Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 5 before reading the devotional below.
Some parts of the Bible make us want to hit the “Skip” button. Today’s chapter is one of those parts. While a small handful of people really love genealogy (my mother has binders full of family trees…), it’s hard to come to the Bible seeking inspiration and find a chapter with a bunch of names and ages. As usual, we are going to try to understand why God would include this in his message to us.
If you tune in rather than hitting skip, you’ll notice that people lived a lot longer back in the day. Through this historical account, we can also get a sense of how much time passed from Adam to Noah. This chapter also gives us a direct line from Adam to Noah, showing the way in which God works within human history. Some other religions have documents that contain false claims or do not align with the actual timeframes we know about through history. Here we see that the history of humanity is something God cares deeply about.
Here’s your freedom for today:
God sees you in context.
You are not separate from history. You come from somewhere, and ultimately that somewhere connects to the beginning of all humanity. God sees your family and he sees generations before you that you don’t even know about. He knows where you came from and where you are headed. He drew a line from Adam to Noah — from the entrance of sin into the world to a moment of starting over because sin had become so horrible. God’s drawing a line that connects your story with other stories, and because of this he knows your every strength and weakness. He knows where sin has hurt you and where sin has owned you. He’s making plans to rescue you and protect you from further harm.