9 Generation Picture

This Sunday we start a brand new series here at Gaylord E-Free that we are calling, "The Noah Factor: All Are Welcome." It will be a verse by verse study through the life of Noah seen in Genesis 5-9. We start this Sunday with chapter 5 in which we see the genealogy of Adam all the way to Noah covering 10 generations. But here is what I find amazing. Follow me on this:

Noah's father was Lamech

Noah's grandfather was Methuselah

Noah's great grandfather was Enoch

Noah's great great grandfather was Jared

Noah's great great great grandfather was Mahalel

Noah's great great great great grandfather was Kenan

Noah's great great great great great grandfather was Enosh

Noah's great great great great great great grandfather was Seth

Noah's great great great great great great great grandfather was Adam.

Following me so far? Now, figure this into the equation. Lamech (Noah's father) was 56 years old when Adam (Noah's great great great great great great great grandfather) died. That means that 9 generations were alive at one time. Think about it. When Lamech (Noah's father) was55 years old (Noah was not born until Lamech was over 180 years old) and attending his family reunion, he could have had a 9-generation picture taken with him, Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Mahalel, Kenan, Enosh, Seth and the very first man, Adam. Nine generations all alive at the same time.

I thought it was something when we had a 5-generation picture taken on my wife's side of the family with my wife, our daughter, my wife's mom, my wife's grandma and my wife's great grandma. A 5-generational picture is quite an accomplishment today, but Adam through Lamech would have covered 9 generations living all at the same time.

Now imagine the population explosion we would experience today if each person lived to be 600, 700, 800, even 900 years old and could continue to reproduce for most of those years. Chances are good that there were more people alive on the earth at the time of Noah than there are today. In fact, some estimate that the population of the earth at the time of Noah exceeded 7 billion people. But with the huge population explosion of that day there was also an explosion of evil, even to the point of a demonic invasion. And in the midst of it all, we find two of the greatest words in the Bible, "But Noah!"

Don't miss this Sunday as we see how Noah became a "breath of fresh air" to the wildly populated and the wildly wicked world of his day! My prayer is that through this study we will learn how to be a "breath a fresh air" today in our our homes, in our schools, where we work, in our neighborhoods, and in our very world.