Passage: Genesis 5

The Big Idea

Cain’s family was a mess, one rebellious generation after another. But through Seth came a godly line, and in the middle of it stands Enoch, who walked with God so closely that God simply took him home. We walk with an invisible God the same way Enoch did: by faith and humility. And hidden in the names of this genealogy is a whisper of the gospel.

Don’t Burn the Cargo

Clovis Chappell, a minister from a century ago, used to tell about two paddleboats that left Memphis about the same time, heading down the Mississippi to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors on one boat made fun of the other’s slow pace. Words were exchanged. Challenges were made. And the race was on.

One boat started falling behind. It had plenty of coal for the trip, but not for a race. So an enterprising young sailor grabbed some of the ship’s cargo and tossed it into the furnace. When the crew saw that the cargo burned as well as coal, they fueled the boat with the very goods they’d been hired to deliver. They won the race, but burned their cargo.

God has entrusted cargo to us too: our children, our spouses, our friends. Our job is to do our part in helping that cargo reach its destination. But when the program takes priority over people, people suffer. How much cargo do we sacrifice to come in first? How many people never reach the destination because of an aggressive, competitive captain?

Two Families

Cain’s family was a huge disappointment, one rebellious person after another.

They went from running from a relationship with God,
to hating God,
to hating God’s people.
Finally they found their identity in everything but God: being self-made, partying, and forcing their will on others.

But Adam had another son, Seth, and through him came a godly line. Did Adam love Seth more than Cain? No. But blessing followed Seth’s line because of godly choices.

Maybe you feel like you come from “Cain’s family.” You look at your heritage and see a dysfunctional mess. You can change that! Start making Christlike choices and godly decisions, and those who come after you will reap the blessings.

Start living a life of faith. Run a different race: the 5K of faith and family.

The Book of Adam’s Line (Genesis 5:1-4)

This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, blessed them, and called them Mankind. Adam lived 130 years and had a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. After that, Adam lived 800 more years and had other sons and daughters.

(Read the rest of the chapter.)

Why Did They Live So Long?

	Patriarch	Age	Reference
1	Adam	930	Genesis 5:5
2	Seth	912	Genesis 5:8
3	Enosh	905	Genesis 5:11
4	Kenan	910	Genesis 5:14
5	Mahalalel	895	Genesis 5:17
6	Jared	962	Genesis 5:20
7	Enoch	365 (taken by God)	Genesis 5:23
8	Methuselah	969	Genesis 5:27
9	Lamech	777	Genesis 5:31
10	Noah	950	Genesis 9:29

Some creation scientists suggest the pre-flood world was protected from much of the sun’s harmful radiation, perhaps by a water canopy, and that the earth itself was a very different, healthier environment before the flood. Whatever the exact reasons, Scripture plainly records that these early generations lived extraordinarily long lives, and that lifespans dropped dramatically after the flood. (Answers in Genesis has a lot of material about the pre-flood world if you want to dig deeper.)

Enoch Walked with God

Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him (Genesis 5:24).

There’s an old story that Enoch and God used to take long walks together every day. One day they walked farther than usual, and God said, “Enoch, we’re closer to My house than yours. Why don’t you just come home with Me?”

What made Enoch so special? Why could he walk so closely with God?

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he didn’t see death, and he wasn’t found, because God had taken him. Before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God (Hebrews 11:5). (Enoch got “taken” three times in that one verse. He’s like Liam Neeson!)

And without faith it’s impossible to please God, because whoever comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

We must believe that God is there, and that He reveals Himself to the seeking heart.

Jude tells us Enoch was also a prophet (Jude 14). A prophet speaks the word of God. What is Enoch saying to us today?

Walk with God, by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Some think that before the flood God walked with people in a visible way.
But to walk by faith is to walk with Someone you can’t see!
We can’t see God with our eyes or walk beside Him with our legs. But we can walk with Him by faith: an invisible trust that God sees our hearts and rewards the one who seeks Him.
That’s what God is after: our hearts. That’s what pleases Him. Not our sacrifices or offerings, but our faith, our trust, our hearts.

We want to know where we’re going. God is far more concerned with who we’re walking with.

And in the end, we find we’re taken where we needed to go anyway! When you walk with the Lord, you end up exactly where you’re supposed to be.

But it might not look like it along the way.

It might look like you’re walking through a desert, a dry and weary land.
You might not even seem to be heading the right direction.
You might not be with the people you expected.
You might not know where you’re going at all.

And then the Lord might ask you, as you walk with Him, to do something that feels crazy, something you feel unequipped for.

Philip in the Desert (Acts 8:26-40)

That’s what happened to Philip. An angel told him to head south on the desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza. He went. There he met an Ethiopian official, a eunuch in charge of the queen’s treasury, who had come to worship in Jerusalem and was riding home in his chariot reading Isaiah. The Spirit told Philip to go up to the chariot.

Philip ran over and asked if he understood what he was reading. “How can I, unless someone guides me?” the man said, and invited Philip up. He was reading Isaiah 53, about one led like a sheep to the slaughter. “Who is the prophet talking about?” he asked. Starting from that very passage, Philip told him the good news about Jesus.

When they came to some water, the man asked, “What prevents me from being baptized?” They went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the man went on his way rejoicing. Philip turned up at Azotus and preached in every town until he reached Caesarea.

Philip was a fruitful evangelist because he knew how to flow with what the Holy Spirit wanted to do. He was truly led by the Spirit, not by his own whims and feelings.
That’s how we walk with God today: a real relationship with the invisible Holy Spirit.
And we don’t let what we see get in the way of what we can’t see, but which is very real to us.

Following Jesus may take us in some unexpected directions. But we’ll always end up where we’re supposed to be. God isn’t limited by our locations or situations, because He is the destination.

Just as the Nile creates a fertile strip right through the middle of a lifeless desert, the Spirit makes us fruitful and loving in the wildest, hardest circumstances.

No Excuses

Some believers like to explain why they aren’t fruitful:

“Have you seen the situation I’m in?”
“Have you met my boss? My spouse? My kids?”
“My health…”
“Things just haven’t been easy for me.”
“My parents…”
“This desert. That desert.”

But often the truth is that we refuse to walk in humility and faith with an invisible God.

I’ve seen and experienced that as you walk with Him, even through the hardest things, He lifts you up and carries you into a whole different world. Like Enoch was taken into the Lord’s very presence, and Philip was carried to another place to serve, God takes us where our hearts truly long to be.

What does that mean for you? Stop trying to change your situation. Start walking with God more. Trust your situation to Him.

How Do You Walk with God?

Believe. It’s all about believing. But what does that look like practically?

Ask Him to speak to you. Pray.
Pick up your Bible and read. Study it. Stay there. Give it time to soak in, like taking a walk with a friend.
Listen to what it says.
Ask Him for strength to do what it told you. Pray.
Repent when you fail because you didn’t really believe.
Praise Him when you honor Him and receive His strength to obey.

That’s what a life of faith and humility looks like: a relationship. Daily, consistent, real back-and-forth with an invisible God. It’s possible, and it’s the highest aim of any person.

Enoch crushed it. Philip nailed it. And you’re called to it: loving God more than your circumstances, and not neglecting Him as a Person.

It’s revealing to hear the excuses people (including me) use for not walking with God this way:

“I get bored reading the Bible.” Is your job ever boring? Is brushing your teeth? You still do those. Often it’s laziness, selfishness, the flesh.
God rewards those who diligently seek Him. He hides Himself from the world but reveals Himself to the heart that shuts the door and seeks Him wholeheartedly (Matthew 6:6).
“I’m not sure it works to read the Bible and expect an invisible God to speak to my heart. It seems kind of mystical and weird.” Says the guy talking into the Bluetooth earpiece to someone he can’t see!

We have to believe that He is. We can’t see Him, but we can have a deeper, truer relationship with Him than with any person. We’re more compatible with Him than with anyone. He’s perfect, and the best use of our time is walking with Him.

The Gospel in a Genealogy

Many Bible teachers have noticed something amazing in the names of Genesis 5. The meanings of some of these Hebrew names are debated, but here’s one widely shared reading:

Name	Meaning
Adam	Man
Seth	Appointed
Enosh	Mortal (frail, miserable)
Kenan	Sorrow
Mahalalel	The Blessed God
Jared	Shall come down
Enoch	Teaching (dedicated)
Methuselah	His death shall bring
Lamech	The despairing
Noah	Comfort, rest

Put it together: Man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the Blessed God shall come down, teaching that His death shall bring the despairing comfort and rest.

Lamech even named his son Noah saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground the Lord has cursed” (Genesis 5:29).

When you decide to honor God in your family, it’s amazing what God does with you, and the story He writes!

Faith and Humility

We need to walk by faith, as Enoch teaches us, in our families. Walk with God in humility and faith.

Faith: where will I end up? Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). Psalm 84 says those whose strength is in the Lord go from strength to strength until each one appears before God in Zion (Psalm 84:5-7).

Humility: does it really work? Look at King Manasseh in 2 Chronicles 33.

He was completely evil.
He was rejected by God.
He humbled himself in prison.
God heard him, restored him and saved him.

It’s almost unfair how God binds Himself to bless humility! He’s completely committed to it. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).

We walk with God humbly, or we don’t walk with Him at all. After all his suffering, Job told God that he had heard of Him by the hearing of the ear, but now his eye saw Him, and he repented in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6).

Grace Takeaway

You don’t have to repeat your family’s history. Like Seth’s line, you can start a new legacy of faith. Walk with your invisible God the way Enoch did: by faith, humbly, daily, in His Word and in prayer. You may not see where you’re going, but you’ll always end up where you belong, because He is the destination.

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The 5K of Faith and Family