What Do The Begats Tell Us

Genesis 5 is where I start to get this info. In the King James version, it uses the term begat and begotten.  In chapter 5 verse 3 we start with Adam. Adam lives 130 years and has a son Seth. Adam lived another 800 years and begat sons and daughters. Seth lived 105 years and begat Enosh. Adam is now 235 years old. When Enosh was 90 years old, he begat Kenan. Adam is now 325 years old. Seth is now 195 years old. I guess you can see this will get complicated as we go. When Kenan is 70 years old he has a son named Mahalalel. I will continue with just Adams age for a while because this gets complicated.  Adam is now 395 years old. When Mahalalel is 65 he has Jared. Adam is now 460 years old. When Jared is 162 years old he has Enoch. Adam is now 622 years old and there are now 7 generations alive at one time. Enoch only lived 365 years and then God took him and he was no more. Enoch was faithful to God and there is something about this that we need to pay attention to. This faithfulness pleased God and God did something out of the ordinary and took Enoch away. Enoch was 65 when he had Methuselah. Adam is now 687 years old. When Methuselah was 187 he had Lamech. Adam is now 874 years old. When Lamech is 182 years old he has Noah. Adam did not live to see Noah because Adam died at 930 years old. I thought I saw a timeline that showed 16 generations alive at one time. This does not prove that out but considering each of these had other sons and daughters and some of these had children at age 65. It is easy to see that if other brothers and sisters had children at age 65 then these listed, there could have easily been the 16 generations at one time. Perhaps someone with more knowledge than I figured that out. It only took 9 generations in this list of names for the world to become so evil that God was sorry he created man and caused the great flood to destroy man from the face of the earth. He took Enoch before the flood, a faithful man that pleased God. He saved Noah and his sons and daughters in law because Noah  was a righteous man and found favor in God's eye.  If I added correctly this was about year 1656 after Adams creation. when the flood came. Methuselah the oldest man that ever lived at 969, he died the year of the flood.  Don't know if it was in the flood or before.  One important takeaway is it did not take that many generations from creation for people to forget God. All of these listed had other sons and daughters and it seems only the first born is recorded. Actually this doesn't say that these were the first born. Seth was not a first born, there were Cain and Abel before him. But there could have been even more than 16 generations if other brothers of these listed had children at age 65 or before. Faithfulness and righteousness are important to God as we see in the lives of Enoch and Noah. And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22 God bless. LVZ.