Introduction

Good day to all! Let us delve into Genesis Chapter 5. When I first became a believer, whenever I encountered such chapters – so-and-so begat so-and-so – I would skip them entirely. I suspect many of you are the same, for reading them leaves one none the wiser. One day, I was greatly troubled while leading a Bible study; how was I to study this? It was troublesome! Thus, I prayed. The Spirit of God is truly good, enlightening me.

Indeed, there is no superfluous word in the Bible. Whenever you read a chapter with oft-repeated words, those repetitions are of utmost importance. Then, I suddenly understood the matter, even grasping the reality of living and then dying. God is rather humorous; He does not directly tell you, "You have no hope; you live and then die, and that is that." He merely writes: So-and-so lived so many years, begat a son, then lived to such-and-such an age and died; begat so-and-so, lived so many years, and died...

Let us ponder this: living and then dying – is this not the very question we are exploring? The most critical issue for man is not knowing that he will one day die. You will find this quite interesting: some lived over 900 years; some over 800 years; some 700 years; some 600 years; some 300 years... Thus, we might think that living over 900 years is better than living 300 years, but this is a fallacy.

I wish to guide you in re-examining this chapter. In my previous explanations, I may not have always hit the mark, not in failing to grasp the fundamental point, but rather like shooting at a target and not hitting the bullseye. Let us aim closer to the centre, hence, I title this chapter "Comfort in the Toil of Labour." Why comfort in the toil of labour? Consider this carefully: what hope does man have in living? None. Later, I discovered that those who live with great hope often become problematic. Why? Because those who live with great hope and earnestness generate an effect: involution.

Observe carefully: if you truly acknowledge that there is little to expect, it becomes easier. It is because man does not know that he lives and then dies, that life is vanity, that he lives with such entanglement, distress, and toil. God is quite humorous; He often writes at length: So-and-so lived so many years, had sons and daughters, and then died... Indeed, that is the case. So, what hope is there? Little. Living in this world is but toil and sorrow.

When we were young, we thought we had many years ahead, but we later discovered how quickly time passes. I do not know if children today experience time passing faster than we did in our childhood, but I feel that time passes many times faster at my current age than in my childhood. In the blink of an eye, I am quite old. Even if I live another 20 years, it will be very short. Has the pandemic not lasted several years in the blink of an eye? If it continues at this pace, it will be very swift.

Man's life is short, vanishing in an instant. Yet, as children, there was great hope in attending prestigious universities. Some children who fail to enter such universities are greatly distressed. Let us consider: if man did not know that living in this world is but living and then dying, that life is vanity, he would take life very seriously. Alas! Is living to 900 years losing 300 years compared to living to 600 years? Is living to 600 years losing 300 years compared to living to 300 years? Is living to 300 years losing 300 years compared to living to 600 years? Is that the case? In truth, a lifetime is but toil and sorrow. What is the meaning of endlessly repeated sorrow?

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labour and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” After Lamech had Noah, he lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died. (Genesis 5:28-31)

Consider, what hope does man have in a lifetime? None! If you feel you have great hope, you must be like Cain. If you feel your life is very real, very hopeful, then you strive and contend. Today, I throw an egg at you; tomorrow, you throw a duck egg at me, throwing back and forth, emitting a stench of rotten eggs that suffocates you. After some time, you unleash a nuclear weapon... What are you doing? Man takes life too seriously. As a result, you grab my collar, and I grab yours; you seize my hair, and I seize yours. Grabbing and fighting, quite a spectacle!

Man Lives Without Hope

Everyone feels they must live well, but taking life too seriously leads to vigorous pinching and fighting. If not doing this, then doing that, and ensuring the competitiveness of oil prices. Many things are meaningless. Once man takes life too seriously, he lives like Cain, becoming the progenitor of bronze and iron tools, of harp and flute players, becoming someone very powerful, but in the end, still dying.

I hope you will heed my advice. If you travel 500 years into the future and try to find your urn, you may not even find it. You will discover that even when Qingming Festival arrives, there will be no one to burn paper money for you, to tidy up your urn, or to place a bouquet of flowers. You do not even need to travel that far; even 100 years from now, no one will commemorate your death. Thus, man lives without much hope. Once there is great hope, one becomes like Cain. But if man knows that living is without hope, it becomes easier.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6)

Sometimes, like me, a serious person can easily forget that living is without hope, so I must stop and remind myself not to take life too seriously, so I can let go and feel at ease. A few days ago, I found myself inexplicably depressed. Someone asked, "Teacher, do you also experience this?" I said, "Yes! Because I am living just like you." I do not know what was wrong with me, but I had no energy to do anything or not do anything, feeling uncomfortable all over, feeling that living was very tiring and meaningless. Why does man feel that living is meaningless? Because, like Lamech, living makes one feel that living is meaningless.

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labour and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” After Lamech had Noah, he lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. (Genesis 5:28-30)

You must resonate strongly with me because you often experience this state, that is, a kind of intangible depression when living. You lack neither food nor clothing, but you feel that living is bleak. How should we resolve this situation? We must emulate Noah, for Noah resolved the state of living with toil but without comfort, which responds to our theme: comfort in the toil of labour.

This feeling is actually very bad because one does not know why one lives. I concluded that if one lives but cannot find a purpose, even if the sun is bright, the birds are singing, and the garden is colourful, everything appears black and white. Do you want to know how I emerged from this state of living and becoming depressed? I give you this concept: when man lives and no longer wants to continue living, when living is without hope, we must find things with Mingding Destiny, things for which we are willing to pay any price.

There is Only One Way to Live: Walking with God

At the time, I was walking down the street, seeing everything in black and white because there was no purpose, no hope in my heart. I felt it would be better to live a shorter life, so the time of labour would be less. If it could end quickly, then seeking a short end would bring relief. Although I thought this way, I still felt somewhat unwilling because I had not figured out why man lives. It would be truly unwilling to die like this. Later, I sought God, and God became my hope, my comfort. Thus, our church condensed this into the word "Mingding Destiny."

Although we have Mingding Destiny and know why we live, we still experience a sense of powerlessness from time to time, living earnestly one moment and powerlessly the next. How painful and helpless must it be for those without Mingding Destiny? They become like Cain, constantly forging bronze and iron tools, living earnestly. They want to send their children to learn piano, to attend tutoring, to have them rank first, but when the children rank second, they become depressed, turning into Lamech. Thus, parents and children constantly waver between earnestness and depression, rising and falling, doing sit-ups. Man wants to lie flat but cannot, wants to compete but cannot win. The whole person's condition becomes very bad. Therefore, the revelation of this chapter is very important. It tells us that there is only one way to live: walking with God, living out Mingding Destiny. This chapter is very important, and as we speak, we come to Enoch.

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he had Methuselah. (Genesis 5:21)

Methuselah is Lamech's father, Lamech is Noah's father, and Enoch is Noah's great-grandfather.

After Enoch had Methuselah, he walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. (Genesis 5:22)

We wonder why Enoch walked with God for 300 years after having Methuselah at 65. What was he doing before that? He was doing sit-ups, having hope one moment and no hope the next, competing with others! He was just making a fuss because he did not know the taste of sorrow in his youth, groaning without illness. Of course, this story is my fabrication. After having Methuselah, he saw his child half-dead, neither living nor dying. Whether as a father or a mother, seeing their child about to die, being their own flesh and blood, they had to compete. There was no time to be bored, and they started doing sit-ups, forgetting all their depression. Consider this: once man lacks food and drink, living like a stray dog, he has great hope because his hope is to have a full stomach for the next meal.

Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. (Genesis 5:23-24)

After Enoch had Methuselah, I guess he must have cried out to God and experienced God. From then on, he saw through life and death and knew to walk with God. Among these people, he lived the shortest, 365 years, which was considered a short life in that era. Then he was taken away by God, disappeared. This world no longer had Enoch, but Enoch entered eternal life. Thus, we must know that there is only one way for man to live: walking with God.

Look carefully, everyone else died. The Bible later records that many others had children, but no one cared anymore, and it was no longer recorded, only Noah's family was recorded. Starting from Noah's father's ancestors, the record of this lineage aims to solve a problem: how can man emerge from this situation? Do you know how I emerged? Because I have Mingding Destiny, so I rise up to serve. Serving all the way, it is not that I serve and others get better, but that I serve and I get better. Serving is nourishing, is Mingding Destiny. Serving is not for the sake of those being served, but for the sake of the one who serves.

After Enoch had Methuselah, he walked with God for 300 years. What exactly is walking with God? It is serving the people of that generation. What state does serving the people of that generation produce? If you are serving the people of that generation, you will walk with God like Enoch, and God will walk with you. God is with you every day, and there will be fewer days of depression. This is the problem, which is why we encourage everyone to serve. That is called walking with God. Why should we be a blessing to others? That is called walking with God. Why must we have Mingding Destiny? Because without Mingding Destiny, we do not know how to live, living uncomfortably.

So, if your sense of Mingding Destiny is not strong, you will have more time for depression. If your sense of Mingding Destiny is strong, you will have less time for depression, no time to be depressed. There are too many problems in this world. Whether solving the problems of others or solving your own problems, you will feel comfortable as you do it. This is a sentence that embodies the value of your life. There is only one way: walking with God, which gets rid of those inexplicable things. For example, I ask you to do transcription, to do text ministry, do not think that my recordings need you to transcribe them into text. What do I need that for? It is just that when you listen to the recordings and transcribe them, you will have less time for depression, that is all. You will have less time to compete, less time to do sit-ups, and you will spend your time doing the right things. I ask you to shepherd, not for any other reason, but in the hope that you can do fewer boring things. Now you understand!

If you are a person, you must live out a human life. If a person lives out an animal life, that is not cursing, but saying that this person has lived a lifetime and has lived out an animal life, that is troublesome. Because man does not understand the matters of life and death, he lives on the path of Cain. What? I want to go to a top university. Many people live like this. Maybe you have your dreams, wanting to prosper in this world. But no matter what dreams you have, those who have prospered have already vanished. Everyone must see through this. Once you see through it, there is only one way: walking with God. If you do not see through it, you can only live in the toil and labour of your hands, what? Studying, striving.

The two most important things in a lifetime: blessing and curse. The toil of labour is caused by the ground the Lord has cursed. That is, walking with God solves the problem of blessing and curse. So, what exactly is a curse? It is that the things you do are always interfered with by demons, that is called a curse, doing things very hard. So, blessing is that the things you do have God's care. Once said like this, everything is understood. Walking with God solves all problems.

The Reason for Man's Hardship is God's Curse on the Ground

The reason for man's hardship on this earth is God's curse on the ground. This is why Jesus Christ indeed bore our sorrows and carried our curses. This resolves the issue of the curse, and this is also key.

And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.” (Genesis 5:29)

The comfort here resolves the issue of hardship. If we are still inexplicably depressed, often feeling hardship and toil, the reason is simple: God has cursed the ground. After God cursed the ground, man lives on this earth, living in the curse. The more years one lives, the more hardship one experiences, with little meaning. If I had not found God and known Him, I certainly would not be living in this world today. Because I had already concluded that it is very hard to live in this world, and it is better to live a shorter life. Later, I knew God, and it confirmed that the reason lies here. Because I know God, I have come to see man's life in this world as a hopeless matter, so my hope is in God. This is why I believe in the Lord so fervently and staunchly.

Man must resolve the issue of blessing and curse in this world. If you want to resolve the issue of blessing and curse, you must walk with God; if you want to walk with God, you must see through that there is no hope in human life. Otherwise, if life is good, what is the point of God? If life is good and full of hope, building a city one moment, and refining steel and iron the next, making this and that missile to store, and throwing one at you if things don't work out. But is this hopeful? Man lives and dies, without hope.

But if you feel very hopeful, you should be living outside of God's plan. Therefore, man needs to know that the reason for his hardship is because God cursed the ground, and many Christians do not know it is God's curse. Some Christians get cancer but insist that they are not cursed. But what can they prove by just saying it? So many Christians and pastors do not know that man's life on this earth is vanity, family, children, building a big pile, and in the end, you die, and they die too. From Adam to Lamech, they all died, whether nine hundred years old, six hundred years old, three hundred years old, or one hundred years old, it is all the same, without hope. Because man disobeyed God's word and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve were killed after taking a bite, and now many people bring baskets home and eat them basket by basket.

God Wants to Comfort Us

God wants to comfort us in our toil, to be our comfort in our work and labor. Have you all noticed that my study of Genesis is clearer than before? I also thank God! The first thing God needs to resolve to comfort us is the issue of the curse. Jesus has died on the cross. Noah saw in his vision that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died for us on the cross and then released us from the curse. People in that era, from Adam to Noah, to Abraham, all the way to Jesus Christ, everyone hoped that man would be released from the curse. But today, Jesus Christ has died for us on the cross. Do you have the faith to come out of this curse? Some people say they will not come out and still have to walk the path of Cain. They haven't even gone to university yet, but they want to go to a Top university, to考清华、北大, or even to Harvard, and get a doctorate. But many people who get a doctorate are still the same.

God wants to comfort us, resolving the issue of our curse, and we cannot live in the original concept anymore. The problem of human life comes from God cursing this ground, cursing this person, cursing all these things. If the problem of the curse is resolved, what we receive is blessing. If we trust in God well, and God walks with us, as He walked with Enoch, it will solve all the problems of human life, and we will lack nothing in life! As long as God is with us, we will surely lack nothing in life.

In the Old Testament, Joseph was sold to Egypt, and he was not even his own, but later God was with him, and everything was his. As for the issue of living, I used to work to death, but there was no hope. Now it is different. Now, whatever I do, I do as if for God, and I prosper as I live! God's will for Noah was to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, to flourish and prosper on the earth! Isn't this comfort? A person who has God is surely a flourishing and prosperous person; a person who lives like Cain is also prosperous, but lives hard. If you don't think he is hard, it is because you have not seen the hardship. The issues of living, the issue of the curse, the issue of death, Jesus has resolved them all for us!

If a Christian is still afraid of death, then the issue of death has not been resolved. Christians should see through life and death. A spiritual man sees through all things, but no one can see through him, because we have seen through life and death, and we live especially prosperously! Doesn't that infuriate those who cannot see through it? Those people cannot compete, live hard and diligently, and do not get results! A spiritual man, whatever he does, has God's blessing, does it lightly and prospers, that is so good!

God wants to comfort us, because Jesus Christ is in Noah's body, in Noah, a person was conceived, who is Jesus Christ. Later, from Noah's lineage, it went all the way to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, then to David, Jesus Christ. The entire Bible, from Genesis to Matthew, speaks of Jesus' genealogy, all his family, God is too lazy to talk about others, it is meaningless. Some people may want to ask, what happens to those people who died? They died, and we cannot control it. What we can control is whether we are willing to make a decision: from now on, live in this eternal hope. In fact, God does not care about how many people die. If you care about what God does not care about, are you more powerful than God? So, let's not care about it, we cannot control it, what is the point of caring about it?

All who walk this path, trusting in God, have seen through life and death, and from now on, it is no longer I who live, but Jesus Christ lives in me. If it is not myself who lives, but Jesus Christ lives in me, I want to walk with God and become a person with Mingding Destiny. If depression suddenly comes down, and you have no interest in doing anything, lying down and cannot sleep, getting up and not knowing what to do, and the whole person is very depressed, very low, and very uncomfortable, then get up and serve, and the depression will be gone. How can a person not be depressed if he has no hope? This chapter points out a way out for us, which is comfort in toil, resolving the issue of the curse, the issue of blessing, the issue of living, and also resolving the issue of death. Can we not believe in the Lord well? We must believe in the Lord well!

May God bless everyone!

Genesis Chapter 5 Scripture

5:1 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God;
5:2 He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.
5:3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
5:4 After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters.
5:5 So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.
5:6 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enosh.
5:7 After he begot Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters.
5:8 So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.
5:9 Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan.
5:10 After he begot Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters.
5:11 So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.
5:12 Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel.
5:13 After he begot Mahalalel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and daughters.
5:14 So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.
5:15 Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared.
5:16 After he begot Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters.
5:17 So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died.
5:18 Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch.
5:19 After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters.
5:20 So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.
5:21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.
5:22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.
5:23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
5:24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
5:25 Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech.
5:26 After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters.
5:27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.
5:28 Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son.
5:29 And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.”
5:30 After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters.
5:31 So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.
5:32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.