The Long-Term Consequences of Sin – Genesis Chapter 5
by Sabrina Dawkins
God had created man in his own image. And now Adam has fathered Seth in his own image and likeness. Eve believed that Seth was a replacement for Abel (Genesis 4:25). Cain was created in the likeness of his father: Satan. This is why Cain and his descendants are not listed in the book of the generations of Adam (Genesis 5:1).
We see that God’s word is true concerning eating of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil because all of Adam’s descendants in Genesis Chapter 5 die. They live long lives and have children, but they ultimately die. In the beginning, people lived over 900 years.
The ground is also cursed because of original sin. And Lamech believes his son Noah will comfort them from their hard manual labor in the cursed ground.
Noah was a descendant of Adam. It’s strange that a father would say that his son would give him comfort and rest from his extreme work in the cursed ground, unless Noah was something more, a special person. The fact that his father, Lamech, died at 777 is a symbol for completion and rest, since on the seventh day God competed his work and rested (Genesis 2:2). So it would appear that God was answering Lamech with a sign of completion, ended toil on earth, and rest.
Because of the hard labor required due to the land being cursed, Noah’s father, Lamech, wanted relief. He understood that the land had been cursed by God and that it was not the ideal condition to exist in. So he longed for rest and comfort. This seems like the prerequisite humans needed in order to desire to connect back to God and enter paradise: a cursed earth requiring extreme labor, cursed for the sake of man, so that he would long for rest and an escape from it. We are supposed to hate our life in this cursed earth (John 12:25).