Genesis 5
Categories: Bible Study Lessons“AND HE DIED”
There are two main purposes to this chapter. First is to show that the line of Christ (Luke 3:36-38) contains real, living, breathing people. They are not legendary figures but historic. These are accounts of people with their years numbered rather precisely. In this respect not at all like the legends of ancestors we have heard.
Second, we should pay attention to any phrase repeated over and over as important. When God removed Adam from the Garden and the tree of life it was the most tragic day in the history of man. Beginning with Adam the record says that each and every one died. The phrase “and he died” is a stark reminder that man is under the curse of sin and cannot get out from under it himself.
This chapter (Genesis 5:21-24) honors a man of God by the name of Enoch. He is an exception to the rule just mentioned. We infer from this mention of his having walked with God that he was exceptional. But what does it mean to “walk with God?” Amos 3:3 says that two can’t walk together except they be agreed. So the one who walks with God agrees with God. Since God is the source of all truth and the standard for right living Enoch lined up his beliefs and actions with God’s teaching. WE CAN WALK WITH GOD TODAY. We can have fellowship with Him by walking in the light (1 John 1:7). By obeying the Gospel (Romans 1:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:14).
What was the purpose of God’s taking Enoch before he died? Allow me to speculate but I think you’ll see the sense of it. God marked Enoch as an object lesson by taking him before death. He stamped approval on him by the miraculous assumption. He announced (in effect) to the pre-flood world, “I approve of the way this man lives and mark him as an example for you.” Even though it happened millenia ago we still know that Enoch walked with God and that it wasn’t just something Enoch said. God made it known that Enoch did indeed walk with God.