grace’’ here has a root meaning in the Hebrew of ‘’to bend’’ of ‘’to stoop’’, implying the condescending of unmerited favour of a superior person to an inferior one.  In The Bible it is often used redemptively.  Mankind, the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air – all would be destroyed; but God would call out a remnant for himself through Noah. 

More on this next week in ‘’Awash with good people – part 2 of 3’’