Origin Story: Genesis 5:1–32, “And Then He Died.” September 20, 2026.
This morning we’re going to cover a part of Scripture with a bunch of names and it makes it to glaze over those names. But there’s something meaningful about seeing names, because it’s a reminder that every name represents an entire life of ups and downs. These are people that woke up, worked, had some wins and losses, and then we are going to see a phrase repeated over and over, “and then he died.”
Steve Jobs once spoke at a graduation ceremony and said, “Live each day as though it were your last, because at some point you’ll be right!” 6 years later he died! Welcome to North Village Church! Let’s look at Genesis 5 verses 1-2:
Genesis 5:1-2, “1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.”
Chapter 5 is a new section in Genesis, so verses 1-2 are a recap of what we’ve looked at so far in Genesis.
Death:
- Genesis 1: Everything is perfect.
- Genesis 2: Warning of death.
- Genesis 3: Introducing “DEATH!”
- Genesis 4: Death is spreading.
- Genesis 5: Death is like, “Hold my beer!”
Therefore, when we see the language “He made him in the likeness of God” it’s God’s literary way of reminding us, “Even though death is taking place, He’s not done!” Just last week I officiated a funeral and every funeral is sad but also every funeral is the reminder “death is coming!” But God’s Word is reminding, “He has a plan.”
Genesis 5:1-2, “1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.”
This is so important for us to remember. We are going to encounter challenges in life. We are going to have moments when the wind gets knocked out of us! God’s Word is reminding us we are made in His image. We are blessed, so that the elderly person nearing death bears His image.
The unborn zygote is layered with His fingerprints. The person with physical, emotional and / or mental disabilities is incredibly valuable because we are knit together with His glory. Amen?
Genesis 5:3-5, “3 When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. 4 Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters. 5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.”
In verse 3 we see being made in the likeness of God is going to move from generation to generation, but we’re also going to see this pattern of sin and death from generation to generation. Look at verses 6-8:
Genesis 5:6-8, “6 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and became the father of Enosh.7 Then Seth lived eight hundred and seven years after he became the father of Enosh, and he had other sons and daughters. 8 So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died.”
It’s possible we could read about the hope of Seth in Genesis 4 and think, “Maybe Seth is going to solve this problem of death?” But we get to the end of verse 8 and it’s like, “Nah, it ain’t Seth!” The fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 didn’t just affect Adam and Eve. The pattern of sin and death continues, so that the Apostle Paul writes these words in 1 Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 15, “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.”
The good news, is that because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection we don’t have to give ourselves over to the defeat of death. Genesis 3 has laid the foundation of this promise, “One will come through the offspring of Eve who will crush the head of the serpent” so that in Genesis 5 our eyes are looking forward to the One who will come.
As a side note, we’re going to see some ridiculous lifespans throughout these genealogies. Some will say they calculated lives differently back then. Some will say its hyperbole, but the theological point is clear, “We can live 9 days, 90 years, or 900 years, death is coming.” Look at verses 9-11:
Genesis 5:9-11, “9 Enosh lived ninety years, and became the father of Kenan. 10 Then Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years after he became the father of Kenan, and he had other sons and daughters. 11 So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years, and he died.”
Remember in Genesis 4 God’s Word describes Enosh as “those who call upon the name of the Lord” but in verse 9 we see even “worshippers of the Lord” are going to die, which is so important for us to see as followers of Jesus today. I may lose you here, but sometimes, the local church in the United States has experienced so much of God’s blessing compared to other points in history and other parts of the world, and sometimes the local church in the United States can give the impression, “When you come to Jesus He makes all our dreams come true.”
As a result, we put people on the stage to share stories of victory. The marriage is restored. The prodigal son returns. The person is healed. The team wins the championship. I call it “Red Bow Theology.” And as followers of Jesus in the United States we love “Red Bow” moments, and there are “red bow” moments in God’s Word and those moments are awesome, but there are also men and women who call upon the name of the Lord and they die! (Write that down!)
There are faithful men and women whose marriages fall apart. There are faithful men and women whose careers struggle. There are faithful men and women who end up in the hospital and they don’t leave the hospital! They still die! It doesn’t mean the Lord isn’t at work. It just means sometimes the Lord is working in ways we don’t always understand, so that in Genesis 5 generations are coming and going, and they are still waiting and hoping on the Word of the Lord “One will come who will crush the head of the serpent”. Amen? Look at verses 12-14:
Genesis 5:12-14, “12 Kenan lived seventy years, and became the father of Mahalalel. 13 Then Kenan lived eight hundred and forty years after he became the father of Mahalalel, and he had other sons and daughters. 14 So all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died.”
Historically we don’t know anything about Kenan. We don’t see some city established like Cain in Genesis 4. We just see a name, which is a reminder, most stories of men and women don’t get turned into a movie! I don’t want us to depress us even more, but most people throughout history will not be remembered. (Someone on front row)
But God’s Word is showing us this morning death is coming, and we might not get our names in the history books, but through faith in Jesus our names can be written in the book of life. Amen? Look at verses 15-17:
Genesis 5:15-17, “15 Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Jared. 16 Then Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years after he became the father of Jared, and he had other sons and daughters. 17 So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died.”
The pattern continues. We live. We build a life. Then we die, therefore, as we go through Genesis 5 it’s like our soul is confronted with this reality, “Death is coming.” Look at verses 18-20:
Genesis 5:18-20, “18 Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and became the father of Enoch. 19 Then Jared lived eight hundred years after he became the father of Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters. 20 So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died.”
There’s something really interesting about Jarod. No. He dies. Someone should get a tattoo of the name Jared “Genesis 5:18” on your arm, so that when people ask, “What’s that about?” We can say, “Jared? Oh, he died!” Look at verses 21-24:
Genesis 5:21-24, “21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. 22 Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.”
We will touch on the phrase “for God took him” but I want to make sure we don’t miss the phrase “walked with God” because the phrase “walked with God” is a literary way to convey an ongoing life of fellowship of trust in the Lord. I want to go slow here, because I know this phrase “walked with God” is a little abstract, but it’s a man or woman who walks by faith in the Lord.
It’s like these robotaxis. Have you noticed the robotaxi doesn’t have a steering wheel? At least with Waymo, you can grab the wheel and feel like you’re in control, but with robotaxi, we just get in the car it takes off. The moment we get in the car we are demonstrating faith in the engineers of Tesla to keep us safe! Therefore, in the same way, God’s Word is asking us, “Are we going to trust the whole of our life to some engineers or are we going to put our trust in the Creator of heaven and earth who’s made Himself known?”
God’s Word is making it really clear, “Death is coming!” Where are we going to place our trust? Is it in the hopes and dreams of our day, or is it in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection? When we encounter struggles in life, because we will, are we going to trust in ourselves, or, are we going to turn to Him and trust Him or? When our prayers aren’t answered and He doesn’t move the way we want are we going to trust in ourselves, or are we going to trust in Him? Now, this phrase, “for God took him” is important because we are expecting to see the phrase “and then he died.”
But verse 24 doesn’t really explain what that means. Hebrews 11 in the New Testament adds some clarity that Enoch didn’t experience death in an ordinary way, but in Genesis 5 we see a foundation being laid that death is coming, but in verse 24 there is a little wrinkle in the story, so that the reader is asking, “What happened to Enoch?”
We don’t get the fullest understanding of the “wrinkle” in Genesis 5. We don’t see the name of Jesus. We don’t see a reference to Jesus conquering death in the resurrection, but God’s Word is laying the foundation that things might NOT always appear as we see on the surface, so that death keeps showing up generation after generation over and over, and at the same time we see reminders of God’s hand still at work. (Write that down!) Look at verses 25-27:
Genesis 5:25-27, “25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and became the father of Lamech. 26 Then Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years after he became the father of Lamech, and he had other sons and daughters. 27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.”
Methuselah is one of those names that shows up in bible trivia! But what happens to Methuselah in the end? He dies! Even the man who lived longer than anyone else could not live long enough to escape death. Look at verses 25-27:
Genesis 5:28-31, “28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and became the father of a son. 29 Now he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed.” 30 Then Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years after he became the father of Noah, and he had other sons and daughters.31 So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died.”
This is a different Lamech than from Genesis 4 but notice the emphasis on “rest” in verse 29. The word “rest” in the original language means “relief.” It means humanity is just a few generations from perfection in the garden and humanity is already exhausted! The Lord told Adam and Eve, “You’re going to sweat and toil with the ground. You’re going to experience pain in birth and raising a family” and in Genesis 5 the people are exhausted and our souls are already longing for someone to bring rest, and they thought naming a baby would bring rest. That’s funny!
But, in a similar way, when we feel beat up and exhausted by life, God’s Word is speaking to the depth of our soul. God’s Word is reminding us why we feel beat up and exhausted. God’s Word is reminding us why we are longing for rest and relief. It isn’t a YOU problem. It’s a human problem.
It’s God’s grace as a means to call us to Himself. It’s a reminder that this life was meant to be lived in the presence of God, so that God’s Word is calling out to our soul to turn to Him and find rest and relief in Him! Look at verses 32 as we finish:
Genesis 5:32, “32 Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
The chapter ends without Noah’s death, because in Genesis 6 a crisis of a flood is coming. Death is spreading from generation to generation, and yet there is still a theme of God’s provision. The flood of Genesis 6 will bring a washing of humanity but it won’t be able to wash sin and death out of humanity. Genesis 6 makes it clear judgment is coming, but surviving sin and death is greater than a flood.
It’s because humanity needs someone to save us from judgment. We need someone to defeat death, so that Genesis 5 gives us the problem of death and leaves us longing for the hope of a solution. Do you see it? It is why Luke picks up on the genealogy of Jesus and traces it back through Genesis 5 where will see the names of Noah, Seth, and Adam leading lives that lead to death, so that when Jesus dies on the cross it’s almost like all of creation is grieving. He died! Until three days later He rose! Jesus is like the sons of Adam but not merely another “son of Adam.” There’s something different. He isn’t just a prophet who lived a good life as some will say in Liberation Theology.
Jesus is the Son of God. He is the One who conqueres death. He is the One that is written by the Apostle Paul, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? … Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:54–57) In 1 Corinthians 15 it says “For in Adam all die, but to those who are in Christ, belong to Jesus, all are made alive!
It is Jesus who comes to do what Adam could not do. It is Jesus who comes to obey where Adam fails. It is Jesus comes to be obedient to the Father to the point of death on the cross, so that all who call on His name might have life! The description of Enoch back in verse 24 “for God took Him” is like a little crumble where humanity would be wondering, “What happened to Enoch? Where did Enoch go? How did that happen?” It is laying the foundation in humanity of a hope of One who will come to defeat sin and death. It’s the gospel! If you have yet to come to faith in Jesus, He invites you to come to Him now! If we have faith in Jesus, the vision of Genesis 5 isn’t merely to live a good life; get a job, raise children, because in the end, death is coming. Do you see it? Let me give you 3 take a ways from our passage this morning:
Invitation of Genesis 5:
- Walk with God in ordinary parts of life. Our focus this fall of biblical shepherding is “walking with God in the ordinary parts of life.” Walk with Him so that it stirs in us a love for others. What a great way to live this life!
- Let’s stop measuring life by achievement. It’s great to win at personal goals, but there are only two things that are eternal in life; God’s Word and God’s people. Let’s give our life to that which is eternal.
- Let’s grieve death without surrendering to death. We know death is coming. It’s unavoidable, therefore, like an unusual people in Christ, we can acknowledge death with a weird sparkle in our eye of hope because of Jesus.
Because one day, unless Jesus returns first, someone will say of every one of us in this room, “And then he or she died.” Our supplements won’t stop it. Our manifesting or positive attitude won’t change it! Our finances won’t avoid it! But in Christ…like Dr. Sues of old:
We can walk with God here. We can walk with God there. We can walk with God everywhere.
North Village Church
This sermon is brought to you by North Village Church, a non-denominational church in North Austin near the Domain, serving Austin and the 78757 area. We are a church family learning to know Jesus, love people, and live with Him at the center. We would love to meet you in person on Sunday. Find service times and plan your visit at northvillagechurch.com.
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