This section of Genesis ends with a genealogy which links Adam all the way to Noah, and which demonstrates that, despite the chaos that sin had brought into the world, God’s order was not defeated.

We see that God’s command to be fruitful and multiply is carried out. The continuation of life that God set in motion as part of creation is maintained, despite the fall. The succession of each generation is no accident, but the orderly way that God planned things to be.

The genealogies also remind us of another important feature of God’s order: that the wages of sin are death. God, in his mercy, did not make Adam and Eve live an eternal life of struggle and misery on the earth as a result of their sin. Instead, he allowed death to bring a natural end to their earthly lives.

Each one of the people listed in this genealogy ended their lives through death, except for Enoch, who escaped death because he walked with God. Enoch gives us a glimpse of the future that God would create for us all through Jesus, who gained victory over death itself. Though we will each die, we will find life if, as Enoch did, we walk with God.

When you were born, you entered into the ongoing creation story that began in Genesis 1. Your arrival on this earth was not a random act, but a divinely ordained one. You were not born to die, but to live! Your life comes from walking with God, and through the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ.

It is perhaps overwhelming to think of all the billions of people who have lived and died since Adam and his immediate descendants, but it is not overwhelming to God. He knows each one of us, even down to how many hairs are on our heads. He created you, he knows you and he loves you.

next devotional >>

 

 

NEWBOLD COMMUNITY CHURCH