Cain and Seth's descendants are listed one by one. Of each of them we learn their lineage and how old they were when they fathered the next in line. Each account of these men ends with 'and he died.'
But it does not say this about Enoch.
Of Seth's line it is said: Genesis 5:23 Enoch lived 365 years, 24 walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared, because God took him.
Enoch was the great grandfather of Noah. He was remembered for both his desire and willingness to walk in God's way and for God's care of him when it came time for his life on earth to end.
Genesis 6:5 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they imagined or thought was consistently and totally evil. 6 So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. 7 And the Lord said, "I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing..."
Genesis 6:9 ...Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.
God spoke to Noah and told him his plan. He told him to build an ark.
The earth had never known rain. How do you comprehend a flood when you've never seen rain? And an ark? God gave Noah specific instructions to build the ark from certain materials to be used and the exact measurements needed to make it right for God's own plan.
Genesis 6:17 "Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. 18 But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat...
Noah had never seen rain. He had no idea what a flood was. He was told to build this strange thing called an ark. Everything on earth would die except those things that were with him in the ark. And then he was to stay there until God gave him a sign to come out again...It's a lot to try and take in from my point of view, I who have known and lived through floods and rain and seen the recent destruction others have experienced due to flood. But to Noah, there was no point of reference he could use. All he had was trust in the God with whom he walked.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
There have been storms in all of our lives that we have had to live through, where nothing made sense and the world as we knew it was completely upset and destroyed, sometimes physically, sometimes mentally and emotionally. All I had was my faith and trust in God. Not to say I didn't waver and wonder at times, but somehow, I always managed to come back to that bit of bedrock that was my faith.
Now imagine yourself just before that season. If God had spoken to you and told you what was about to happen in your life, would you have been able to move forward with whatever instructions he gave, even though you couldn't comprehend?
I'll share here that for weeks, even months prior to the drunk driving accident, I had repeated dreams in which I crashed into other vehicles. And one night in particular, I had an incident that flooded me with peace. Yet I did not recognize the beginning of that season in my life at all, because it was nothing I had ever been through before. There was no way I could comprehend how my life was going to change in a few weeks of time...
Nor did Noah.
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