Methuselah knew Adam and he had about 50 years that he could have talked to Adam; and then he had many years he could have talked to Noah. This is interesting to think about, but even better than Methuselah is his grandfather Jared who knew Adam and Noah for over 300 years; which when you stop and think for a minute this was a way for the story of God to be told. Adam must have described what it was like to walk physically with God daily. Not to mention the tragedy at the tree and the sacrificial covering God made to cover their sin. Adam and Eve had the first-hand knowledge of many truths to share.
Noah missed Adam by about 50 years, but when Noah was born he could ask Methuselah about his conversations with Adam, he could ask Jared his grandfather to tell him all about Adam. Genesis is a fascinating book.
Then you have Shem, Noah’s son, who experienced being in the flood. Abraham was born just a couple years after Shem died, but Abraham’s father (Terah) and his uncles and his grandfather (Nahor) all could have known Shem and heard eyewitness accounts of the flood.
When you get eyewitnesses of these accounts we come to understand how God used them to hand down the accounts (oral/written) until Moses assembled them by the guidance of the Holy Spirit into the first five books of the bible.
The length of the lives of these people is amazing and to think they lived so close to creation that they must have little deterioration of brain power and physical mutations. So, they were highly capable of communicating history as they witnessed it first-hand. The conversations would have been amazing.
Here is another interesting thing about Genesis, since creation is around 4000 BC the book of Genesis ends about 1600 BC with the death of Joseph in Egypt – that is 2400 years in one book. Now, if you take the next book of the bible which is Exodus and you go all the way to revelation how many years do you think they cover? They cover 1700 years. Genesis covers a time period that’s vastly longer than the whole rest of the bible put together. Have you ever thought about that? It makes since for Genesis is the foundation that the rest of the bible rests upon.
We can see how God provided the information of our origins and from the creation of Adam and Eve how the eyewitness account could have been recorded (written/oral) and handed down until Moses wrote a historical account that included the dramatic stories of miracles such as:
- creation of our universe,
- the calling into existence plan and animal life,
- God’s holy presence with mankind,
- the molding of the human race,
- the judgment of the flood,
- the rainbow,
- rainbow that appeared for the first time the first time the rainbow appeared it must have seemed like a pure miracle,
- the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah,
- miracle birth of Isaac.
You will find moving stories of love:
- the promise of a Savior,
- the promise of restoration after the fall,
- God, with his own hands, making a covering for the nakedness of sin,
- Isaac’s love for Rebecca, and Rebecca leaving home to be with him,
- Jacob was head over heels in love with Rachel.
You will also find stories of hatred:
- the serpent who hates God and his creatures,
- Cain’s hate which resulted in the slaying of his brother Able,
- Esau’s hatred toward Jacob for the stolen birthright,
- The men’s violence towards the angels at Lot’s house,
- Joseph’s brother initial hatred towards him, selling him as a slave.
You will find notable deaths:
- Sarah
- Rachel
- Jacob
- Joseph
You will find a story of rape and incredible murders:
- Dinah was raped by Shechem
- Abel
- Simeon and Levi slaughtered a whole village
You will find stories of forgiveness:
- God not only forgave, but covered Adam and Eve’s sin
- Esau came to peaceful terms with Jacob
- Joseph forgave his brothers.
There are lesson on ethics, faith – especially with the life of Abraham – and lessons of hope with the promise of redemption,
There is a lot of geographical movement which includes:
- It all started in Eden
- Tower of Babel, the new world after the flood
- Ur which is the land that Abram left to follow God
- The promised land of Canaan
- Egypt is where Joseph ended up as a slave, eventually moving his entire family there due to the famine
As you follow these people across the pages of Genesis, you will discover that regardless of how different the time, place, culture, and circumstance often their stories are in many ways ours as well. The lesson we read in Genesis make it real in our life.
If we can’t see in those stories things for our story, then we miss everything