Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah… 1 Chronicles 1:1-4a
Genealogy Smeen-ealogy
Not to many Christians [I know] get excited over Bible genealogies. Aside from picking out the names we know and the subsequent Bible stories we can relate to, for the most part we tend to find ancestral accounts, well in a word, boring. We might liken the experience to looking through a friend’s family photo album for the umpteenth time. We smile; we’re polite, but the reality is that we want to see images of ourselves.
If that’s you, then you have probably loathed (in a ‘It’s-okay-God-knows-my-true-heart’ kinda way) much of Genesis and these first nine chapters of First Chronicles. I’m hearing ya—I feel your pain. However, if we prudently elect to pause and graze in this genealogical field, we might deliciously discover the remarkable. Consider the first ten men of the Bible recorded here in 1 Chronicles 1 and in Genesis 5: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and good ol’ Noah.
We know that Biblical names have meanings. Adam you might already know means, ‘man’, but are you aware of the meanings of these other names? Did you know that Seth’s name means ‘appointed’, Enosh means ‘subject to death’, Cainan means ‘sorrowful’, Mahalalel means ‘from the presence of God’, Jared means ‘one comes down’, Enoch means ‘dedicated’, Methuselah means ‘dying he shall send’, Lamech means ‘to the poor brought very low’, and that Noah means ‘comfort or rest’?
“So what,” you say.
An Intriguing Revelation, That’s What
If you haven’t done so already, put the meanings together in the order they appear. What do we discover? The entire Gospel message, that’s all!
Man, appointed; subject to death; sorrowful. From the presence of God, One comes down; dedicated. Dying He shall send to the poor brought low comfort and rest.
See your image? Suddenly genealogies aren’t so boring now, are they?
These ramblings are typically (but not always) a byproduct inspired by God through my personal Bible study at SearchLight with Pastor Jon Courson
He Dwells -- The B'log in My Eye 