The first genealogy in Scripture gives us a look into the antediluvian (pre-flood) period of history. It traces the generations from Adam to Noah and his sons, and the ages of the men in the account stand out.

Let’s skip ahead to the next chapter for a moment:

“My Spirit shall not strive with man forever because he indeed is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.”
-Genesis 6:3 (LSB)

There have been two primary interpretations to this phrase.

One is that God is saying that the flood will come relatively soon, in 120 years. In this way, He will not strive with men in this current state forever, but rather put an end to “all flesh” (6:13). This is almost certainly the direct meaning of this text, considering the immediate context of the flood and the ensuing timeline.

Other have interpreted this as the years of man will be limited to 120 years, meaning that their lifespans going forward (after the flood) will be reduced to “one hundred” (singular) and “twenties” (plural). This is interesting for two reasons:

1. The wording “...his days shall be 120 years” sounds very much like lifespans (going forward) will be limited in this way, as a plain reading of the text.
2. There seems to be a progression in the post-flood era of lifespans eventually reducing to the decade of 120 years of life (a reality that seems to continue to this day). This reduction was not immediate, but gradual, evidenced by the account of Shem’s descendents in Genesis 11 and beyond: Arpachshad (438), Eber (433), Peleg (464), Reu (239), Serug (230), Nahor (148), Terah (205), Abraham (175), Isaac (180), Jacob (147), Levi (137),  Kohath (133), Amram (137), Moses (120).

Whether or not both realities are meant in the text (that God gave humanity 120 years before he would flood the earth and also that God would begin reducing man’s lifespan to 120 years), it does seem that both became realities, and that the flood was the point of reference for both.

There are many understandable natural reasons as to why men lived over 900 years before the flood (Noah, 950), such as:

• The gradual effects of death on bodies that originally had the potential to live forever before sin brought death.
• The different atmosphere and climate before the canopy of water brought rain for perhaps the first time.
• The lack of widespread disease or developed conditions that most die from today (heart disease, cancers, etc.).
• Exclusive vegetarian diet before Noah and his sons began to eat animals (Genesis 9:3).

Beyond these, there could also be some intentional reasons for God to purpose long lives for the antediluvian patriarchs, like to populate the earth (6:1) and live long enough to build cities (4:17) and develop music (4:21) and tools (4:22), among other things.

But as we will see, all of those purposes were overwhelmingly affected by our sin, and God would soon bring judgment.

It’s truly amazing how much grace God extends to us in the midst of our sin.

It was grace when God performed the first sacrifice to make garments of skin to clothe Adam and Eve in their shame (3:21).

It was grace that God sent them out of the garden so they would not eat of the tree of life in their sinful state and remain in it forever (3:22).

It was grace that God accepted an offering by faith (Heb. 11:4) from their son Abel, who inherited his father’s sinfulness.

And it was even grace when his murderous brother Cain, who brought an unacceptable, faithless offering, was protected with a mark so that he would not be struck down (4:15).

Despite Adam’s rejection, Eve’s deception, Abel’s inherent sinfulness, and Cain’s manifest wickedness, God’s favor, completely unmerited, was still abundantly apparent.

There were consequences for sin: shame (3:7), curse (3:17; 4:11), pain (3:16), unfruitfulness (3:18), and ultimately death (2:17; 3:19; 4:8; 4:23). But in the midst of all of it was grace beyond measure.

¹²...through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned⁠—
-Romans 5:12 (LSB)

Adam’s sin was typological. It represented, and passed down to, all generations born of him. This inheritance is just, because we all would have done the same, and so we do.

But thanks be to God that His grace was greater than our sin.

¹⁵But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. ¹⁶And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the gracious gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. ¹⁷For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
-Romans 5:15-17 (LSB)

Although at one point in human history God saw that “all that he had made” “was very good,” (1:31), we were not divine, and had the ability, and even the proclivity, to sin.

Eve’s particular proclivity to sin was deception (1 Timothy 2:14; 2 Corinthians 11:3). Adam’s specific proclivity to sin was “listening to the voice of [his] wife” (3:17), rather than obeying God’s command (2:17).

Many have speculated that part of Adam’s responsibility in cultivating the garden would have been to crush the serpent when he found him in the garden to “keep it” [safe] (2:15). Perhaps it was, and had it been to God’s ultimate glory for that to be His plan, we could reason that it would have come to pass. But God had a different, greater, plan.

God’s ultimate plan would not be for her husband to crush the head of the serpent, but for her seed to do so. Her husband was merely from the earth, but her seed was from heaven:

“⁴⁵“So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. ⁴⁷The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.”
-1 Corinthians 15:45-47

It would take something more than earthly to save us. And it was always God’s plan for the man from heaven to be the one to bring us out of the corruption to which we fell. The rest of Scripture tells us just how that happened.

After God made Adam from the dust, he set him in the garden (2:15) and gave him the responsibility to cultivate and keep it.

He also told him that it was not good for man to be alone and that He would make a helper suitable for him. It must have been interesting for Adam to then begin the process of naming the animals as God brought them to him, because He was in the process of looking for a helper.

When it became apparent that there was none for him, God put him to sleep, removed a rib, and fashioned his helper.

As he awoke, God brought her to him. When Adam says “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” it literally speaks to the reality that not one of the animals shared his bone structure, nor had the type of flesh he did. But she did, and he was relieved (“At last!”).

She was anatomically unique from him in many important ways, but in these two he could see that she was like him; “bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.”

And even in the name the man (Ish) gives for her as woman (Ishah), we see the similarity that allows them to become one flesh, as well the difference necessary for the union to be possible.

From eternity past, the triune God has always existed.

In creation, the Father was present and active (1:1), as was the Spirit (1:2), and the Son:

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
-John 1:1-3 (LSB)

God created the heavens and the earth, light and darkness (Isa. 45:7), skies and clouds, waters and lands, plants and trees, stars and moon, fish and birds, animals and insects, man and woman.

Most believers don’t find it difficult to believe that God created all that exists, but many question how it could be done in six days, simply because the earth “seems” or “looks” much older to them.

Consider the fact that God created Adam and Eve in a state of maturity. On their very first day, they were not infants, but a man and a woman who had the ability to listen (1:28-30). Even though they were less than a day old, they would have seemed grown by all our presuppositions.

The same would have been true of the wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-12). Although many there would have assumed it to be years old through planting, growth, and fermentation, the reader understands it, too, was less than a day old because of its miraculous origin.

As we approach all the Scriptures and attempt to reconcile God’s account of all things with what we see with our eyes and think we know, let us not forget that creation itself has miraculous origin because all things that came into being did so through the Word of God.