Hidden Message in Genesis 5

This post was first published on ROOTSS on Monday, 7th May 2007 under the title The First Murder

Today, I resume the series of meditations of "Jesus Christ in the Old Testament".

Earlier this year I went to watch my daughter play in the zonal table tennis tournament. One of the most commonly-adopted strategies that a coach would embark upon is to field his/her best player as the 2nd singles rather than the 1st singles. The other coach sometimes may get wind of this, so he would likewise play his/her best player as 2nd singles as well. This would nullify the effect of the other coach, because the best player from each team would still end up playing against each other (albeit as 2nd singles).

Now apply this same scenario to the greatest battle of all time -- between the Lord God and the evil one.

When Adam and Eve sinned by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God already had in mind His redemption plan for mankind, and thus told the devil in Gen 3:15 that an offspring of Eve will be raised to "crush his head".

The devil went to work straightaway to try to prevent this from happening.

We read in the very next chapter that Adam and Eve had 2 sons - Cain and Abel. The devil (knowing that an offspring of Eve would cause his downfall, but not knowing exactly which one it would be), tried to prevent this by inspiring Cain to murder his brother Abel.


Thankfully, the devil is not omniscient (all-knowing), and God outsmarted him because the lineage came through Adam and Eve's thirdborn - Seth.

This is recorded in Luke 3:36-37, as well as in Gen 5, which traces the genealogy from Adam to Noah.

I leave you with this -- the truth about Jesus that is embedded in Gen 5.