The times were evil but we’re not there yet. Right now there’s the genealogy between Adam and Noah as God is already putting a man in place who will save humanity.
The chapter opens with once again how God placed a blessing on humanity.
When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created. (v. 1-2)
Of course in today’s world this is a controversial statement. Maleness. Femaleness. Both different, but equally created in God’s likeness and equally blessed. But that’s something for another day.
Right now this blessing and this creation in the image and likeness of God is going to be challenged. In fact, chapter 6 is going to hold one of the most tragic, heart-breaking verses of all the Bible.
But for now it’s about the man Noah. God has raised him without him even knowing it for such a time as was yet to come. And this is his geneaology.
We see person after person from Adam until Noah. Then when Noah is born we get a little commentary.
28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.”
The people were feeling the effects of the curse. They labored and toiled with the ground only for it to grow thistles, weeds and be threatened by bugs and floods and natural disaster. It was always an uphill battle. This was the result of the curse.
But somehow Lamech knew that Noah was special. He was somehow going to be a source of comfort in this toil. So he named his son “Noah” meaning comfort. But what would that look like? A man going around patting people on the back telling them it’s going to be ok? Was that what Noah’s comfort was going to look like? Because that’s how we often think of it.
What was God going to do? How was Noah going to be one who brings comfort in the toil of it all?
