Bible Commentaries
Genesis 5

Introduction

THE WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD

(Genesis 5)

Genesis in chapter 4 makes it plain that evil doing must and will be punished. Of course no parent

who loves his child takes pleasure in inflicting punishment. But the fact is that children are not born with

a knowledge of right and wrong. This they must learn, and here the parent can help. There are some basic

principles of conduct the child must learn to respect. Parents and teachers can teach, but there must be

some actual chastisement of the wrong and some open approval of the right to confirm the learning

process.

Many of the commands the parent gives are actually for the child’s own welfare, but this he may not

recognize. Thus it may be simply a matter of punishing disobedience by way of training obedience to the

given rules and directives. Thus a mother may spank a child for running out on the highway. This would

be not only because the child has disobeyed his mother, but because of the danger involved. The child

must learn to obey for his own good.

Why does a parent rebuke a child when he is impudent? Because the child is going to live with other

people, and if he is allowed to be impudent at home, he will be that way with other people, and that kind

of a person will not get along in the world. Why does a father discipline the boy or girl who is

disobedient? Because he wants his child to grow up in such a way as to be able to get along in this world.

In Hebrews 12:9-11 it is written:

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which (p.65) corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall

we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days

chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now

no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the

peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

There is a difference between punishment and chastening. A rebellious, unwilling child is punished by

his parent. If, however, a child really tries to please his father, makes a mistake and does wrong, the

father will chasten him that he may learn thereby. The word chasten has in it the idea of refining, the

way precious metals are refined. We may ask, "If the wrongdoer has no intention of changing his ways,

why punish him?" Because swift and sure punishment will hinder and deter the wrongdoer in his further

conduct.

This can be seen even in the matter of crossing the street where traffic is involved: it makes a

difference if a policeman is present. His presence is enough to make us watch the crosswalk and drive

more carefully. In the same way our courts and our penal institutions contribute to the measure of safety

and security and peace we have in the community. We need a police force for our own protection and for

the protection of our homes. Evildoers must receive just punishment.

Ezekiel 18:4 warns that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die." Adam and Eve’s punishment was

something they brought on themselves, but this did not make it any less terrible. We see God’s grace in

the covering He prepared for them. God does not reach down and take the sinner by force to punish him.

Sin itself as we have seen brings judgment and punishment with it. God’s grace delivers us from the

consequences of His judgment. Cain’s sin was not only against God. In a certain sense it was against

mankind and it brought with it estrangement and isolation. In Genesis 4:12-13 it is written, "When thou

tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou

be in the earth. And Cain said unto (p.66) the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear." Why

was this punishment so terrible? We may not realize how terrible it must be to be a vagabond, homeless

and friendless! Here we can see an aspect of the pangs of hell.

In penitentiaries the worst punishment meted out is not physical beatings: it is solitary confinement.

No one who has not experienced such isolation will know how intolerable this can be. People have lost

their minds in such a situation. Here is the awful result of hatred of other people. The consequence of

destroying other people, of getting rid of other people, is to be doomed to an eternity of isolation. Some

people talk carelessly about hell as if going there were a small matter; but actually we know one thing for

certain: hell is a place of eternal separation from God. Since God is light and love and peace and joy and

righteousness, hell will be devoid of all this. That leaves a frightening vacuum which is endless.

One thing I can say about hell is that no one needs to go there. God did not prepare hell for human

beings, but for Satan and his angels. All men can be saved from hell. Christ Jesus paid for the sins of all

men, so that all may be saved for heaven. Paul writes, "The love of God constraineth us, knowing the

terror of the Lord, we seek to persuade men." We actually seek to win people to the Lord, with whom is

abundant mercy and pardon.

When we read in the Bible that Cain left the presence of the Lord, we do not know how many years

he was a homeless wanderer before he settled down in the land of Nod. We must assume that he built a

home there because we read of his marriage and the birth of his first son, whom be named Enoch. When

we look at the record we find that Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and "begat sons and

daughters." How many? We are not told, but we can assume that there were many sons and daughters

born to Adam and Eve. Without a doubt Cain married one of the daughters of Adam and Eve.

The record shows that Cain built a city and called it after his firstborn son Enoch. After the building of

this city there developed what might be called the civilization of (p.67) Cain. Special mention is made of

Lamech’s son Jabal, who developed ranching, whose people lived in tents and traveled around as nomads

do to this day. Jabal’s brother Tubal was the father of all those that handle the harp and the organ.

Another brother called Tubal-cain was an instructor of every artifice in brass and iron. The sister of

Tubal-cain was Naamah. So here we apparently have a whole civilization: ranching, music, and

craftsmanship. But there is not one word about God in this report of the culture of the descendants of

Cain.

There is no way of knowing how advanced people in those early days were. Sometime later than this,

but long before the dawn of our history, the pyramids were built. They are so remarkably constructed

that they are one of the wonders of the world even today. No one has ever been able to explain how

these great blocks of stone could be moved into the desert plains of Egypt and built into pyramids so

geometrically true. There is no clue as to how those tremendous blocks of stone were lifted without any

machinery. We may conclude it definitely indicates that people living in prehistoric times had remarkable

intelligence.

Another aspect in the account for which the Bible gives us no clue is the age of the early earth

dwellers. Many of these lived to be hundreds of years old. We do find a statement in the Bible to the

effect that after the flood, man was to live a shorter span of life. We read that Noah was a preacher of

righteousness for one hundred and twenty years. Abraham, we know, lived to be one hundred and

seventy-five years of age. Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years, Joseph lived one hundred

and ten years, and Moses lived for one hundred and twenty years. In the Psalms, man’s age is spoken of

as being seventy to eighty years. We may wonder why the life span was so drastically cut after the

flood, but we do not find the answer in the Bible for this. We do know that in the animal kingdom there

are great differences in their life spans. A dog is old at twelve to fifteen years. A horse may live to be

thirty, a cow rarely lives twenty years, but an elephant can (p.68) live hundreds of years. No one knows

biologically why this should be the case.

Another verse that has caused much fruitless speculation is Genesis 6:2: "That the sons of God saw

the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." It may well

be that the "sons of God" refer to the sons of Seth, who was a God-fearing man, and that they married

the descendants of Cain. This simple explanation is in keeping with other facts we find in the Bible on

intermarriage. "There were giants in the earth in those days . . . mighty men which were of old, men of

renown" (Gen. 6:4). This would imply there were men in that time of great physical prowess. But in

verses 5 to 8 we read a tragic commentary on their way of life: "The wickedness of man was great . . .

very imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

The record is plain that it grieved the heart of the Lord to see men rushing headlong to destruction

because of their evil ways. The text reads "It repented the Lord." This does not mean "repent" as we

would use the word referring to sinful man, but rather this word is used here to adapt the record to the

understanding of man. It conveys the idea that God would not tolerate sin, but that it brings judgment

and death. It is commonly true that men die sooner or later, but in the days of Noah all those living,

except Noah and his family, died at one time when the flood came upon the earth. "I will destroy man

whom I created from the face of the earth." Even as God who is holy must punish sin, so God who is

gracious and merciful must save the just and the righteous from judgment as He did in the case of Noah.

When we look about us we see that people today are living much the same as the people who lived in

Noah’s day. There is an idea abroad that since God made man, He will never destroy him. How foolish

such thinking is! Man is hoping desperately that the law of the harvest, "Whatsoever a man soweth that

shall he also reap," is not really true. But this law is basic and inescapable. "The soul that sinneth, it shall

die." To be sure, the heart of man is easily deceived, and for this reason God has made His plan very

clear. In (p.69) the flood He showed His ways to the whole world, to every culture, to every country.

Surely no one can read the account of the Flood without realizing that the judgment of God, though long

delayed, will certainly come. In judgment God destroys the ungodly, but in mercy He saves all who put

their trust in Him. This great truth is manifested in the story of the Flood.