Jesus in Genesis - Adam to Seth
In Genesis, we find the thread of redemption woven through the first few chapters. It is set forth in the form of a story. A family story.
It is related in Hebrew as a “Toldot,” which means “These are the generations of…” Put another way, it poses and answers the question:
“What became of?” In that, we see how God unfolds His story through the generations in Genesis, the book of beginnings, to bring His creation (including man) to redemption out of chaos.
The first Toldot (there are eleven in Genesis) is Genesis 2:4 - 4:26: “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created…” meaning, what became of creation?
What became of creation is that it returned to chaos.
Before the creation, the earth was without form and void and in darkness (Gen. 1:2). When God created the heavens and the earth it went from chaos to perfect order. And that perfect order was devastatingly altered. We might say that it fell into a second chaos. Everything God created was good and very good, so we get a sense of how ominous the fall was. And the stories that follow in chapter four give us the results of how evil advanced in the aftermath of the fall.
This is the second chaos.
Within this Toldot is a story within a story.
The creation narrative
Adam and Eve
The Fall
God’s curse on sin
The expansion of sin
The consequence of sin on the descendants
Cain and Abel
In Genesis 3:15 was the promise of the Seed of the Woman who would ultimately crush Satan, the enemy of God and His people. When Cain was born (Genesis 4:1), Eve said, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” The Hebrew text literally reads: “I have gotten a man: Yahweh.”
The Hebrew shows us that Eve understood Genesis 3:15 to mean that the redeemer who would come from the Seed of the Woman was to be a God-Man: “I have gotten a man: Jehovah.” Of course, Cain was not the God-Man. Eve had the right theology, just the wrong timing.
Abel had no children when Cain killed him, so Abel's line was cut off. And the punishment of Cain drove him out from the face of the ground which was how he lived as a farmer, and from the face of God he was hidden.
Where will the promised Seed come from?
In verse 25 we finally come to a ray of hope. The line of Seth.
Adam and Eve had a son and Eve named him Seth, which means “appointed,” the root of the word/name is “foundation.” Seth represents the foundation of a new line, which is why Eve named him Seth: “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” Genesis 4:26 brings us to the end of this Toldot as Seth has a son - Enosh. Thus, the genealogical line to Messiah will continue through Seth’s line. Abel’s line, cut off in death, necessitated another to come to continue the line of redemption, culminating with Jesus - the God-Man.
Unlike Abel, He rose from the dead.
It is through this lineage that we see God's plan unfold to crush sin and provide salvation for all mankind through the Son, the Messiah Jesus. It should not be surprising, then, that this is one of the links between what we call: Act One and Act Two, or better known as the Old and New Testaments. You see, when Cain slew Abel he cut off Abel’s line.
But it didn’t thwart God’s plan.
The “foundation” of a new line was through Seth. HE was the continuity. And the line of Seth was not cut off as happened with the death of Abel, but Enosh was born to Seth. Therein lies the continuity of the messianic line that follows thereafter to others in that line: Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, and Noah’s son - Shem, all a part of the messianic line leading ultimately to the Messiah.
Thus, fulfilling the promise of Genesis 3:15, Jesus shows up in Eve's promised offspring who will crush the serpent's head.
