Genesis 5
Theme: A Divine Alternative
Key Text: Verse 24

            The biographies of ten men are recorded in this one chapter. However, other than the longevity of their lives and the reality of their deaths, we know very little about them. Only Enoch, “the seventh from Adam” (Jude 14), stands out in heavenly significance. Having discovered a divine alternative in life, he became more than another name in the human ledger. Thus, before we read of physical “giants in the earth” (6:4), we are introduced to this true giant of a man - - a spiritual giant.

1. An Alternative To Disobedience

            Following in the way of their father, Cain’s descendants continued their pursuit of earthly pleasures, possessions, and power. But, while his contemporaries lived after their own lusts, Enoch, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, obediently “walked with God” (5:22). While his generation sought in vain for a fleshly paradise, he lived in a paradise of spiritual communion. While the world around him sank in depravity and ripened for judgment, Enoch breathed the pure air of eternity and moved through life in oneness of heart and mind with God.

2. An Alternative To Doubt

            The antediluvian race made all sorts of social and cultural advancements with enlightening discoveries in the sciences and arts. But, they had no consciousness of God! Piety was mocked! Wickedness was esteemed! In an era where good was evil, and evil was good, it seemed that faith could not be found in the earth. But, there was one lone lamp shining in the darkness. Enoch, the man who walked with God, did so “by faith” and “had this testimony that he pleased God” (Heb. 11:5). Seeing things from a divine perspective, he experienced “the victory that overcometh the world” (1 John 5:4).

3. An Alternative To Death

            Throughout this division, we are made very conscious of death. But, to use the words of an old writer,  “The dread monotony of ‘and he died’ is now first broken through” (Delitzsch). After Enoch had fellowshipped with God for three hundred years, “he was not; for God took him” (5:24). The inspired statement of the writer of Hebrews helps us better understand this mysterious event. He explains that “Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him” (Heb. 11:5).

Illustration

            Recently, as we traveled to a meeting, we came upon a terrible wreck that blocked the road and stalled our passage. Although we would have to drive approximately twenty miles out of our way, we chose to take another highway, rather than sit and wait until it was cleared. Oh, may God help us not to remain in the spiritual roadblocks of the world! By the help of His grace, may we take the divine alternative and “walk with God!”