We all have this idea that if we just had more time, more years, more decades, then we would be a far wiser people than we are. Perhaps we even dream of the great perfect Utopia would could build with centuries of knowledge and understanding to draw on. One of the many things the book of Genesis does for us is to dispel this myth.
For whatever reason, and there are many theories you can find on the internet, people in this time period lived for hundreds of years. In the record of the generations from Adam to Noah, the longest living was Methuselah at 969 years. The youngest man recorded was Mahalel at 895 years at his death. We don’t count Enoch’s relatively meager 365 years because his was a supernatural removal from this world.
Now, there is some confusion surrounding the generations shown here, Adam to Noah, and the generations previously given of Cain to Lamech. Names of father’s and sons match in some ways, but does this constitute an overlap of Cain and Seth’s lines? A Methuselah on both sides fathers a Lamech. Lamech of the prior chapter boasts of Cain’s revenge being sevenfold and his will be seventy-seven fold. The Lamech of this chapter, who fathers Noah, lives 777 years.
So, how do I parse this? I don’t. Honestly, it’s not quite that massive of a theological deal for me, though I recognize and respect the fact that it is of great import to others. One of the great benefits of not having a specific “systematic apologetic hermeneutic academic” theology is that I have a LOT of room for mystery. This translates into a certain flexibility which means my faith doesn’t strain or crack under the weight of unanswered or unanswerable technical questions.
Regardless of the answer to the question of, “Which Lamech are we talking about here?” we find that in his 182nd year, a Lamech fathered a son whom he named “Noah”, which sounds like the Hebrew word for “rest”. He declared “Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and the painful toil of our hands.”
And now for the most widespread meme-like question of our age, “Yeah, but did he though?”
Throughout scripture we see this kind of parental declaration over children and the chosen name being prophetic of what the child will one day accomplish. From Cain, Abel, and Seth all the way to Jesus and even Simon Peter we see that the names of these people had an importance and almost power over who they would become. You might look at these things as superstitious ridiculousness, but the scriptures appear to take it pretty seriously. Why would it be important for God to change Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter, Saul to Paul if it was just superstition? Names have something of a power to them.
So, did Noah’s dad get it wrong?
If we look at this scripture in a very surface English way of thinking then, yes. He failed miserably to give Humanity as a whole rest from work. We still toil and labor. Locusts, hail, thorns, weeds, everything still works against us despite the efforts of Monsanto and other agricultural corporations best efforts. Even if we aren’t gardening or farming, work is still a strain and painful in many ways. Noah did not accomplish the goal in that way. However, if we look a little deeper into the original language we can find a suggestion of a way that Lamech was absolutely correct about his son’s destiny.
Let us consider what follows the genealogy. We find Noah living in a world of deep corruption. What exactly the Nephilim were is not spelled out for us beyond them possibly being the product of the union of the Sons of God and the daughters of men. The Hebrew for them means “fallen ones”. The Greek translation of Genesis uses the term “giants”. Narratively the writer of Genesis makes the connection between the Nephilim and the absolutely rampant wickedness upon the earth. On a vast nigh on industrial scale, man was perpetually doing evil. This was so massive that God becomes disgusted and straight up regrets making man to begin with. God declares that He has every intention to just wipe the sling clean in verse 7 of chapter 6 when He says, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Was that as intense for you as it was for me?
God creates the heavens and the earth, fills it all with abundant life, and sets man as the caretaker over it all: His appointed kingly steward over all creation. He declares it not just “good” but “Very Good” from a divine eternal being’s perspective. Mankind then chooses such wickedness and evil that God is disgusted to the point of desiring to not just send a plague to wipe out solely humankind…but everything that draws breath. In that moment somehow it’s the only way to make things right again.
That’s not an example how petty God is, or how much He divinely over reacts. This is the natural consequence of how all mankind, the sons of both Cain and Seth, chose to live and act. How bad did it have to be to push a patient and loving God to that act as a solution? What terrible disgusting behaviors were going on that we don’t even have a reference point for today? What would make a God of steadfast love resort to wiping it all clean?
“BUT Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”
Here is where we go back to the question of Lamech’s prophetic utterance over his son. If we look in the original language there is a potential second interpretation of his statement.
When we look at the word for “painful toil” in the Hebrew this specific word is used only two other times in the entire corpus of scripture; in Genesis 3:16 and 3:17. If you’ve got your Genesis bingo cards out, you will recognize this as the scriptures where God “curses” Adam and Eve for their transgression in the Garden. As mentioned in previous posts, this word for “pain” is not best understood as physical pain. It is “worry and sorrow”, even sometimes coming across as anxiety or grief. It is deep seated emotional pain. The natural result of their actions created for them a world where Eve would have great anxiety and grief in childbirth, not extra pain in the process. For Adam, the uncertainty of crops would naturally create very deep worry and sorrow.
When we come to Noah, Lamech talks about relief from “our work”. Looking at the Hebrew this phrase can mean, “our transactions, our deeds, our pursuits”. The “painful toil of our hands” can mean “the grieving works of our strength/power”.
In this, Lamech is precisely right. The world has fallen to evil, wicked, toxic madness that destroys lives and deeply disgusts God. The strength and power of these Nephilim and their children has grieved and caused anxiety, grief, worry, and sorrow.
And from Noah’s deeds does come a great rest indeed.
Relief in the form of a flood.
Finding Narnia 
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