“Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” I Chronicles 1:1-4
Why do we have a section of genealogy as our weekly mediation? Genealogies are often the hardest sections of Scripture to read with just one name listed after another. They often have us wondering, “When is it going to end.” But genealogies are important. And this genealogy is another manifestation of one of the great themes of the Bible called the antithesis.
Cain, even though he is the firstborn of Adam, is left out because he murdered his brother. In I Chronicles 5, similarly, Rueben, the first born of Jacob, is left out because he defiled his father’s bed. The genealogy focuses instead on the line of Judah because his descendants are the line of the “seed,” the line of the promise, the line of David.
So, what is the antithesis? It is the truth that all humanity is in one of two groups, either the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light. In Genesis this is revealed at the Fall of man when God tells Satan in Genesis 3:15 that as a result of Satan’s deception of Adam and Eve, God will put enmity, strife, and war between his seed and the seed of the woman. But the seed of the woman will prevail by crushing his head. This is the first proclamation of the gospel. The NT makes clear that ultimately Jesus is the “seed” who crushes the serpent’s head.
Satan and Jesus are the heads to two humanities. This war has been going on ever since Cain killed Abel. It continues in the NT as seen in Luke chapter 3 which traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to “Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” And the war continues down to this day. This is why there is so much warfare language in the NT. As members of the kingdom of heaven we are part of the godly line, we have spiritual armor (Ephesians 6), and we are to fight the good fight (I Timothy1) with weapons of our spiritual warfare against the kingdom of darkness (2 Corinthians 10).
The good news of the Gospel is that all the way back at the beginning in Genesis 3:15 God promised that the godly line, the descendants of the seed, will win this war. The NT makes clear that Jesus is the seed and that through faith in Him we are fellow heirs with Him. We are fellow heirs, descendants in the godly line, in the genealogy of the seed. We are fellow head crushers who share in the victory of Jesus Christ over the kingdom of darkness. I Corinthians 15:57-58 says, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” That work is defeating the kingdom of darkness and extending the dominion of the kingdom of God.
Next time we look more closely at the development of the antithesis theme in Genesis.
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn