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The great patriarchs, what makes them great?

In every field of human endeavor some people are outstanding. When I used to work in financial service there were endless lists and league tables and many people strived to be top of those lists. Time magazine has a person of the year and then of course the ultimate accolade is the Nobel Prize given in several different fields. 

I personally prefer the ignoble awards. These are awards given every year for stupid or meaningless scientific research. Some recent winners include: In Archeology: Éclaireurs de France who in the course of their research removed what they thought was graffiti but was in fact two prehistoric paintings of Bisons in the Cave of Mayrière near the French village of Bruniquel. In Peace: Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, for its research on trying to develop an estrogene bomb which could cause the enemy to become effeminate and lose the will to fight. The Laboratory spent $7.5 million of US tax-payers money on that research. In Medicine: Brian Witcombe from the University of Gloucestershire, for his research on “Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects” discovering the amazing insight that sword swallowing causes, “sore throats”; Or: Dr A Wartinger, for putting patients on roller coaster rides to see if would hasten the passage of kidney stones. Or my own favourite; Heathcote, James A. whose research paper was called, "Why Do Old Men Have Big Ears?".  (Be honest wouldn’t you like to know if men’s ears really get bigger over time) So, in just about every field of endeavor there are outstanding individuals.

My question is are there outstanding individuals spiritually if so, who are they and what does one have to do to become a great spiritual man or woman. In our series on the book of Genesis we have come to a chapter that tells us especially about one outstanding individual and what he was like and what happened to him. This one outstanding individual is best seen against the backdrop of his whole list of ancestors. Reading through this chapter this morning maybe felt a bit like reading the obituary column in the newspaper. But I believe all scripture is given by inspiration and all scripture is profitable and this was inspired and placed deliberately by the spirit of God into the Genesis narrative. I’m not going to inflict the whole passage again on you, but I do need to point out the relevant parts. So, let's begin with verses 1-3

This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 

(Gen 5: 1-3) 

The subject of this genealogy is the family line of Adam through Seth  Remember last podcast we saw Cain killed Abel and then were told at the end of chapter 4 that Adam and Eve has another son called Seth. So, in chapter 4 we heard about the line of Cain and what they got up to. Now in chapter 5 we are given the line of Seth, not Cain but Seth. This is the structure of this passage. The pattern of each generation is given. Someone lives X number of years becomes a father and has a son who carried on the line and lives X more years. Sometimes telling us if they fathered more children and then gives the total number of years they lived and that is the pattern followed throughout the chapter. I’m not going to address that particular question of the long lives today (we’ll come back to that in a few weeks). But for now let me just clarify that the Bible indicates that these people were actual/real people. Because their children and family lines are mentioned in the first four chapters of I chronicles written over 300 years later and in the Gospel of Luke chapter 3 written at least 600 years later. So, these are real historical people. 

Remember last week right at the end of chapter 4 we we're told that Seth’s line began to call on the name of the Lord. Genesis 5 is the history of the godly line through Seth. So, what's the point of the genealogy, “they live, and they had a child and they died”. What’s the point of that? Well I hope we will find out together in the next episode.