Cain, Enoch, and Noah

Have started reading the One Year Chronological Bible (New Living Translation), thanks to friends Ned and Marilyn. Thursday’s reading included Genesis 4, 5, and 6: the stories of Cain and Abel, Seth and his descendants, the generations from Adam to Noah, and the beginning of the Noah and the Flood story. A couple of musings.

Cain

Cain seems generally to be known as the murderer of his brother, as someone driven from the family. Yes. Cain did kill his brother. Yes, he was driven away to live in the land of Nod, the land of “wandering.” But God also protected Cain with a mark. He continued to watch over Cain. And Cain’s descendants were artists, craftspeople, and caretakers of animals. Not a bad legacy.

God, in God’s great mercy, provided means by which Cain knew redemption.

Thanks be to God.

Enoch

Among the other daughters and sons that Adam and Eve had, was Seth (Genesis 5:3), “a son who was just like him—in his very image.” And the verse just before, the writer reminds us that God created human beings, to “be like himself.” Hmmm….

But what strikes me about the story of Seth is the listing of his descendants—eight generations’ worth. We have Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah. Each one gets three verses that follow the same pattern as Seth.

When Seth was 105 years old, he became the father of Enosh.
After the birth of Enosh, Seth lived another 807 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
Seth lived 912 years, and then he died.

• Age of father and birth of next son in the lineage.
• How many more years the father lives, "And he had other sons and daughters."
• The final age, "And then he died.

Until you get to Enoch. Enoch “became the father of Methuselah. After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived in close fellowship with God for another 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Enoch lived 365 years (hmmm.....), walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared, because God took him.” [my italics]

What? Enoch just disappears, “because God took him?” What did Enoch’s family think? Everyone else died. Disease. Sickness. Wounds. Old age (different idea of old age back then). The kids come home from school. “Where’s Dad?”

Mom answers, “Didn’t you see him the fields?”

Enoch is simply gone. Vanished. Was there panic? Did the family and friends create myths and legends about his disappearance? Where they angry? After all, Enoch was a righteous man. He “walked with God.” I imagine family and friends crying out, “He walked with you, God. Why did you take him? What right do you have?”

And for what purpose? Why did God do this? “Take” Enoch? Why not give him an honorable and peaceful death surrounded by wife, children, and grandchildren? Simply because God can do this? Only to offer this hiccup in the narrative of Seth’s descendants so a layperson like me stops to wonder, “Hmmmm….”?

Noah

Genesis 6. The beginning of the story of Noah and the Flood.

Verse 6: “So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them [humans] and put them on the earth. It broke his heart” (my italics).

What powerful language. God’s heart breaks. He is in sorrow. She is in sorrow. Our ways hurt God. Did God’s heart break over her disappointment with us? God’s hopes and expectations dashed to smithereens? Did God’s heart break because there was no longer anyone with whom to "walk in close fellowship”? Did God’s heart break because he knew what had had to do to fix things?

But these things didn’t remain fixed. Look at the mess we’ve created around us since the flood famine, war, poverty, slavery (ancient, 19^th century, and now), rape, murder, greed. Surely God knew we’d mess things up the first chance we had. God is and was God. All-knowing. All-powerful. God was not, is not, a dummy. God had foresight and foreknowledge, back-knowledge, history in His hand.

I don’t care about different interpretations, doctrines, dogmas, formal text or dynamic text translations. What matters is that all this mess, “broke his heart.” I think it “broke her heart,” too.

Then Noah appears on the scene. “Noah found favor with the Lord.” Noah “walked in close fellowship with God.” Same language that describes Enoch. In the midst of everything and everyone else, here was someone who “walked with God.”

Maybe that’s the reason for the story. That’s the lesson.

Thanks be to God.