God’s ‘Boring’ Work | Weaving Generational Testimony

³ And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth: ⁶ And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: ⁹ And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: ¹² And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel: ¹⁵ And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: ¹⁸ And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: ²¹ And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: ²⁵ And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech. ²⁸ And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: ²⁹ And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.

Gen 5:1-end

Did you skip past the bible passage? 🙂

Even in seemingly ‘inconsequential’ narratives such as the Genealogical account of Gen 5: which we would readily skip over, closer examination reveals the hidden hand of God at work weaving a generational testimony about the messiah to come encoded in each generation.

Take a look at each name and their meanings:

[Name]                      [Meaning]
Adam:                      Mankind
Seth:                        God hath Appointed
Enos:                       Mortality
Cainan:                   Fixed
Mahalaleel:           Praise of God
Jared:                      He who shall come down
Enoch:                      to Initiate, instruct, teach
Methuselah:          His steps shall bring
Lamech:                 Below, Humble
Noah:                        To Rest

Combining the meanings of the names yields this message as decoded Gerrad Lewis snr :

Mankind, God hath appointed mortality fixed. But praise God for He who shall come down, will teach that His death, shall bring the humble, Rest.

Jesus stated in John 5:16 “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

It is true that God works. Yet so often the bulk of His work as it pertains to our lives and His eternal purpose easily escapes our notice because:

1. His work is often subtle and undramatic
2. Our minds are too shallow to grasp the scope & intricacy of His work ….
3. Our attention span is often too fleeting to engage Him meaningfully…

Things We can Infer from Gen 5:

• From Adam to Noah there are 10 Generations. 10 is the number for completion. He gets the job done.
• Our God is so Deliberate, Steadfast, Intricate, Diligent, Faithful, Creative, & Patient & Purposeful in all that He does. He can careful weave a testimony of the messiah through many generations until completion. He finishes what He starts.

• God patiently carried, preserved and transitioned a seed across 1,056 years lived through 9 individual lives successfully. Skillfully dealing and maneuvering within their free will/choices without missing His mark! He is accurate even across 1,000+ years!!

• Because His touch is so LIGHT, spinning silently and undramatically, we often miss His subtle involvements in our lives,^{1 Kings 19:11-13} Yet He can be found in our daily routines. ^{Isa 30:15}
  
• He enjoys giving each one of us an opportunity to make our lives count in His Christ Centered Heavenly Vision if we will walk with Him in our generation.

• God does not miss an opportunity to showcase His redeeming Love ^{2 Pe 3:9}

Conclusion

In our routine day to day periods and in our seasons of wilderness, when nothing extraordinary seems to be happening, we often become like the child sitting with the weaver asking impatient and nervy questions:-

“what is going on?” , “what is this going to look like?”, “when do you think you will be finished?”, “do you have any idea what you’re doing?”. Getting more and more frustrated when we don’t get a response 🙂

God doesn’t respond to our emotional tirades! He is single-minded in achieving His purpose whether we feel comfortable in it or not! He will not be dissuaded! But if we keep our minds stayed on Him with the right heart posture, He will often comfort us with the big picture of what He is doing through Christ in us.

Whatever your difficulty at this time, know that it is this same God who is skillful, deliberate, intricate, diligent, faithful, creative, patient & purposeful that is with you. He didn’t miss His target in 1,056 years – 10 generations. He will not miss His target in your short 100 years of life.

He is worthy of our praise indeed.

Grace and Peace be unto us all.