Nuke's Blog
Periodic ramblings by an old geek…

Time for the next portion of our study through the Old Testament searching out Jesus.  I’m playing a bit of catch up here on the blog as we’re actually through Genesis 16 right now in our Bible study at home, so maybe the next few installments will come out somewhat quickly.  I have to mention, by the way, that at least one person pointed out the previous post on this study was way too long.  I can only point out that it’s not my fault… it was only *one chapter*!  Surely we can take at least one chapter from God’s Word at a time.  Better buckle your seat belt, because today you get to deal with *two*. :P

 

So, in chapter 4 of Genesis, we see the brief life of Abel before he is murdered by his brother.

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.

Genesis 4:1–10 (ESV)

Abel’s offering was acceptable to God, and Cain’s was not.  Though we are not told exactly why in this passage, we do find a bit more in the New Testament.

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

Hebrews 11:4 (ESV)

 

12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

1 John 3:12 (ESV)

Cain’s offering was not performed in faith.  Abel’s offering was.  We see some parallels in Abel’s brief story with that of Jesus Christ.  First of all, Christ gave an offering to God, one much greater.

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Hebrews 12:22–24 (ESV)

Christ’s sacrifice on the cross "speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."  As another parallel, Abel was hated by his brother for no good reason.  The same happened to Jesus, as it will happen to those who follow Him.

18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

John 15:18–25 (ESV)

Another parallel I see is in Abel’s death, as he becomes the first "innocent" person murdered in the history of mankind.  Jesus Himself refers to this when chastising the Jewish leaders.

33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

Matthew 23:33–35 (ESV)

Jesus would be the ultimate innocent murdered, as recounted by Peter.

13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

Acts 3:13–15 (ESV)

The last parallel I see is Abel, a shepherd, in relation to Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 10:11–15 (ESV)

Back in Genesis 4, I find the closing paragraph to point toward Jesus.

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” 26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

Genesis 4:25–26 (ESV)

They began to "call upon the name of the Lord."  Paul gives us a glimpse of what that means for us in his letter to the Romans.

11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Romans 10:11–14, 17 (ESV)

Notice the implication of how one comes to call on the Lord in verses 14 and 17.  That would be a post for another day; though, I couldn’t outdo Russ’s studies (here and here if you want to check them out).

 

Continuing on to Genesis 5, we find ourselves working with a long list of "begat"’s, if you’re reading a King James Bible, that is.  Personally, this is one of those lists I might find a bit interesting to search online for a graph of their ages to get a feel for years these souls were on earth, but that would be about it before moving on.  However, in this case, I happened to have read an interesting blurb on this genealogy in a book by Chuck Missler.  Now, I’m still a bit skeptical on this particular study, but I’m going to throw it out there anyway. 

 

The basic idea flows from the many times in Scripture where you see the names of people mean something.  We see this at the end of this chapter, and we have seen it before.  In what we’ve read so far in Genesis, we’ve already encountered the following verses (notes are from the ESV).

26 Then God said, “Let us make man* in our image, after our likeness."

*The Hebrew word for man (adam) is the generic term for mankind and becomes the proper name Adam

Genesis 1:26a (ESV)

 

23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman*, because she was taken out of Man.”

*The Hebrew words for woman (ishshah) and man (ish) sound alike

Genesis 2:23 (ESV)

 

20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living*.

*Eve sounds like the Hebrew for life-giver and resembles the word for living

Genesis 3:20 (ESV)

 

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten* a man with the help of the Lord.”

*Cain sounds like the Hebrew for gotten

Genesis 4:1 (ESV)

 

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed* for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”

*Seth sounds like the Hebrew for he appointed

Genesis 4:25 (ESV)

 

28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son 29 and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief* from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.”

*Noah sounds like the Hebrew for rest

Genesis 5:28–29 (ESV)

Given all that, perhaps it wouldn’t be surprising if the names found in Adam’s line to Noah through Seth might mean something as well.  This is where I’ll jump right to Chuck’s notes, where he provides meanings for each of the names in the genealogy.

• Adam – man
• Seth – appointed
• Enosh – mortal, frail, miserable
• Kenan – sorrow, dirge, elegy
• Mahalalel – blessed/praise God
• Jared – shall come down
• Enoch – teaching, commencement
• Methusaleh – death, to bring/send forth
• Lamech – despairing
• Noah – to bring relief, comfort

Some of those meanings are straight out of the Bible, but some I can’t figure out where he came up with them.  I’m simply not adept enough at working my way through Hebrew, so maybe they are right on the money, or maybe they are a stretch.  Anyway, here’s what Chuck stated in his study what you get when you add them all together in a sentence.

Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow, (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.

If that’s really what was going on with the names in that genealogy, it sure looks like you have the Gospel message wrapped up in a nice, tidy package really early on in the Bible.  While I have to admit again of my skepticism, it certainly wouldn’t be the only time God has been clever.

 

There are a couple more things to check out if we look slightly closer in this genealogy.  We find in the beginning of the chapter that Seth was made in Adam’s image.

3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

Genesis 5:3 (ESV)

While physically we are born in the image of mankind, we are spiritually born in the image of Jesus Christ.

49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:49 (ESV)

The other thing we find in Genesis 5 is a man by the name of Enoch.

22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

Genesis 5:22–24 (ESV)

We get a bit more than just a "begat" here, as it tells us Enoch "was not, for God took him."  In case that isn’t obvious enough, we find him mentioned again in Hebrews.

5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:5–6 (ESV)

Enoch did not see death.  God took him home before then.  I see this as a picture of the rapture, if that’s the name you want to give to Jesus’ coming for the saints.

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

1 Corinthians 15:51–52 (ESV)

 

16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 (ESV)

In summary, here is where we’ve found Jesus in our study of Genesis 4-5:

• Genesis 4:2 – type/picture – Jesus is the Good Shepherd
• Genesis 4:4 – type/picture – faith in Christ is the acceptable offering to God, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is the ultimate offering
• Genesis 4:5 – type/picture – Jesus was hated for no reason
• Genesis 4:8 – type/picture – Jesus was an innocent person murdered
• Genesis 4:26 – prophecy – those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved
• Genesis 5 – prophecy – genealogy possibly contains the Gospel of Jesus Christ
• Genesis 5:3 – type/picture – we are born in man’s image (physically), and Jesus Christ’s image (spiritually)
• Genesis 5:22-24 – type/picture – Enoch being taken before death points to those believers to be taken before death during Jesus’ coming

Hopefully this post wasn’t too long for you.  If it makes you feel better, I think next post will likely cover just the beginning of Genesis 6.  Happy studying.

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