History is the sure test of prophecy, and Genesis 5 is a vindication of the character of God and complete answer to the lie of the Serpent. "Ye shalt not surely die" (Gen 3.4), was the plausible prophecy of the evil one, and man believed it to his utter ruin. "And he died" (Gen 5.5) is the repeated record of divine judgment. To this man must bow, for God has spoken; cursing and loss are in the train of unbelief. How elementary is this lesson, and yet how hard sometimes to learn!
Man, by sin, had made a sorry ruin of things, and although God says little in this chapter about the generations of Adam, it is significant that He does depart from statistics to comment upon three of them. He speaks of Adam (v.3), Enoch (v.18), and of Noah (v.29). The first brought in ruin but left Seth, a progenitor of our Lord after the flesh. The second walked amidst that ruin in separation to God, and pleased him so well that God made an exception of him and took him away. The third testified at the close of the age, and was preserved through judgment to begin things anew.
Across the pathway of the fallen Lucifer, Seth cast the shadow of the coming victorious Christ. By bodily translation to glory, Enoch rendered more than questionable the claims of the devil who later disputed about the body of Moses. In the preservation of a faithful remnant and its establishment in the comfort of the new world, Noah portrayed the ultimate crash of all Satan's schemes and foreshadowed the final and eternal rest of God.
Thus are God's purposes pre-figured and His people fortified for the darkest of days. How full is the life of the believer, whose vision is filled with the Person of Christ, whose walk is one of dedication to God in expectation of the Lord's imminent return, and whose anticipation is to share in the coming glory when, after days of storm and judgment, the Son of Man takes up His rightful place in righteous and undisputed government!
Concluded.
