Lesson 2Is Your Faith in Action? |
As we move forward in this study understand that there are three stages in this chapter of human faith in action. The first stage is promise & pre-flood stage. The other two stages are the promise & flood stage, and the promise completed stage. Before we move on let us, examine this first stage. If we look at the individuals of this stage, we have Abel, Cain, Enoch, and Noah. These all were before the flood and after the promise. The problem is that most of us do not know what this promise is, so we have a hard time understanding what got these individuals into the FAITH CHAPTER. Yes, there are individuals who will bridge two stages. Some of them will go even deeper into the promises, but we will get to that soon. The main promise, which is in all of these stages, is found in Genesis 3:14 - 21, which reads as follows:
Genesis 3:14 - 21
14. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
In these verses, you find some very important concepts. One is that God will put enmity (hostility) between the offspring of the serpent and the woman. Second, God did not kill them physically, but made coats for them. This lets Adam and Eve know that God still loves them and their offspring. Think about this, mankind broke the only rule for which that God told them there would be punishment. That punishment was death. Therefore, even though mankind sins, they have the opportunity to repent and still have relationships with God. God will talk with them and guide them in life’s journey.
As we examine Enoch and what got him included in this chapter, we will need both the Old and New Testaments for this. Before we go to where we can find the story of Enoch, read Jude 1:14, which states that Enoch was the seventh from God.
Jude 1:14
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,Also in verse 15 Enoch said this,
Jude 1:15
To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Remember that Enoch was before the Flood and before all of the other promises that God made to his people. How did Enoch have this kind of confidence in God? To answer that question we need to go back to the statement made in Jude 1:14, which says that he was the seventh from God.
The genealogy of Enoch is this. His father was Jared, Jared’s father was Mahalaleel, Mahalaleel’s father was Cainan whose father was Enos, and Enos’s father was Seth whose father was Adam. We really need to look at this line. Remember Adam had two sons and one son killed his brother. The Bible tells us that when Adam was 130 years old Eve gave him another son and she called him Seth, which means substitute or compensation. Seth had a son called Enos. This is the age in which mankind started calling on the name of the LORD. Therefore, Enoch had a long history of knowing and experiencing what God can and will do for mankind. Can you guess who else came out of this line? In fact, Enoch is one of two people in all of mankind who did not see death.
Read Genesis 5:21 – 26. There is a word used in these verses that needs to be examined. The word is “walked“ and it is linked to “with God.” This word expresses a “reflexive” action and means following God’s leading in everything done and said. Think about this man he was walking with God before the Holy Spirit was dwelling in mankind. So why are we Christians having a hard time reflecting God in our lives and in this world?
I mentioned earlier that someone else came out of the line of Enoch. The other person that came out of that line is Mary the mother of Jesus. Read Luke 3:37 – 38. Remember that Luke 3 is the genealogy of Mary.1111
In Hebrews 11:6, we find that these saints in all of the three stages believed that God rewards them that diligently seek him. Remember that it was not until Enos that mankind started calling on the name of the LORD. Please remember the genealogy that the first stage of saints come from. Understanding their mindset and their submission to God it becomes easier to understand all of these individuals in the Faith chapter.
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