The Drumbeat of Death, The Lifeline of Grace Text: Genesis 5:9-11
Introduction: The Begats and the Bell
We live in an age that has no patience for history and even less for genealogies. When the modern Christian comes to a chapter like Genesis 5, the temptation is strong to let the eyes glaze over, to skim the "begats," and to get on to the more "interesting" parts of the story, like the flood. But this is a grave mistake. To do so is to treat the Word of God like a buffet, picking and choosing what suits our palate. The fact that God dedicates this space to this list of names should tell us that it is not just important, it is foundational. You cannot skip the foundation and expect the house to stand.
These genealogies are not dusty records for the sake of ancestry.com. They are the load-bearing walls of redemptive history. They are given to us so that we might not for one moment think that the story of salvation is a myth or a fairy tale. These are real names, real men, who lived real lives and died real deaths. This chapter is the historical spine that connects the promise of Genesis 3:15 to its fulfillment in the Messiah. It is the chronicle of the seed of the woman, the line of promise, marching resolutely through a world that is now under the curse of death.
And this chapter has a distinct rhythm to it, a cadence. It is the rhythm of a lifeline being paid out, one generation at a time, and it is the rhythm of a funeral dirge. With each name, we hear the steady drumbeat of the curse: "and he died." It is the tolling of a great bell, reminding us of the wages of sin. But in the midst of this graveyard, we also see the unwavering faithfulness of God. The promise lives on. The line continues. Grace is flowing downhill, from Eden to the cross, right through this valley of the shadow of death.
The Text
And Enosh lived 90 years and became the father of Kenan.
Then Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Kenan, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.
So all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.
(Genesis 5:9-11 LSB)
The Unbroken Line (v. 9)
We begin with the first clause, which is the pattern for the whole chapter:
"And Enosh lived 90 years and became the father of Kenan." (Genesis 5:9)
The first thing to notice is the simple act of begetting. This is not a trivial biological detail. This is covenantal faithfulness in action. After the Fall, God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The devil's entire strategy from that point forward was to corrupt, co-opt, or cut off that line. We saw it immediately with Cain murdering Abel. But God is not so easily thwarted. He gave Seth to replace Abel, and now the line continues through Seth's son, Enosh, to his son, Kenan.
Each "begat" in this chapter is a victory for grace. It is a divine declaration that the promise is still in force. It is an act of faith on the part of the parents, who are bringing children into a fallen, dangerous world, trusting that God will preserve them and His purposes through them. We should remember the context of Enosh's life. It was in the days of his father Seth that "men began to call upon the name of the LORD" (Gen. 4:26). This is the godly line. This is the nascent church. They are gathering for worship, they are calling on Yahweh in a world that is growing increasingly hostile, following the way of Cain. So when Enosh has a son, it is more than a family event; it is a continuation of the visible people of God on earth.
This genealogy is the historical thread on which the pearl of the gospel will one day be hung. Without Enosh, there is no Kenan. Without Kenan, no Noah. Without Noah, no Abraham. Without Abraham, no David. And without David, no Jesus. This is the line of the Messiah. Every name is a vital link in the chain that anchors our salvation in history.
The Long Patience of God (v. 10)
Next, we are given the remainder of Enosh's life.
"Then Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Kenan, and he became the father of other sons and daughters." (Genesis 5:10 LSB)
Here we confront the staggering lifespans of the antediluvian patriarchs. Enosh lived for 905 years. Our secular, uniformitarian assumptions recoil at this. We are tempted to explain it away as symbolic or as a different way of calculating years. But we must resist this temptation to be embarrassed by the Word of God. The Bible presents these as literal years, and we should take them as such. Man was created for eternal life. The Fall introduced death, but the decay was not instantaneous. The lingering glory and biological resilience of the original creation meant that men lived for centuries.
These long lives were a sign of God's patience. God was giving humanity a very long time to fill the earth, and a very long time to repent. This was an extended period of common grace before the judgment of the Flood. But long life in a fallen world is a mixed blessing. It means a longer time to glorify God, but it also means a longer time to sin, a longer time for wickedness to compound. As we know from the next chapter, the earth became filled with violence, and these long lives contributed to that great corruption.
The mention of "other sons and daughters" is also significant. It reminds us that the world was being populated. The genealogies of Scripture are almost always selective; they trace the line of promise. But these men were patriarchs of growing clans and tribes. The world was not empty. This is the fulfillment of the cultural mandate to be fruitful and multiply, now carried out in a world groaning under a curse. The family is central to God's plan for filling the earth, both then and now.
The Unfailing Curse (v. 11)
Finally, we come to the refrain, the tolling of the bell.
"So all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died." (Genesis 5:11 LSB)
Nine hundred and five years. Imagine it. He would have been a contemporary of Adam for over three centuries. He would have known Seth for over eight hundred years. He lived long enough to see his great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Enoch, be taken by God. He saw civilizations rise. And yet, after all that time, after all those sunrises, after all those children and grandchildren, the final word is the same for him as for all the others. "And he died."
This is the great curse of Genesis 3 in operation. "For dust you are, and to dust you shall return." This is the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23). Death is not natural. It is an enemy. It is an intruder into God's good creation, brought in by our father Adam's rebellion (Rom. 5:12). This chapter is a graveyard, and the tombstones all read the same. Lived long. Had kids. Died. Lived long. Had kids. Died. The repetition is deliberate. It is meant to create in the reader a sense of futility, a longing for a deliverer. It is Ecclesiastes in miniature. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity under the sun.
No matter how righteous the man, no matter how long he lived, he could not escape the sentence. This relentless drumbeat, "and he died," is meant to make us look for the one who would break the pattern. It sets the stage for Enoch, who walked with God and "was not, for God took him," a glorious foreshadowing of the resurrection. And it points us ultimately to the Lord Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman, who would enter this world, live His life, and go down into death, not as its victim, but as its conqueror. He would die the death that we deserved, so that the final word over us would not be "and he died," but "he lives."
Conclusion: History with a Point
So what do we do with this brief, stark biography of Enosh? We see in it the whole story of the world in microcosm. We see the faithfulness of God in preserving His promised line. We see the patience of God in granting long life. And we see the justice of God in the unblinking reality of death.
This is not a boring list. This is the history of the world under the curse, awaiting the cure. These men were the first saints, the first to call upon the name of the Lord in a hostile world, and they held fast to the promise of a coming redeemer. They lived by faith, and they died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar (Heb. 11:13). Their lives, and their deaths, were a testimony that they were seeking a better country, that is, a heavenly one.
The genealogy of Genesis 5 is a record of death. But it is also the historical path down which life would come. Because Enosh lived and had Kenan, and because that line continued unbroken, the Lord Jesus Christ was born in the fullness of time. He entered this same world, under this same curse of death. But He broke the curse. He broke the pattern. Because He died and rose again, the tolling bell of "and he died" has been silenced for all who are in Him. For us, the grave is not the end. It is the doorway into the presence of the one whom Enosh and all the patriarchs were waiting for.