Study on the Book of Genesis

Last night as Yom Kippur began at sunset I conducted a bible study for my church (Lord’s church) and 22 people logged in, only half of two weeks ago. It wasn’t due to lack of response but there was a big do going on at the State-level Youth Conference. But about 10 youths joined last night. I felt for the first time I was doing in depth bible study. I would look up Hebrew and Greek versions of the Bible. Amazing. Even someone nearing graduation for MDiv said to me that it was taxing on the minds. Try looking up Genesis 5:1-2. The creation of man was reiterated and there was this remarkable clause “God named them, Adam”. Before the woman was created, she was in the man and Paul makes a great deal of the order of creation in 1 Corinthians 11:1-10. Then Enoch walked with God for a short 300 years and he lived for 365 years, less than half of most of the first men in Genesis 5. I mentioned Jesus also lived a short life, a life cut in the middle, half of a man’s life of 70 years old.

So it is not whether we live a short or long life but a meaningful and significant life. Then comes Lamech who lived 777 years, a perfect number since Enoch as the 7th generation was singled out in Jude’s epistle. But in Lamech’s generation, God’s patience has reached its limits. Men began to do exceedingly wickedly, and one such man tried to harm Lamech and Lamech defended himself by killing his antagonist. Lamech’s son, Noah would be the 10th generation, a perfect cycle and Noah was a transitional figure who lived 600 years before the Flood and 350 more years after the Flood. His three sons are founders of a new world order post-Flood and all of us are descended from Seth, Ham and Japheth. Noah’s name means Consolation or Rest. As Noah’s Ark rested on the flood waters and Noah waited for it to subside, Noah played the chief consoler to his family of 7. The world they know is completely gone forever and God is doing a new thing. They have to start everything anew including procreating and filling the earth with human beings. They had to start from scratch again. They had to build new houses and plant new vineyards. For the first generation after the Flood it must be very tough since they only had themselves and children for company. No one was alive anymore and as Peter’s epistle states, only 8 are saved through the waters of flood.