Adam and Eve Sinned. Why Was Punishment Delayed? Genesis 5:5.

Image generated with A.I.

God tells Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil “for on the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die” Genesis 2:17. Next thing you know, the two sin. God shows up, pronounces judgment … and they do not die. In fact, they go on with their lives.

Adam lives another 900 years!

But I thought God said, “the day that you eat from it you shall surely die”? God gave the man nine centuries?

God is merciful.

He proved it here, the very first time he confronts the sins of man. God cures their shame by making them clothing. Then he banishes them from the garden, and even that is for their good:

“’Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’—therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden” Genesis 3:22-23.

God is merciful.

If, after sinning, Adam had eaten of the tree of life, many believe he might have lived forever trapped in a state of alienation from God. Therefore God banished him from the garden so he might eventually be delivered from his sinful flesh through his own death. Death is a mercy in that way–do you see that? Death sets Adam free from the sin, guilt, sadness, and sicknesses of this life. Death is a merciful end.

Death is a heavy door and hard to unlock, but it opens to an eternal paradise.

But the Bible says Adam’s death did not come for nine centuries? Were these literal years? Did Adam actually experience 900 summers and 900 winters?

Did he ride the earth around the sun 900 times? Yes. How could he live that long? Let’s briefly discuss this side issue in two points:

First, the impact of sin on human health is cumulative. Many years would pass before the degrading impact of Adam’s sin would blossom into disease and death. It seems creation may not have “fallen” all at once, but instead began a decline that continues to this day (that is one explanation for the continual discovery of new diseases).

Second, the earth was protected from the sun’s rays by a canopy of water (Genesis 1:7) that was removed during Noah’s flood. Following the flood, men’s lives were shortened dramatically, soon resembling those of modern man, perhaps due to changes in our atmosphere caused by the removal of such a canopy.

By the way (if you’ll tolerate a third tangent), I’m not convinced Adam and the other patriarchs would consider themselves “lucky” to have lived so much longer than we do. The experience of time is relative. How many exciting things happened in those 900 years? I suspect Adam spent most of his 930 years wondering where his next meal was coming from. In some ways, modern people probably experience more adventures, more highs and lows, in 80 years than those known as “the Ten Patriarchs” experienced in lives that were ten times as long.

But to return to the main point—THEY ALL DIED. The fifth chapter of Genesis is the first of some 25 genealogies in the Bible. And it is unique. The family tree of Adam’s descendants begins as follows: “Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died” Genesis 5:4-5.

This genealogy is unique among all the Biblical genealogies because the report of each life ends with “and he died.” (Or at least it is unique in the NAS translation—only the genealogy in Genesis 5 uses this refrain.)

THE TEN PATRIARCHS:

Adam: “and he died” Genesis 5:5.

Seth: “and he died” Genesis 5:8.

Enosh: “and he died” Genesis 5:11.

Kenan: “and he died” Genesis 5:14.

Mahalel: “and he died” Genesis 5:17.

Jared: “and he died” Genesis 5:20.

Enoch: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” Genesis 5:24. (An Old Testament rapture, like Elijah—two amazing exceptions to the rule of death!)

Methusaleh: “and he died” Genesis 5:27.

Lamech: “and he died” Genesis 5:31.

Noah: “and he died” Genesis 9:29.

What is the point of all this?

Everyone dies.

Everyone, that is, but Enoch, Elijah, and a few Christians of the future who will be raptured. Everyone else dies.

Even Jesus experienced death.

Second, God is merciful! God made clothes for Adam and Eve, rescuing them from shame, and God removed them from the garden so they could experience death—a merciful end to the struggles of this life.

1. Everyone dies.
2. God is merciful.
3. Even death itself is a mercy because it delivers us to a place so amazing, this life cannot be compared to the life to come, Romans 8:18.

God, thank you for your mercy! We bring you our sin, our shame, our guilt. We bring you our questions about creation and life and death. Give us a love for your word so we can learn your answers! May we be such committed students of the Bible that we even appreciate the genealogies! We love you.

AΩ