The Meaning Of Life

Let’s be honest. There are parts of the Bible that are difficult to read. They are very boring. But there is a reason they’re included in the Bible. Everything in the Bible was inspired by God, so it has to hold some importance.

Genesis 5 links the story of creation and the fall of man, to the story of Noah when the world became so wicked and corrupt, that God had to save the righteous and save those that had faith in Him. But obviously, we will discuss that more in the Story of Noah.

And perhaps this book is to simply document the geneaology of man, the descendants of Adam, and of course, the path to Jesus Christ.

Regardless, there are just a few important points I would like to bring out about this chapter.

1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness. 2 Male and female He created them, and He blessed them. And in the day they were created, He called them “man.”

In this passage, God now refers to Himself in the singular, but this comes after He refers to Himself in the plural (“Let US make man in OUR image) which clearly means more than one, as in the Trinity, so I simply think this passage refers to “God” as the “Godhead”. That is the way I interpret it anyway.

3 When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son in his own likeness, after his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 And after he had become the father of Seth, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 So Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.

Many people think the Bible is fake, or a fairy tale, because there is no way man could live to be 900+ years old. But remember, we just came out of Eden. We weren’t eating meat yet, life was sustained on fruits and vegetables. The water we drank was pure; it hadn’t been contaminated with industrial chemicals, pesticides, or had “healthy teeth” chemicals like flouride added to it. The air we breathed was more pure; there were no traffic jams of cars spitting carbon monoxide out of the tailpipe into the atmosphere.

Just a short derail, I’m an old fireman. We had an air compressor that sat on the workbench at the back of the fire station, and when we used our air packs (which wasn’t very often), we took them to the back of the apparatus floor, connected them to the compressor, and refilled them. Eventually, safety standards evolved to the point we had to “test” the air we were pumping into our tanks to make sure it was clean enough for us to breathe. We sent a sample of the air to the lab, and they wrote us back saying there were high levels of carbon monoxide in the air, and recommended our air intake, rather than coming from the apparatus floor where all of the diesel trucks ran, should be from the outside. So we bore a hole in the brick wall, and ran a pipe from the intake to the outside so we were drawing air in from outside the fire station. We then submitted another sample to the lab. They wrote back and said, “We don’t know what you did, but this sample is worse.” The air coming from the outside, the atmosphere from which we derive our breath, was worse than the air inside of our building, our big garage where we kept the fire trucks. Back in Adams day, we didn’t have that environment, in fact, oxygen levels in the air may have been much greater than the 21% we are supposed to find in our atmosphere today.

So, life was different back then. We weren’t breathing pollutants. We were eating food that had been sprayed with pesticides, or altered through genetic modification. Plus, a biggie, sin wasn’t as bad back then as it is today. Yes, man sinned, but not like the total disregard we find for God today.

So yes, it is very likely that man was capable of living 900 years. But as you’ll see, as our world begins its decline from the “Heaven on Earth” God created in Eden, man’s life gets shorter, and shorter.

6 When Seth was 105 years old, he became the father of Enosh. 7And after he had become the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 So Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died.

9 When Enosh was 90 years old, he became the father of Kenan. 10 And after he had become the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 So Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died.

12 When Kenan was 70 years old, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13And after he had become the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 So Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died.

15 When Mahalalel was 65 years old, he became the father of Jared. 16 And after he had become the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 So Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years, and then he died.

18 When Jared was 162 years old, he became the father of Enoch. 19And after he had become the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 So Jared lived a total of 962 years, and then he died.

2 When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 And after he had become the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 2 3So Enoch lived a total of 365 years.

24Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, because God had taken him away.

This may come as a shock to most of you reading this, but I do not believe we go to Heaven or Hell when we die. (In fact, I don’t believe in Hell at all, but more on that later). I believe that when we died, we rest in our grave, much the same as Jesus did, then we are resurrected (if we have earned our spot in Heaven) at the second coming of Christ. And I’ll discuss this further later on in our studies. However, the Bible clearly states that some people are in Heaven as we speak. And Enoch is one of them.

25 When Methuselah was 187 years old, he became the father of Lamech. 26 And after he had become the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 So Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died.

28 When Lamech was 182 years old, he had a son. 29 And he named him Noah,e saying, “May this one comfort us in the labor and toil of our hands caused by the ground that the LORD has cursed.” 30 And after he had become the father of Noah, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 So Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died.

32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Before you start thinking I’m crazy, yes, I may be wrong. Everything I’ve said about Heaven and Hell may be way off base. But it is what I believe, and until I read something different, or until God impresses on me something different, I have no choice but the trust in God and have faith in what He impresses on me when I read the Bible.

So this is the genealogy from Adam to Noah. And it comes after just four books of the Bible. As I said, the Bible doesn’t cover everything; Adam and Eve had more children than just Cain, Abel, and Seth; they were living their lives on Earth, their actions just weren’t relative to the story God wants us to know.

And in these four books, it is estimated that 1000 years have elapsed since creation. A lot of things have happened. Man has multiplied greatly on earth.

About this time, the story of Job also occurs, yet there is no mention of Job’s ancestry; but we know he lived and we know he had to have descended from Adam and Eve, as well all did.

God bless each and every one of you!