Troublesome Topic: PERSONAL ISSUES AT THE END OF ADAM’S LIFE

Adam (“The red man made from dirt”) lived a total of 930 years. We are not told how long Chavvah (“the one through whom God gives life”) lived, but most people imagine it was about the same length of time that Adam lived. In the end, Adam was able to influence 8 generations after him! For over 800 years after the birth of Shayth (Seth, “Substituted”), those seeking answers to their questions could go talk to Adam about God, about the early days, about sin, about learning to survive, etc. Noah (“the comfort of rest”) was in the first generation of descendants that were not contemporaries with Adam.

There are a few things that happen to us in our old age which I imagine happened to Adam and Chavva as well. We start to shrink and some of us stoop over. It is said that our ears and noses never stop growing, but thankfully, they grow slowly. Men grow more and more hair on their ears, and in their noses, and their eyebrows get bushier. So if someone lived around 900 years, how big would their nose and ears be? Imagine what they would look like. I think they would look like an elf! Maybe the mental picture of elves actually has its roots in the people who lived before the world-wide flood.

Close to the end of Adam’s life, when he was getting very weak and frail, he called all his sons to him (except for Qayin). When they arrived, he gave them each a carefully prepared blessing that fit who they were and who he wanted them to become. It was one final way of passing on to them the challenge of a God-centered life. After he blessed each of them, he charged them with doing the same thing with their sons.

 After many years of life, after learning experientially about many of the consequences of sin, and after working hard to do their part to reconnect with God, Adam and Chavvah finally had their own encounter with the primary consequence of sin, death. It did not come as suddenly as they had expected and that was because God wanted to emphasize that spiritual death – separation from God – is a bigger problem than physical death – separation from the body.

I believe Adam and Chavvah did some bad and much good in their lives, but we remember them most for one thing they did wrong. If I were to summarize their lives in one word, I would say “consequences!” I believe that is what God wants us to learn from their lives, their struggles, and their sin.