My tendency is to breeze through the so-and-so-begat-so-and-so sections and get back to the stories, but like I said I want to slow down a bit and see what nuggets God has left for us. So is there anything to be learned from the genealogy in chapter 5?
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| Martin Sheen with a young Martin Sheen |
Two things I noticed...
When Adam fathered Seth the scriptures say "he fathered a son in his own likeness" (v 3). The same was not said of Cain or Abel. It's the same language used when God created Adam, but instead of man taking on the likeness of deity it's a man taking on the likeness of another man, his earthly father. What is the significance of making this distinction? Maybe it's nothing, but I found it interesting.
The other thing that jumps out is when the pattern in the recording of the genealogy is broken. Notice verse 29. Here we learn more than just birthdays and life spans. We see that Lamech, Noah's father, knew that his son was something special. So he named him accordingly. My bible tells me Noah sounds like the Hebrew for rest. Do you suppose Lamech knew what his son would do?
When my wife and I were preparing for the arrival of our son we scoured through a couple baby name books. I wanted a name that sounded good with our last name. Names that ended with 'n' seemed to work best. I know, silly, but that was a part of the criteria. We also liked a few biblical names and the story behind the men who made them famous. We hadn't settled on one until he was born. We figured we had to give him a good once over before we gave him his name for life.
Tell me...
Do your kids look like you? How does that change your perception of them?
How much thought went into naming your child? Was it a family name or did you choose a name based on the characteristics or personality you want your child to possess?
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