Genealogy - Genesis 5:1-21; Moses 6:1-25

Maybe it’s because our world is so big and populated and disconnected, that it’s so hard to remember that with all the wickedness going on at the dawn of human history, these are all still A&E’s children and grandchildren who are suffering as both victims and perpetrators of violence and wickedness. In the instance of Cain and Abel, they must have felt heartbreak for the loss of their son Abel to death, but also heartbreak for the loss of their son Cain to wickedness. A&E have another son and name him Seth and Seth remained righteous even though so many of his siblings did not. Seth had a son named Enos “and prophesied in all his days, and taught his son Enos in the ways of God; wherefore Enos prophesied also.” The scriptures talk about these people living hundreds of years, which who knows, anything is possible I guess. When I listened to a lecture series on the book of Genesis, the lecturer told a story about a conversation he had with someone from the Middle East. They had been working with a kid who appeared to be about 13 years old, and when the guy asked the father how old the boy was, the father answered, “he could be 20, he could be 30, he could be 40, I don’t know, we don’t keep track of that, but he was born the year after (some specific historical event.)” Doing the math the guy deduced that the boy was in fact 13 years old, and he used this story to illustrate the fact that keeping track of age in terms of years isn’t really something that the people in this area have ever really cared about. So did Adam really live 930 years? Who knows, I guess I’ll find out in the next life. There must have been a fair amount of people, especially if their life expectancy was extended for some reason. It’s interesting to see just how fast everything went downhill with humanity because within just a generation of so “Satan had great dominion among men, and raged in their hearts,” and there was war and violence and bloodshed “because of secret works, seeking for power.” Enos has a son named Cainan, which is not to be mistaken for the wicked people who live in the land of Canan. Cainan has a son named Mahalaleel who had a son named Jared, and Jared had a son and named him Enoch, and finally Enoch had a son and named him Methuselah. All these men “were preachers of righteousness, and spake and prophesied, and called upon all men everywhere, to repent; and faith was taught unto the children of men.” So we have a huge population of wicked people and a small yet steadfast group of righteous who spend their time and energy preaching repentance to the others.