The Unblinking Rhythm of Grace and Judgment Text: Genesis 5:15-17
Introduction: Gold in the Begats
Many modern Christians, when they approach a passage like the one before us, treat it like nine miles of bad road. It is a list of unpronounceable names and unbelievable ages, and the temptation is to put the truck in high gear and get through it as quickly as possible on the way to the more "interesting" parts of the Bible. But this is a grave mistake. This is not how the saints of old saw it, and it is not how we should see it. The genealogies of Scripture are not filler. They are not an appendix. They are the load-bearing walls of redemptive history. They are the spine of the Bible.
The ancients understood this. They kept careful track of their genealogies because they were waiting for someone. From the moment God made the promise in the Garden, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, God's people were on the lookout. They were tracing the line. This was not a matter of idle curiosity; it was a matter of salvation. Every name in this list is another link in the chain that God was forging, a chain that would one day have the God-man, Jesus Christ, at the end of it. To treat these names as boring is to be bored by the faithfulness of God. To dismiss these ages as mythical is to take a razor blade to the humanity of the Lord Jesus. Luke, in his gospel, traces our Lord's lineage right back through this very list, naming Mahalalel and Jared (Luke 3:37). If Mahalalel is a myth, then what is Jesus?
So we must not read this as a dry ledger. We must see it for what it is. It is a record of God's patient, inexorable, covenant-keeping grace. And at the same time, it is a drumbeat of judgment. It is a tale of two realities, lived out in every line. There is the astounding grace of life, long life, and the propagation of a covenant line. And there is the grim, unblinking reality of the curse, which punctuates the end of each life with the tolling of a funeral bell: "and he died." This chapter is a graveyard, but it is a graveyard with a signpost pointing the way out. It shows us the relentless march of death, and in so doing, it makes us long for the one who would swallow up death in victory.
The Text
And Mahalalel lived 65 years and became the father of Jared.
Then Mahalalel lived 830 years after he became the father of Jared, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.
So all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.
(Genesis 5:15-17 LSB)
The Chain of Covenant (v. 15)
We begin with the first link in our short passage:
"And Mahalalel lived 65 years and became the father of Jared." (Genesis 5:15)
The first thing to notice is the historicity. This is presented as fact. The Bible is not giving us a hazy, "once upon a time" fable. It gives us names and numbers. Mahalalel was 65 years old when he begat Jared. Our modern, sophisticated scoffers find this hard to swallow, particularly the long lifespans. But their skepticism is not born from superior scientific knowledge; it is born from a philosophical commitment to materialism. They presuppose a world where God does not act, a world that has been grinding on uniformly for billions of years. But we do not grant them their starting point. We begin with Scripture. The world before the flood was a different world. The canopy of water, the diet, the atmospheric pressure, we do not know all the secondary causes, but we know the primary one. God ordained it.
But more than the age, see the action: "he became the father of Jared." This is the central action of the whole chapter. In the face of the curse of death, God is giving the gift of life. The line of the woman, the line of promise that began with Seth, is continuing. Mahalalel, whose name means "Praise of God," is doing the most fundamental thing a man can do. He is taking his place in the great story. He is receiving the gift of a son and passing on the covenantal hope to the next generation. This is the ordinary, glorious, central business of life. This is how God builds His kingdom, not primarily through flashy programs and grand events, but through the quiet faithfulness of fathers and mothers, generation after generation.
The Fruit of a Long Obedience (v. 16)
The narrative then summarizes the remainder of his life.
"Then Mahalalel lived 830 years after he became the father of Jared, and he became the father of other sons and daughters." (Genesis 5:16 LSB)
Here we see the grace of God in a long life. Eight hundred and thirty more years. This is a staggering length of time. Mahalalel would have been a contemporary of Adam for over two centuries. He would have known Seth, Enos, and Cainan. The history of the world, the memory of Eden, the details of the Fall, the promise of redemption, these were not distant legends. They were first-hand or second-hand testimony. History was shallow. You could learn about the creation of the world from a man who learned it from the first man.
And what did he do with all this time? He "became the father of other sons and daughters." He was fruitful. He obeyed the creation mandate to fill the earth. This is not an incidental detail. It tells us that the line of Jared was not the only thing that mattered. God's blessing was overflowing. While the Scriptures trace the one line of promise, God was still graciously populating the earth through these patriarchs. He was building a world. This is a picture of a man's life work. He has a son in the covenant line, and then he spends the next eight centuries building a household, a clan, a culture around that central reality. This is dominion work. It is the steady, patient work of cultivation.
The Inevitable End (v. 17)
But after all that time, after nearly a millennium of life, the final verdict falls.
"So all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died." (Genesis 5:17 LSB)
There it is. The tolling of the bell. Eight times in this chapter, we read this refrain. He lived, he begat, and he died. This is the rhythm of a fallen world. No matter how long the life, no matter how great the blessing, the curse pronounced in the Garden holds true. "For you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). Death is the great leveler. It is the enemy. Paul tells us plainly that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23) and that death came into the world through one man, Adam (Romans 5:12).
This is a direct assault on every utopian scheme of man. We cannot build a world without death. We cannot outrun the curse. We can eat organic, we can exercise, we can extend our lives, but the appointment stands (Hebrews 9:27). This chapter forces us to confront our mortality. It shows us that even the best of men, in the line of promise, men who lived nearly a thousand years, still died. The problem of sin is not a small one that can be fixed with a little more education or a better government program. The problem is death, and it is woven into our very fabric since the fall.
Grace in the Graveyard
So what are we to make of this? Is this chapter simply a depressing obituary column? Not at all. It is profoundly hopeful, but only if you know where to look. The relentless drumbeat of "and he died" creates a tension. It creates a longing. It forces the reader to ask, "Is there any way out? Will anyone ever break this cycle?"
And right in the middle of this chapter, God gives a blazing hint. Just a few verses after our text, we read of Enoch, Jared's son. And of Enoch, it does not say, "and he died." It says he "walked with God; and he was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:24). God reached into the graveyard of humanity and snatched one man out before death could claim him. This was a startling preview of the resurrection. It was a signpost, a trailer for the main feature, showing that God could, and would, conquer death.
The life of Mahalalel shows us the pattern of God's common grace and covenant faithfulness. He gives life, family, and length of days. He preserves His people. But the death of Mahalalel shows us the necessity of the gospel. All the blessings of this life are temporary if the curse of death is not dealt with. Mahalalel lived 895 years, and he died. Jesus of Nazareth lived about 33 years, and He died.
But there is the difference. Mahalalel died because he was a son of Adam. Jesus died to save the sons of Adam. Mahalalel died and stayed dead, awaiting the resurrection. Jesus died, and on the third day, He rose again, breaking the power of the curse forever. He is the true seed of the woman who crushed the serpent's head. He is the one who walked with God perfectly, and though He was taken in death, God took Him from the grave in victory.
Because of this, the refrain for all who are in Him is no longer "and he died." It is, "and he shall live." Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live" (John 11:25). This ancient list of names is not just about the past. It is a testament to why we needed a Savior, and a record of the very line through which that Savior came. It is a long story of grace intermingled with judgment, a story that finds its glorious climax not in a long life, but in an empty tomb.